[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he nostalgic power of talking about life and getting deep over the food that you grew up on remains undefeated.
L.A. TACO shared a plate of birria (made from both beef and goat) and a great cóctel de camarón with the United States Senator Alex Padilla at El Tarasco Mexican Restaurant in Sylmar California, and his wife Angela Padilla who grew up on the other side of the Valley. Padilla grew up in Pacoima and has “eaten his way” through the entire menu at the Valley institution that has been open for 35 years. His mother, an immigrant from Chihuahua, Mexico, worked cleaning houses. From Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, who still lives nearby in the house that Padilla grew up in, his father was a short-order cook at diners his entire life.
An Alex Padilla, who is a proud product of L.A. public school, threw a mean fastball and relied on L.A.’s informal economy as a burrito-slanging street vendor. Over subconscious tortilla rolling and mouths of chiles de árbol, we got a peek into the Alex Padilla that only his family knows. More importantly, we crack open the wisdom and tribulations of what it means to be the first Mexican American and Latino senator from California—specifically, the big bad San Fernando Valley.
These were the ten most significant takeaways from the reflective interview.