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Janette Villafana is an award-winning bilingual multimedia journalist. Her heart lies in community-based reporting, and her work is highly centered on showcasing and uplifting community voices, with a significant focus on the Latino community. She developed her beat at L.A. TACO, covering street vending communities in Los Angeles. Past work has been featured on NBC, LAist, Latino Rebels, and more. She is currently featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington in an exhibit titled “¡De última hora! Latinas Report Breaking News.”

Janette Villafana

Friends Raise Funds for Guatemalan Street Vendor Killed by DUI Driver in Ontario, Had Only Been in U.S. for One Year

Featured

‘They Make Us Feel Like Criminals:’ Street Vendors Plead the City to Stop Police-Assisted Raids Against Them

He Got a Ticket From the Police He Called to Protect Him, Then Long Beach Had This Street Vendor’s Back

Street Vendor Shot In Watts Highlights The Deadly Risks That Vendors Take To Earn A Living

Memo Torres is the Director of Engagement and multimedia journalist for the James Beard award-winning L.A. Taco. He is also the host of the Daily Memo and writes for Apple Maps’ ‘Where Memo Torres Eats in L.A.’ You can see him on Netflix&#8217;s Taco Chronicles and Pressure Cooker.  You can hear him on KCRW’s ‘Good Food’ occasionally. He was a finalist for the Ruben Salazar Award for Latino journalists and a former third-generation landscaper.

Memo Torres

Daniel Torres takes the lid off his giant Morelos style oven.

Meet The Taquero Who Built a Morelos Style Barbacoa Oven in His Compton Backyard

juicy carnitas breakfast burrito dripping with salsa.

Los Angeles

Olympic Blvd’s Famous Taco-Row Has A New Off-Menu Carnitas Chilaquiles Breakfast Burrito

Don Max the beloved Pacoima ice cream vendor setting up post at Humphrey Park on Saturday May 9, 2021.

On a 12-Hour Day, This 73-Year-Old Pacoima Paletero Made $20. Then a Barber Stepped up To Help

Noe Antonio Adame is a digital media obsessive that spends too much time watching shitty movies, wrangling his kids, and listening to 90s Pop Punk.

Noe Adame

Meet the TikTok Star Who Gives Away a Thousand Dollar Tips to Random Street Vendors in L.A.

Lexis-Olivier Ray is an award-winning staff investigative reporter for L.A. TACO known for holding powerful people in Los Angeles accountable and his reporting on Los Angeles culture. As well as an artist and filmmaker. In 2022, the Society of Professional Journalists&#8217; Los Angeles chapter named Ray one of their &#8220;distinguished journalists.&#8221; In 2023, Ray won a second place Anthem Award in their Health Innovation category for a texting service geared towards the unhoused community and service providers that he launched in 2021 with L.A. TACO and Subtext. Ray was a 2020 USC Center For Health Journalism (CHJ) Data Fellow. As well as a 2022 CHJ Impact Fellow. As a freelancer, Ray has contributed to the L.A. Times, Men&#8217;s Health Magazine, KCET and SFGATE.

Lexis-Olivier Ray

A Man Was Murdered at a Taco Truck in DTLA, so Now the LAPD Is Targeting All Street Vendors Nearby

Woman Who Attacked Flower Vendor Arrested That Same Day, ‘I Just Wanted to Work’ He Says