Latest / Austin Signal / Misael Ramos arrest, COTALAND opens, voter registration delays

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Misael Ramos arrest, COTALAND opens, voter registration delays · Austin Signal

0:08
There is one week left to get
0:09
registered in time to vote in the
0:11
midterm elections.
0:12
The deadline is approaching as
0:13
county election staff across the
0:15
Austin area work to process
0:16
thousands of applications that Texas
0:18
DPS failed to send.
0:20
And one week after an ICE agent shot
0:22
Wilbur Garcés-Bérez, demonstrators
0:24
returned to the scene to continue
0:25
protesting, and an Austin City
0:27
Council candidate for District 1 was
0:29
arrested this weekend and charged
0:31
with participating in a riot that
0:33
immediately followed the shooting.
0:34
We've got the latest updates coming
0:36
up on today's show.
0:37
The Austin Signal is a production
0:39
of KUT News, hosted by
0:41
Jerry Quijano.
0:42
We're gonna chat with the director
0:44
of a film chronicling how Austin
0:45
restaurants struggled and adapted
0:47
through the pandemic.
0:48
Plus, Austin's got a new theme park
0:50
and we got a special sneak preview
0:52
before they officially opened up.
0:54
We're going to take you out there.
0:55
Those stories and more up next
0:57
on Austin Signal.
1:08
Howdy out there, this is Austin
1:10
Signal. Thank you for tuning in.
1:12
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
1:13
It is the last Monday of September
1:15
the 28th.
1:16
We're glad to be part of your day.
1:19
Protests continued over the weekend
1:20
over the shooting of Wilbur Garces
1:22
Perez by a U.S.
1:24
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
1:25
officer in North Austin.
1:27
KUT's breaking news reporter,
1:29
Gabriel Velasquez-Nada has been
1:30
covering the protests and he is here
1:32
with us now. Gabriel, thanks for
1:33
your time. Of course, thank you.
1:34
So first, let's talk about the
1:36
protests. There was a lot of things
1:37
that happened this weekend.
1:38
Give us a recap of what took place
1:39
over the weekend.
1:40
Yeah, so the first thing that
1:41
happened was that Misao Ramos,
1:44
a city council district candidate,
1:46
was arrested and that
1:47
led to a press conference late
1:49
Saturday and very eventful
1:51
because he came out in the middle of
1:52
it. He was just released from jail.
1:54
And then on Sunday, there was actually
1:55
two protests, one at 2 p.m.
1:56
At the site of the shooting and then
1:58
one at 6 p.
1:59
M. At The South entrance of
2:01
the Texas Capitol.
2:02
Let's talk a little bit about Misael
2:04
Ramos. He was arrested for
2:06
something related to
2:08
something that happened this
2:09
weekend, or when did that go back
2:10
to?
2:10
Right. So it was last weekend,
2:13
September 20th, after I
2:15
shot Garthas Ramos, that they
2:17
were protesting at the site of the
2:19
location and they
2:21
started barricading or some of the
2:22
protesters started barracading the
2:24
roads.
2:25
And so I talked to
2:26
Travis County Sheriff's Office.
2:28
They said eight people were
2:28
arrested.
2:29
And of course, one of them was Ramos
2:31
who was booked into jail on
2:33
Saturday. And you had a chance.
2:34
Speak with him when when was that?
2:36
I had a chance to speak with him
2:38
at the press conference afterwards.
2:40
We talked about, you know, what he
2:42
had for lunch, what they gave him,
2:45
how his dog was doing,
2:47
and mostly, I guess, how we felt
2:49
about, in the morning,
2:51
three, four cars coming up on
2:53
him and then five officers detaining
2:54
him just on
2:56
a Saturday morning. He didn't know
2:57
he had an arrest warrant, so it was
2:59
quite a surprise for him. Okay,
3:00
let's listen to that too.
3:02
I can't imagine
3:04
how some families
3:05
have gone, you know, longer
3:07
than a day without hearing
3:10
from their loved ones, not
3:12
knowing where they're at, where
3:13
they are located, and
3:15
this has to stop.
3:17
This terrorizing our communities has
3:19
to stop."
3:20
Okay, you mentioned his dog.
3:21
For those who might not be familiar,
3:24
how was he arrested on Saturday?
3:26
Right, so he was walking his dog on
3:28
Saturday morning,
3:30
when a state trooper car
3:32
came up on him and then started
3:34
being like, hey, are you Mr. Ramos?
3:36
And he was like, I don't know you,
3:37
started walking away.
3:38
And then, you know, more officers
3:39
jumped out. And then
3:41
he was, like, hey, can I put my
3:43
dog away?
3:44
And a neighbor was close by, so they
3:46
were like, he was able to hand it
3:48
off. And then was whisked
3:50
off to jail.
3:51
Okay, you can read more about that
3:52
story. I will have a link in today's
3:54
show notes. Let's talk about the
3:55
protest that took place yesterday.
3:57
You spoke with some of the people
3:58
who were out there. What did you
3:59
hear?
4:00
It was interesting because for
4:01
some people it was the first ICE
4:03
protest, for others it was
4:05
their first protest in general.
4:07
And it was pretty sizable,
4:11
I think more than 150,
4:12
150 was a conservative estimate
4:15
on my end, but
4:17
I was kind of surprised to
4:19
see how strong it was going,
4:21
the chanting, the amount of
4:23
speakers that they had, and it was
4:24
hot. It was a hot day for people
4:26
to be out in the sun
4:28
and chanting.
4:30
It's been more than a week since
4:31
that ice officer shot Wilbur Garces
4:33
Perez. What do we know?
4:35
What is the latest information about
4:36
him?
4:37
So the latest information is that
4:38
on Wednesday, I'm going to be going
4:40
down to San Antonio.
4:41
I'm gonna be hearing the
4:43
deportation case and then hopefully
4:44
by then I'll have more updates for
4:46
you.
4:46
Okay and when we have those updates
4:48
we'll bring it to you here on Austin
4:49
Signal. Last question for you, are
4:51
there any more protests that are
4:52
planned this week or in the
4:54
near future?
4:56
I think it's more of a developing
4:57
thing that they post on Instagram a
5:00
couple days in advance and at the
5:01
moment I'm not sure.
5:03
All right, that is Gabriel
5:04
Velasquez-Neda.
5:05
He is KUT's breaking news reporter,
5:07
very busy this weekend.
5:08
You can read his stories over at
5:10
KUT.org and we'll have a link in
5:12
today's show notes.
5:12
Gabriel, thank you. Of course, thank
5:14
You, Jay.
5:20
County election staff across the
5:22
Austin area and across the state are
5:23
in a frenzy to process thousands of
5:25
voter registration applications
5:27
after the Texas Department of Public
5:28
Safety failed to send them on time.
5:31
As QUT's Katie McAfee reports,
5:33
some of the applications date back
5:34
to October 2025.
5:37
DPS says they caught the error late
5:39
last month.
5:40
The agency's own investigation into
5:42
the incident found it was caused by
5:44
an unnamed third-party vendor.
5:46
DPS said they quote, proactively
5:48
caught the issue.
5:50
But local county election staff
5:51
don't exactly agree.
5:53
Travis County voter registrar Salia
5:55
Israel said in a statement she's
5:56
deeply disappointed in DPS.
5:59
The error caused 32,000
6:01
voter registration applications to
6:02
land on her desk overnight.
6:04
That's on top of several thousand
6:06
more applications the office is
6:07
getting from voters signing up
6:09
before the October 5th deadline to
6:10
be eligible to vote in the midterms.
6:13
Williamson County officials say they
6:15
are also working around the clock.
6:16
They got 18,000 applications
6:18
overnight.
6:19
Hayes County got over 8,000.
6:22
Staff from each county say they are
6:23
working to ensure everyone who has
6:25
registered to vote can confidently
6:27
cast their ballot on election day.
6:29
I'm Katie McAfee in Austin.
6:37
This month's shooting of Wilbur
6:38
Garces Perez was one of the
6:40
highest-profile incidents of
6:41
immigration enforcement in Austin of
6:43
recent memory.
6:44
But there has been an increase in
6:45
ICE enforcement here in the last few
6:47
months that's been invisible to a
6:48
lot of people.
6:49
More ICE activity means hundreds of
6:51
Austin families have been affected.
6:54
QUT's Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez
6:56
has the story of one of those
6:58
families.
6:59
Yesenia Santiago was born and raised
7:01
in Austin.
7:02
She went to Ann Richards for middle
7:03
school and high school and then ACC.
7:06
She met Lucas at church.
7:07
Their family friend introduced
7:09
us and we started talking.
7:12
Talking led to dating.
7:13
They loved going to blockers for
7:14
wings. There were countless nights
7:16
of dancing at bailes.
7:18
On weekends they would go to La
7:19
Pulga, the flea market and to church
7:21
every Sunday.
7:22
He met my family and they
7:24
all really liked him.
7:25
They always had matching costumes on
7:27
Halloween and matching outfits at
7:29
parties.
7:29
He's such a patient and
7:31
go with the flow person.
7:33
I could literally tell him to wear
7:34
anything.
7:35
And he would wear it.
7:36
In arguments, Lucas was always
7:38
the one that stayed calm.
7:40
After a few years of dating, they
7:41
got married.
7:42
They bought a house, moved in
7:43
together, shared dreams.
7:45
Finished paying off her house,
7:47
traveling, grow old with her kids.
7:50
After some years of trying and
7:51
losing one pregnancy, they had a
7:53
baby.
7:54
Yesenia became a full-time mom,
7:56
Lucas a loving father.
7:58
After seeing him become a father,
8:00
I didn't know you could love someone
8:02
even more.
8:03
Yesenia is a U.S.
8:04
Citizen. Lucas Santiago is not.
8:07
He was born in San Luis Potosí,
8:08
Mexico.
8:09
He came to the U.
8:10
S. When he was 16 and he worked
8:12
his way up, owned his
8:14
own carpentry business.
8:16
They did try to fix Lucas's
8:17
immigration status.
8:18
But because he didn't have a
8:21
legal entry per se, he couldn't
8:23
do an adjustment of status.
8:25
He had to file for a waiver to stay
8:26
in the country while fixing his
8:27
status. They're still waiting
8:29
approval.
8:30
But when the second Trump
8:31
administration began, they were
8:32
afraid.
8:34
Yesenia started doing the driving
8:35
wherever they went.
8:37
They didn't travel anymore.
8:38
No more bailes.
8:39
We haven't gone to the pulga
8:41
because because we know those are
8:43
targeted areas and we.
8:45
Away from that.
8:46
Yesenia's social media filled with
8:48
videos of immigration and customs
8:49
enforcement agents detaining people
8:51
in Austin.
8:52
I would tell him I don't want to
8:54
wake up one morning and see you on
8:57
Facebook and he said you're
8:59
not like
9:00
don't think like that.
9:02
Last week Jesenia woke up to a
9:04
text from Lucas.
9:05
He, his brother and a co-worker
9:07
had been taken by eyes on the way
9:09
to work.
9:10
And he said if I could go pick up
9:11
the work van because they got
9:13
them and that the keys were in the
9:15
van.
9:16
She tried calling him, but it went
9:17
to voicemail.
9:18
She scooped up their 14-month-old
9:20
son, Yadiel, and drove to where the
9:22
work van was.
9:23
In the van like when you open
9:25
the door it
9:27
looked like workers going to
9:29
work eating their morning
9:31
breakfast their morning coffee
9:33
The tacos were still freaking
9:35
warm.
9:36
That afternoon, Lucas called.
9:38
He was in a processing center in San
9:40
Antonio.
9:41
She didn't hear from him again until
9:43
the next day.
9:44
Oh my god, it's my husband.
9:47
That's your concern, tell me.
9:51
Okay, babe.
9:52
No, here everything is fine, just
9:54
that we just entered
9:56
in the...
9:57
He told Yesenia he was fine.
9:59
He had been moved to a detention
10:01
center in Taylor.
10:02
Yesenía had lots of questions,
10:04
but...
10:07
The first thing she wanted to tell
10:08
him was that she missed him and
10:10
loved him.
10:14
As always, Lucas remained
10:16
calm.
10:16
He tried to reassure her he was
10:18
fine. The tension wasn't as
10:20
bad as she might think.
10:22
He said that even if he had to wait
10:24
months, he was going to be
10:26
patient.
10:26
Here's what you need to do, be
10:27
patient and don't worry.
10:29
I don't
10:31
know
10:32
I have to learn how to be without
10:34
you because...
10:35
Desenya told him she had to learn to
10:37
be without him.
10:38
She knew she would need to be
10:39
strong, but it was hard.
10:41
Yo puedo, yo soy una
10:43
persona capaz, pero ahorita siento
10:45
que...
10:45
She felt like her world was falling
10:47
apart.
10:48
No, you hold on
10:50
to the hand of the young man and be
10:51
strong and stronger than your
10:53
pregnant wife.
10:55
Lucas told her to hold on to God,
10:58
that she's got to be strong now more
10:59
than ever because of the baby that's
11:01
on the way.
11:03
Yesenia is 32 weeks pregnant
11:05
with their second boy.
11:07
Their son Yadiel reaches for the
11:08
phone when he hears his dad.
11:10
Okay
11:18
Lucas told them both that he loved
11:19
them, but he had to go.
11:22
Okay, thank you, I'll be back.
11:23
Okay, anyone?
11:25
All right.
11:30
They hung up.
11:32
Lucas in detention, Yesenia and
11:33
Jadid at home.
11:36
Yesenian knows they have a long path
11:38
ahead.
11:38
Their lawyer wasn't optimistic.
11:41
Essentially, she didn't.
11:41
Tell me everything was gonna be
11:43
fine. She told me right
11:45
around now, things are
11:47
really difficult in immigration
11:49
courts.
11:49
Right now, they can't ask for a bond
11:51
in Texas, so Lucas will
11:53
stay in detention.
11:54
He could either accept deportation
11:56
or try to get a cancelation of
11:58
removal.
11:58
So for this, that means he has to be
12:00
in detention for over six months.
12:03
On top of being away from him,
12:04
just to file paperwork and pay their
12:06
lawyer, Jesenia has to come up with
12:08
at least $12,000.
12:11
I don't work.
12:12
Even if I had the money, he handles
12:15
that. He's the home head of
12:17
household.
12:18
He handles logging into the systems
12:20
or automatic payments or I
12:22
don't know, for my car, for our
12:24
insurance.
12:25
When someone is taking from your
12:26
life, there are emotional voids,
12:28
but also practical ones.
12:31
The paperwork is unforgiving.
12:33
Yesenia knows she needs to figure
12:34
out a lot of things, including going
12:36
back to work.
12:38
I guess so.
12:39
Be looking into like childcare.
12:41
I also give birth in eight weeks,
12:43
so I don't know if I can find
12:44
childcare a job and then give birth
12:46
and then go back to work.
12:48
Yesenia says it feels like she's
12:49
telling a story that doesn't belong
12:51
to her, but she also knows
12:53
this is her life.
12:55
Loving someone who's undocumented
12:57
is just so
12:59
hard but I didn't ask
13:01
for it like
13:03
I've always had that fear in
13:05
the back of my head like obviously
13:08
but I couldn't just stop our lives
13:10
because it's like a piece of paper.
13:14
Yesenia knows their life together
13:15
doesn't end here.
13:17
She hopes one day Lucas and her will
13:19
be able to continue with their
13:20
dreams.
13:21
But right now, that's up to the
13:23
immigration system.
13:26
I'm Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vazquez
13:28
in Austin.
13:29
Unta Papa!
13:33
Come on, daddy.
13:34
Which one?
13:43
You're listening to Austin Signal.
13:45
This is listener-supported public
13:46
radio KUT News.
13:49
We've got more for you after this
13:51
quick break.
14:00
This is Austin Signal, welcome back
14:02
to the show.
14:03
Rollercoaster lovers won't have to
14:05
drive as far to get a rush of
14:07
adrenaline now that a new theme park
14:08
is open here in Austin.
14:10
Coda Land at the Circuit of the
14:12
Americas opened to the public on
14:14
Saturday with the ribbon cutting
14:15
ceremony on Friday night.
14:17
Austin Signal's Alexandra Hart went
14:19
to check it out.
14:24
The 30-acre theme park is the first
14:26
and only one of its kind in the
14:27
Austin area and has attractions
14:29
ranging from high-intensity roller
14:31
coasters to kid-friendly rides.
14:33
Among them, a carousel, which
14:35
Stephanie Nimke and her
14:36
three-year-old son Braxton are
14:38
waiting to board.
14:39
What are you most excited to
14:40
ride today?
14:41
Can you say the kitty on the
14:43
carousel? I want to say the Kitty on
14:44
the Carousel!
14:46
Nymke says she's impressed by
14:48
the variety of the rides.
14:49
Just really beautifully laid out
14:51
and I think there are so many
14:52
amazing rides out here for everybody
14:54
in all ages because they have a
14:56
little big girl that's 11 years old
14:57
and then our son is three and so
14:59
there's just something for
15:00
everybody.
15:01
That was by design, according to
15:03
Griffin Tendler, Vice President of
15:05
Marketing for Codaland.
15:07
He says the idea was to put
15:08
family-friendly rides near higher
15:09
intensity ones, rather than putting
15:11
all the low-intensity attractions in
15:13
a separate kids' area.
15:14
I think the most important
15:16
distinction for all of the rides
15:17
here is that the whole
15:19
park was designed and the flow of
15:21
it where the rides are were designed
15:23
to keep families together to keep to
15:25
make families you know create the
15:26
memories together so where there's
15:28
one thrill ride there's three or
15:30
four kids rides right next to it.
15:31
Plans for the park were first
15:32
announced in 2020, and
15:34
while the original opening date was
15:36
set for 2022, it
15:38
was pushed back several times before
15:40
finally fully opening to the public
15:41
this weekend, including the park's
15:43
two marquee roller coasters,
15:45
palindrome and circuit breaker.
15:50
So I think everybody knows about
15:52
Circuit Breaker. Circuit Breakers is
15:53
the first tilt coaster in Texas, and
15:55
I think the only other one is at
15:56
Cedar Point.
15:57
We have Palindrome, which is the
15:59
only shuttle coaster
16:00
to go over an active roadway.
16:02
Circuit Breaker First opened to
16:04
riders last October during last
16:05
year's Formula One U.S.
16:07
Grand Prix race at COTA here in
16:09
Austin.
16:09
It features a segment of track that
16:11
hinges forward from a horizontal
16:13
to vertical position before
16:14
connecting to the next segment of
16:16
the track, dropping riders at a
16:18
90-degree angle.
16:19
The park, however, is facing a
16:21
lawsuit after the coaster
16:22
malfunctioned in December.
16:24
Court documents say park visitor
16:25
Matthew Cantu and a friend were
16:27
stuck on circuit breaker for more
16:28
than an hour with the tilting
16:30
portion of the track stuck in the
16:31
vertical position.
16:33
According to the lawsuit, being
16:34
stuck in that position, then having
16:36
to finish the ride rather than being
16:37
evacuated, caused serious
16:39
injury to Cantu's head, neck,
16:41
and back.
16:42
In a statement, Codeland said it was
16:44
reviewing the claims in the lawsuit
16:45
but it couldn't comment on details
16:47
because of the ongoing litigation.
16:50
The statement said, quote, the
16:51
safety and wellbeing of our guests
16:53
remain our top priority,
16:55
end quote.
16:59
For those looking for a little less
17:00
altitude, the park also offers
17:02
another high-speed attraction.
17:04
Hot Lap is an add-on experience
17:06
where visitors can ride around
17:07
Cota's Formula One racetrack in
17:09
a BMW M3 car.
17:11
Blythe Quimby and her friend,
17:12
Guinevere Porcelli, are in line for
17:14
Hot Lap.
17:15
They said they don't know a whole
17:16
lot about racing, but Porcellis'
17:18
uncle, who works for the park, flew
17:20
them in from out of town to check
17:21
out Cotaland, and they didn't want
17:23
to miss out on the opportunity to
17:24
ride on the track.
17:25
Here's Quimbey.
17:26
Our school, we're from UCF
17:28
in Florida and there's a lot
17:30
of huge F1 fans there so we're
17:32
definitely ready to go back and brag
17:34
about it to all our friends.
17:36
Paris Mullins, senior vice president
17:38
of motorsports at Cota, says
17:40
Hot Lap is the only attraction of
17:41
its kind where riders can ride
17:43
shotgun on a purpose-built Formula
17:44
One track.
17:45
I think what's interesting about
17:47
this is that most of
17:48
us are in cars every day, right?
17:50
So we feel like we have this idea of
17:52
what it would be like.
17:55
And when you're
17:57
driving on a racetrack,
17:59
it's completely different from the
18:00
road. It's a very unique sensation.
18:03
But that unique sensation comes
18:05
with a price tag.
18:06
It'll set you back $175.
18:08
That's on top of park entry.
18:11
For everyone else, there's still
18:12
plenty of other things to do.
18:14
The park has more than 30 rides and
18:15
attractions in all, and Griffin
18:17
Tendler, VP for Marketing,
18:19
says with land set aside for their
18:21
planned expansion, there's more to
18:23
come.
18:24
There's a lot of projects though
18:25
that we're not allowed to disclose
18:27
right now, but I can tell you that
18:28
we will make use of the 1,500
18:30
acres.
18:31
Kodaland's operating days and hours
18:33
vary, and tickets start at about
18:35
$40.
18:37
I'm Alexandra Hart in Austin.
18:49
It's been six and a half years since
18:51
the world first went into COVID
18:53
lockdown and the hospitality
18:55
industry was hit particularly
18:57
hard.
18:58
Some joints here in Austin closed
18:59
forever, others laid off
19:01
staff and yet were able to
19:03
bounce back and survive.
19:05
Filmmaker David Lu profiled a few
19:07
restaurants during that time and now
19:08
has a film out called To Be
19:10
Seen. It's played at a few spots
19:12
around town and the next place you
19:13
can catch it is this Friday at
19:15
We Love Video.
19:17
We caught up with David to learn
19:18
more about his project.
19:20
Well, your film features quite a few
19:22
chefs and people who work in
19:24
restaurants here in Austin.
19:25
Why don't you tell us about a few of
19:26
them?
19:26
Yeah, so the first one that we
19:27
interviewed was actually foreign and
19:29
domestic.
19:30
So Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley,
19:33
they, I got to see their story kind
19:34
of unfold right in
19:36
front of me. I had met the owners
19:37
shortly before lockdown and as soon
19:39
as lockdown happened, I was
19:41
one of their first to go orders and
19:44
they had never really done to go
19:46
in that manner and seeing
19:47
the types of pivots that they had to
19:49
go through to make it, I mean,
19:51
That's kind of the start of our
19:52
friendship and the start of me
19:54
thinking about.
19:55
It would be interesting to tell a
19:56
story like this.
19:58
And then I saw, you know, Locodoro,
20:00
who for the longest time had closed
20:02
as a restaurant and we didn't
20:04
know what they were doing.
20:05
This was after the pandemic had
20:07
started.
20:08
And when they reopened, I was like,
20:10
okay, what happened during that
20:12
time? I don't have any context,
20:14
but you know in meeting the owner,
20:15
we got access to be able to go
20:17
and interview and tell that story.
20:19
Lauren Lewis, Barbecue.
20:21
I've had great experiences
20:23
knowing the owners.
20:26
And for Locodoro, the owner,
20:29
that I mostly interacted with
20:30
was Chef Fiore.
20:33
And for Leroy& Lewis,
20:34
you have Evan Lerroy and Suri
20:36
Lewis, hence the name Leroi& Lewis.
20:39
So for those main three
20:40
restaurants, that is what I kind
20:42
of built the
20:44
story around. And then the fourth
20:46
story of that was
20:48
Tai Sun Nguyen, and he's a good
20:50
old college friend of mine.
20:51
I actually met him in
20:53
our photojournalism class here
20:55
at UT.
20:56
So, you know, you never know
20:58
where those type of connections can
20:59
come, but every one of those
21:01
restaurants, I
21:03
kind of had an interest in
21:05
how they were doing things and why
21:07
they were good. And a lot of what
21:08
made them good, not necessarily
21:10
just the food, was how
21:13
they approached treating their
21:14
labor. How are they approached
21:15
treating the experience?
21:17
And I think that those parts of
21:19
how they
21:21
create, they were so
21:24
passionate about the way they
21:26
approached their identity
21:28
of food, that's how
21:30
I kind of chose each one of those
21:32
subjects.
21:32
Yeah and that really comes through
21:34
during the course of their
21:35
interviews, they're talking about
21:37
how they're dealing with the actual
21:38
situation that's playing out in
21:40
front of them, but how they are
21:41
dealing with it on a human level,
21:43
person to person.
21:44
We hear a couple instances of people
21:46
not really sure how many staff
21:48
members to keep on because they
21:49
don't know what the future is going
21:49
to hold and how quickly things
21:51
might change.
21:53
I found really interesting how
21:55
Locodoro and a few other restaurants
21:57
kind of pivoted from 75
21:59
to 200 dishes per night.
22:01
To mass producing like
22:02
meals for AISD students or students
22:04
all across the city.
22:06
What was something that you just
22:07
really found interesting over the
22:08
course of the film?
22:09
Well, that was one of them in
22:11
in classic documentary style, right?
22:13
I'm going in thinking, oh, I know
22:15
the story. I'm gonna maybe tell,
22:17
right.
22:18
I get to their interview and
22:20
he starts talking about this and
22:22
I'm like, oh no, this is a much
22:24
bigger story.
22:26
And now it's my responsibility
22:28
to shepherd this story
22:30
to completion.
22:31
Well, your film certainly caused me
22:33
to further inspect
22:36
my experience with Austin
22:37
restaurants and it's particularly
22:39
going out to eat.
22:40
How did your experience
22:42
with the Austin restaurant or Austin
22:44
dining change over the course of
22:45
making this film?
22:46
Well, I think it answered kind
22:48
of a critical question that I had
22:50
had for a long time, which is as a
22:52
relatively introverted person, why
22:54
would I actually want to go to a
22:55
restaurant, right?
22:56
And when I was cutting the film,
22:59
there was this moment where I
23:01
hear Fiore's opening lines.
23:03
You don't need a restaurant to eat,
23:05
you need a restaurants to be seen.
23:07
And it then occurred to me
23:09
that these restaurant tours and
23:11
these restaurants are third spaces,
23:13
right. They are what help us
23:14
understand the context of how we
23:17
interact with society and
23:19
see other people across
23:21
socioeconomic boundaries,
23:24
across political boundaries, across
23:25
any other boundary.
23:26
That is our malting pot.
23:29
And the opening of the film is like
23:31
an existential crisis.
23:32
It's like we have these moments
23:33
and then they're taken away.
23:36
And like, okay, well, what places do
23:38
these serve?
23:40
And in some ways, in the second half
23:42
of the films, is where the real film
23:44
starts, right? Like you have like
23:45
the first half of the film, which is
23:46
the pandemic era.
23:49
The second half of these characters
23:50
is 2022 through 2025,
23:52
which you think there's nothing that
23:54
important to cover, right?
23:56
Except that we are seeing
23:58
for the first time,
24:00
the harm that was done to
24:02
society across the globe
24:04
about how we have changed,
24:06
us as patrons have changed.
24:09
The workers have changed and
24:11
in so doing, we
24:12
are seeing society
24:14
having to repair itself
24:16
and understanding
24:18
why certain things aren't the way
24:20
they were before or may never
24:22
be the same way again.
24:24
It's this kind of magnifying glass
24:25
on us as a society
24:27
across the world about what
24:29
happened during that time and also
24:31
a form of like potentially trying
24:33
to process that trauma.
24:35
We have been speaking with David Lu.
24:37
He is the director of To Be
24:39
Seen, a documentary taking a look
24:41
at Austin's food and restaurant
24:42
scene during the COVID-19 pandemic
24:44
and the 2021 freeze.
24:46
We'll have a link to more in today's
24:48
show notes. David, thank you for
24:49
your time. No problem.
24:51
And thank you out there for making
24:53
Austin's Signal part of your
24:55
day. We have more about the stories
24:56
we shared with you in today
24:58
show notes, and you can always find
24:59
more from us over at kut.org
25:03
slash Signal.
25:05
We are listener-supported public
25:07
radio. Thank you for tuning in to
25:09
KUT News.
25:11
Rayna Sevilla is our technical
25:12
director.
25:13
Alexandra Hart is our producer.
25:15
And Kristen Cabrera is our managing
25:17
producer.
25:18
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
25:19
We're gonna be back at the same time
25:21
tomorrow.
25:22
We'll talk to you then.