Latest / Austin Signal / Wilber Garces Perez’s life in Austin, Light-rail agency scraps office plan

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Wilber Garces Perez’s life in Austin, Light-rail agency scraps office plan · Austin Signal

• 0:08
  Friends and family of Wilbur
• 0:09
  Garcespedes, the man shot by an ICE
• 0:11
  officer in Austin, say he spent his
• 0:13
  time focused on family, work, and
• 0:15
  soccer.
• 0:16
  We've got more from the people who
• 0:18
  know him best, and the agency
• 0:19
  building Austin's light rail system
• 0:21
  is scrapping a controversial plan to
• 0:22
  relocate to a high-rise, overlooking
• 0:24
  Lady Bird Lake.
• 0:26
  How taxpayer dollars are being spent
• 0:27
  as efforts to build a 10-mile light
• 0:29
  rail system ramps up.
• 0:30
  Plus, an owlet that was saved from
• 0:32
  an abandoned nest at the Lady Bird
• 0:34
  Johnson Wildflower Center has been
• 0:36
  released to the wild.
• 0:37
  How that owl beat the odds, coming
• 0:39
  up on today's show.
• 0:40
  The Austin Signal is a production
• 0:42
  of KUT News, hosted by
• 0:44
  Jerry Quijano.
• 0:46
  Paprico was the only Austin
• 0:47
  restaurant featured on a prestigious
• 0:49
  list of the best eats in the
• 0:51
  country. We're gonna chat with the
• 0:52
  owner and chef leading the outfit.
• 0:54
  That is up next.
• 0:55
  It's right here on Austin
• 0:57
  Signal.
• 1:07
  Howdy out there, this is
• 1:09
  Austin Signal, I'm your host Jerry
• 1:11
  Quijano, it is Thursday, September
• 1:12
  24th, thank you for tuning in.
• 1:16
  The agency building Austin's light
• 1:17
  rail system has ditched a
• 1:19
  controversial plan to relocate its
• 1:20
  headquarters to a high-rise
• 1:21
  overlooking Lady Bird Lake,
• 1:23
  instead the Austin Transit
• 1:25
  Partnership will expand its existing
• 1:26
  downtown office to the address next
• 1:29
  door. KUT's Nathan Bernier
• 1:31
  reports on how millions of taxpayer
• 1:32
  dollars are being spent as the
• 1:34
  effort gears up to build a 10-mile
• 1:36
  light rail system.
• 1:38
  The Austin Transit Partnership is
• 1:40
  trying to put the pieces in place,
• 1:41
  so if the federal government agrees
• 1:43
  to cover half the cost of an $8
• 1:45
  billion light rail system,
• 1:47
  they'll be ready to go.
• 1:49
  ATP has 200 people working
• 1:50
  out of their office on Colorado
• 1:52
  Street now, and another 80 are
• 1:54
  coming and it's getting cramped.
• 1:55
  So over the spring, ATP
• 1:57
  staff proposed moving to a high-rise
• 1:59
  on Congress Avenue at Cesar Chavez
• 2:01
  Street overlooking Lady Bird Lake.
• 2:03
  The price tag for this premium
• 2:05
  office space worked out to about
• 2:07
  $5.4 million a year,
• 2:09
  including renovations.
• 2:11
  Some people found out, and they
• 2:12
  started posting about it online.
• 2:14
  In early April, an aide to Mayor
• 2:15
  Kirk Watson texted him a social
• 2:17
  media post from the ex-user ATX
• 2:19
  underscore data.
• 2:20
  We obtained the text messages
• 2:22
  through the Texas Public Information
• 2:23
  Act. Watson was blunt in that
• 2:25
  exchange. What was he thinking,
• 2:27
  Watson said, doesn't pass the smell
• 2:29
  test.
• 2:29
  Thank you for joining us
• 2:31
  for the board meeting of the Austin
• 2:33
  Transit Partnership Board of
• 2:34
  Directors
• 2:34
  Mayor Watson is a member of that
• 2:36
  board. In April, he asked the
• 2:38
  chair, Veronica Castro de Barrera,
• 2:40
  to cancel the vote on the lease.
• 2:42
  And she did.
• 2:43
  I believe this entire board needs
• 2:45
  more time to review the staff's
• 2:47
  current recommendation and analysis.
• 2:49
  This week, ATP staff came back with
• 2:51
  a new proposal.
• 2:52
  They could stay where they are at
• 2:53
  203 Colorado Street and expand
• 2:56
  to the address next door.
• 2:58
  ATP staff said that option did not
• 3:00
  exist in April.
• 3:01
  The new price works out to roughly
• 3:03
  $4.9 million annually,
• 3:05
  which roughly translates to a
• 3:07
  savings of half a million dollars a
• 3:09
  year. And the term of the lease is
• 3:11
  four years, about half as long.
• 3:13
  Front of us today is
• 3:15
  the result of the review that has
• 3:17
  taken place since April and May.
• 3:19
  Mayor Watson took this as
• 3:21
  vindication.
• 3:21
  It is a considerably smaller
• 3:24
  commitment than what was first
• 3:25
  proposed, and it gets
• 3:27
  us there without the long-term
• 3:29
  downtown commitment, which is
• 3:31
  one of the things I raised concerns
• 3:32
  about back in April.
• 3:33
  I believe that the process
• 3:36
  The board approved it unanimously,
• 3:39
  and that new lease starts in March.
• 3:41
  I'm Nathan Bernier in Austin.
• 3:53
  Across Austin and beyond,
• 3:55
  the name Wilbur Garces Perez has
• 3:57
  become a rallying cry for opponents
• 3:58
  of the Trump administration's
• 4:00
  immigration policies.
• 4:01
  Garces Peres remains in immigration
• 4:03
  detention after being shot by an ICE
• 4:05
  agent on Sunday in North Austin.
• 4:07
  Up until that encounter, friends and
• 4:09
  family say the 28-year-old lived a
• 4:11
  quiet life here in town.
• 4:13
  With more about why Garces Beres
• 4:15
  came to the U.S.
• 4:16
  And about his life here, KUT's
• 4:18
  Rosebushel has this profile.
• 4:20
  When I asked an old friend of Garces
• 4:22
  Perez to describe his life in
• 4:24
  Texas, one word came up
• 4:26
  a few times.
• 4:28
  Tranquilo.
• 4:28
  Calm. Quiet.
• 4:30
  Tranquilotrava- Chill, he said,
• 4:32
  working from Monday to Monday,
• 4:34
  not hurting anybody.
• 4:37
  His friend, who, like Garces Perez,
• 4:39
  also immigrated to the U.S.
• 4:41
  From Venezuela, asked not to
• 4:42
  be named for fear of consequences
• 4:44
  in the current political climate.
• 4:47
  He likes sports, he says.
• 4:49
  Family, soccer, and work.
• 4:51
  That's the way it is with us.
• 4:52
  That's our thing.
• 4:53
  He says Garces Perez came to the
• 4:55
  U.S. To escape government repression
• 4:57
  in Venezuela.
• 4:58
  Before getting here, he also spent
• 5:00
  time in Peru, where Venezuelan
• 5:02
  immigrants suffer discrimination.
• 5:04
  Everything is legal.
• 5:06
  He came here totally legally, he
• 5:08
  says. He came in with CBP-1,
• 5:10
  and he was working.
• 5:12
  I was working.
• 5:13
  CBP One was a mobile
• 5:15
  app that allowed immigrants to
• 5:17
  process asylum claims and schedule
• 5:19
  immigration appointments under the
• 5:20
  Biden presidency.
• 5:22
  It was discontinued for that purpose
• 5:23
  under President Trump.
• 5:25
  In Austin, Garces Perez lived with
• 5:27
  his wife, also from Venezuela,
• 5:29
  who's in the country working as a
• 5:31
  medical caregiver with plans to
• 5:32
  become a nurse.
• 5:33
  You know, what his wife says is that
• 5:35
  he's very comforting for her.
• 5:36
  This is Kate Lincoln Goldfinch,
• 5:38
  Garces Perez's lawyer.
• 5:40
  So whenever she gets home from work,
• 5:41
  she works kind of late and she just
• 5:43
  loves it that he's always there.
• 5:44
  She said, he's not someone that goes
• 5:45
  out, he doesn't drink, he is not out
• 5:47
  partying.
• 5:48
  Lincoln Goldfinch says his wife
• 5:49
  had asked him to stay home on
• 5:51
  the Sunday afternoon he was shot and
• 5:53
  detained, but he wanted to earn
• 5:54
  money driving for DoorDash.
• 5:56
  He was actively delivering Doordash.
• 5:58
  He had just stopped at an Indian
• 5:59
  restaurant and was driving
• 6:02
  to deliver the food.
• 6:03
  Friends and family say he would send
• 6:05
  much of what he made back
• 6:07
  to Venezuela, to his mother and
• 6:09
  his son.
• 6:10
  Be aware of it.
• 6:10
  That I have been working for.
• 6:12
  In an interview with Telemundo,
• 6:14
  his mother, Flor Perez, said the
• 6:16
  money helped with his son's
• 6:17
  treatment for cerebral palsy.
• 6:20
  His son needs many things, she said.
• 6:22
  Now he needs a splint that costs
• 6:24
  $300.
• 6:24
  $300.
• 6:27
  Lawyer Kate Lincoln Goldfinch says
• 6:29
  Garces Perez did not know
• 6:31
  that ICE had deportation orders
• 6:33
  against him until he was taken into
• 6:34
  custody.
• 6:35
  She says the orders were finalized
• 6:37
  because officials sent a request
• 6:39
  for him to appear in court to
• 6:41
  the wrong address.
• 6:42
  That caused him to miss the
• 6:43
  appointment.
• 6:44
  And he updated his address with
• 6:46
  the court system, but they mailed
• 6:47
  his notice of hearing to the
• 6:49
  previous address.
• 6:50
  And I can just say, I've been doing
• 6:51
  this for 20 years, it happens all
• 6:53
  the time.
• 6:54
  While not addressing whether the
• 6:56
  notice was sent to the wrong place,
• 6:58
  the Department of Homeland Security
• 6:59
  confirmed in a statement that the
• 7:01
  removal orders were made in
• 7:03
  abstentia.
• 7:04
  Quote, this is why aliens must
• 7:06
  show up to their removal
• 7:07
  proceedings, said the statement.
• 7:09
  Legal obligations do not end because
• 7:11
  someone's address changed.
• 7:13
  Unquote.
• 7:14
  Garces Perez remains in custody
• 7:16
  at an ICE detention facility in
• 7:18
  Pearsall.
• 7:19
  Austin Congressman Greg Kassar
• 7:20
  visited him there Wednesday.
• 7:22
  He reported that After a
• 7:24
  medical evaluation, a specialist
• 7:25
  had determined Garces Perez
• 7:27
  should receive surgery to
• 7:29
  remove the bullet that remains
• 7:31
  lodged in his back.
• 7:32
  Casar said the shooting is another
• 7:34
  example of immigration enforcement
• 7:36
  gone horribly wrong under
• 7:38
  President Trump.
• 7:39
  This ICE search that
• 7:41
  ended up shooting Wilbur
• 7:43
  has been arresting overwhelmingly
• 7:45
  people with no criminal record.
• 7:47
  In fact, if you all check the
• 7:49
  federal government stats about the
• 7:50
  Austin, San Antonio area,
• 7:52
  the overwhelming majority of people
• 7:53
  arrested by ICE's own admission are
• 7:55
  people with no criminal history at
• 7:56
  all.
• 7:57
  I asked Garces Perez's friend
• 7:59
  whether he thought the protests
• 8:00
  sparked by the shooting may change
• 8:02
  things for immigrants.
• 8:04
  He said he hoped so, but he was
• 8:06
  not counting on it.
• 8:07
  This is going to continue.
• 8:08
  It's going to continue.
• 8:09
  It's got to be realistic," he said.
• 8:11
  In this case it happened to Wilbur,
• 8:13
  it happened to another person
• 8:14
  before, and more cases
• 8:16
  will keep coming.
• 8:18
  A federal judge has temporarily
• 8:20
  blocked Garces Perez's deportation,
• 8:22
  asking him to be present at a
• 8:24
  September 30 court hearing.
• 8:27
  I'm Moes Buchel in Austin.
• 8:38
  Months after being rescued from a
• 8:40
  perch at the Lady Bird Johnson
• 8:41
  Wildflower Center, an owl
• 8:43
  that won the hearts of Austinites
• 8:45
  has been released back into the
• 8:47
  wild.
• 8:48
  QUT's Luz Moreno Lozano was there
• 8:50
  to witness the moment.
• 8:52
  The crowd was quiet outside the
• 8:53
  Wallflower Center Wednesday night.
• 8:55
  That was part of the agreement to be
• 8:57
  in attendance as the owl took its
• 8:58
  first flight into the wild.
• 9:01
  Austin Wildlife Rescue situated a
• 9:02
  cage in the back of a pickup truck
• 9:04
  and opened its gates.
• 9:06
  It took a few minutes and a little
• 9:07
  encouragement, but eventually the
• 9:08
  owl spread its long wings, swooped
• 9:10
  around the crowd, and flew toward
• 9:12
  the original nesting site where it
• 9:13
  hatched.
• 9:19
  About five months ago, the fate of
• 9:21
  this owl was uncertain.
• 9:22
  Its mother, Athena, is a resident
• 9:24
  grade-horned owl at the Wellflower
• 9:25
  Center.
• 9:26
  This nesting season, she seemed to
• 9:28
  be having a hard time keeping her
• 9:29
  two owlets warm and fed.
• 9:31
  Suddenly, one owlet died.
• 9:33
  Then a few days later, the center
• 9:34
  announced a second owlet had also
• 9:36
  died and Athena had abandoned the
• 9:38
  nest.
• 9:39
  But experts who were monitoring the
• 9:41
  nest's camera feed noticed slight
• 9:42
  movement from the second owlette
• 9:44
  that prompted its rescue by the
• 9:45
  non-profit Austin Wildlife Rescue.
• 9:48
  A surrogate owl raised it and
• 9:50
  prepped it for life in the wild.
• 9:52
  Jules Mirren is executive director
• 9:53
  of the rescue.
• 9:56
  Is profoundly gratifying
• 9:58
  to be able to take
• 10:00
  in an animal that needs
• 10:02
  everything from you and
• 10:04
  then being able to release it as
• 10:06
  an animal that needs nothing from
• 10:08
  you. And I think it
• 10:11
  is just an amazing
• 10:13
  end.
• 10:13
  Lee Clippard, executive director of
• 10:15
  the Wildflower Center, says after a
• 10:17
  difficult nesting year, witnessing
• 10:18
  the rescued owl take flight was a
• 10:20
  welcome sight.
• 10:21
  It's like a full circle moment to
• 10:23
  see the owlet, the owl
• 10:24
  now, no longer an owlet fly
• 10:27
  out of that cage and back into the
• 10:29
  wild again.
• 10:29
  Athena has been nesting in a soltal
• 10:31
  planter above the Wildflower
• 10:33
  Center's entrance since 2012.
• 10:35
  Every year, she usually lays at
• 10:37
  least two eggs, and she has a good
• 10:38
  track record of raising and rearing
• 10:40
  owlets.
• 10:42
  There was some speculation that
• 10:43
  Athena's mate, who would have bought
• 10:45
  food to the nest, had been hurt.
• 10:46
  An injured owl was found in a
• 10:48
  neighborhood near the Wildflowers
• 10:49
  Center just days after Athena
• 10:51
  abandoned her nest.
• 10:52
  It later died.
• 10:53
  But it's not confirmed that Al was
• 10:55
  Athena's mate.
• 10:56
  Staff at the center remain hopeful
• 10:58
  that Athena will return to nest
• 11:00
  in the spring.
• 11:01
  I'm Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
• 11:09
  Thank you for tuning in.
• 11:10
  This is Austin Signal.
• 11:12
  We're coming up on a break.
• 11:13
  Before we let you go, just wanted to
• 11:15
  let you know about the weather
• 11:16
  outlook for the next week.
• 11:18
  We only have about a week left in
• 11:19
  September.
• 11:20
  And unfortunately, it looks like
• 11:21
  we're gonna be right around 98 to 99
• 11:24
  degrees throughout the rest of the
• 11:25
  month. Though, there is a chance of
• 11:28
  some rain next Wednesday that
• 11:30
  might bring our low, or
• 11:32
  excuse me, our high down to about
• 11:33
  92. And looking a little further out
• 11:36
  at the weather channel forecast,
• 11:37
  possibly starting October.
• 11:39
  With some highs in the mid-80s.
• 11:41
  We're still a long way out, so don't
• 11:44
  exactly make plans yet, but
• 11:45
  hopefully things will pan out, and
• 11:47
  of course, when things change, we'll
• 11:49
  keep you updated with the latest
• 11:50
  right here on Austin
• 11:52
  Signal.
• 11:58
  This is Austin Signal.
• 11:59
  Welcome back to the show.
• 12:01
  The New York Times recently
• 12:02
  announced their list of the 50 best
• 12:04
  restaurants in the country.
• 12:06
  Two joints from Texas made the list.
• 12:08
  Only one based right here in
• 12:10
  Austin. That is Paprika,
• 12:12
  the taco truck turned brick and
• 12:13
  mortar located in North Austin.
• 12:16
  Joining us now is Margarito Perez,
• 12:18
  owner of Paprika.
• 12:19
  Margarita, welcome to the Show.
• 12:20
  Thanks for having me.
• 12:22
  So tell us a little bit about
• 12:23
  paprika, you know, I know that from
• 12:25
  I've heard a little bit about your
• 12:27
  story. I know you had a field here
• 12:28
  in Austin, you were kind of making
• 12:29
  your way through the country.
• 12:31
  How did you get started here in
• 12:33
  The common and the simplest way
• 12:35
  to say it is I
• 12:38
  was running away from Indiana going
• 12:40
  back to Mexico and
• 12:42
  ended up here in Austin visiting a
• 12:43
  Tío and all
• 12:45
  the time I've been cooking at
• 12:47
  home. I was selling tortas in
• 12:48
  Houston and after
• 12:50
  falling in love with Austin really
• 12:52
  I was like you know what maybe I'll
• 12:54
  stick around here for a few years
• 12:56
  and I was
• 12:58
  undocumented Good fur.
• 13:00
  Most of my life up
• 13:02
  until a few years ago.
• 13:04
  And because of that, I had been
• 13:06
  working cash paying jobs all this
• 13:08
  time cooking as much
• 13:10
  as I could at home until
• 13:12
  I had a coworker say, hey,
• 13:14
  you know, you won't shut up about
• 13:15
  food.
• 13:16
  And I'm a chef, I work
• 13:18
  at like the W Hotel and there's
• 13:20
  a new project that's opening up in
• 13:22
  West Austin. I think you should
• 13:24
  just give it a try and maybe you
• 13:26
  will.
• 13:27
  You know, get over your obsession
• 13:29
  with food or maybe it'll be a good
• 13:30
  fit. Fast forward a few years where
• 13:33
  I worked at a few different kitchens
• 13:34
  but never with Mexican food and
• 13:37
  the opportunity came up to
• 13:39
  buy a food truck and I knew that I
• 13:41
  wanted to do something that was
• 13:42
  personal to me and
• 13:44
  kind of explore
• 13:46
  or get in touch
• 13:48
  with the roots, so
• 13:50
  to say.
• 13:51
  So, it sounds like you were learning
• 13:53
  on the job, literally, and
• 13:55
  learning away from the job as well.
• 13:56
  How much did you know about cooking?
• 13:59
  As far as cooking,
• 14:01
  just home cooking.
• 14:03
  It's, my folks got divorced
• 14:05
  when I was like 12 or 13
• 14:07
  and I wanted to go live
• 14:09
  with my pops because I thought it
• 14:11
  would be easy and
• 14:13
  more gratifying.
• 14:14
  What ended up happening was that I
• 14:16
  had to learn how to cook for myself
• 14:18
  because he was working all the time
• 14:19
  and was like, hey, we're effectively
• 14:21
  roommates. You're gonna have to
• 14:22
  figure some stuff out now.
• 14:23
  And so I had the grow up pretty
• 14:25
  quickly and.
• 14:27
  Um, I still laugh about it.
• 14:28
  I remember going to the library and
• 14:30
  I would check out a bunch of CDs
• 14:32
  and a bunch of cookbooks and
• 14:34
  I had like a Rachel Ray for kids
• 14:36
  cookbook.
• 14:37
  And so, yeah, whenever folks want
• 14:39
  to knock on someone for looking
• 14:41
  at recipes or whatever,
• 14:43
  I'm like, Hey, I got started with
• 14:45
  Rachel Ray, but then,
• 14:47
  um, I just made a lot of bad dishes
• 14:49
  as a kid and my sisters
• 14:51
  and I would eat them and
• 14:53
  pretty quickly I was like, you know,
• 14:55
  if, if I.
• 14:56
  Don't want to keep eating this.
• 14:57
  I got to learn something else.
• 14:59
  And so I live in a pretty small town
• 15:01
  in, in Indian.
• 15:02
  And, um, it was very fortunate to
• 15:04
  have a big family on
• 15:06
  my mom's side.
• 15:07
  And so, I have 11 aunts
• 15:09
  and uncles on that side.
• 15:11
  And at the time, both of my
• 15:12
  grandparents there, and I just
• 15:14
  started, um.
• 15:16
  I spent a lot of time in my
• 15:17
  grandparents' home anyway.
• 15:18
  And so would just be like, well, how
• 15:19
  do you, how do you do
• 15:21
  this? Because any time.
• 15:23
  That I craved something or thought
• 15:25
  of a food that would give me
• 15:26
  comfort. It would always be
• 15:28
  something that my willy was cooking
• 15:30
  or had cooked for us or one of my
• 15:32
  ideas who all learned from
• 15:34
  her. And so I
• 15:36
  just started to take
• 15:38
  advantage of that, really.
• 15:39
  And when you're learning from a
• 15:40
  cookbook, there's like a very, very
• 15:42
  approximate, you're supposed to use
• 15:43
  a teaspoon of this and a tablespoon
• 15:45
  of that. But I find when I'm
• 15:47
  with my family and they're cooking
• 15:48
  with my well, she's kind of like,
• 15:50
  you just use this much and you pull
• 15:51
  this much. When you were learning
• 15:52
  from your family, were you writing
• 15:54
  anything down or you're just kind of
• 15:55
  taking it all in and, okay, I'll try
• 15:57
  this at my own place whenever I can.
• 15:58
  No, that's exactly it.
• 16:00
  And to this day, I think it's
• 16:01
  something about paprika that maybe
• 16:03
  is not a,
• 16:05
  maybe makes things harder for us
• 16:07
  that we really don't have recipes
• 16:09
  written down.
• 16:11
  We, you know, my wife makes all the
• 16:12
  salsas and the aguas and
• 16:14
  it's like, we'll have maybe
• 16:16
  a baseline of it's gonna be
• 16:18
  approximately this many tomatillos
• 16:20
  or these are things you wanna make
• 16:21
  sure you get in there, but really
• 16:23
  it is by feel and just
• 16:25
  doing it over and over again.
• 16:27
  So tell us a little bit about the
• 16:29
  food truck experience.
• 16:30
  How long did you operate out of the
• 16:31
  food trucks?
• 16:32
  Yeah, it was, we opened up
• 16:34
  in October of 2019.
• 16:36
  And up until the opportunity came
• 16:38
  up to get into the brick and
• 16:40
  mortar, we signed
• 16:42
  the lease earlier last
• 16:44
  year, and we moved into the spot in
• 16:46
  I think September or October.
• 16:48
  It was exactly six
• 16:50
  years of being in the food truck
• 16:51
  that we opened, moved
• 16:53
  into The Taqueria.
• 16:55
  That's when we had our grand opening
• 16:56
  and everything.
• 16:57
  So we're coming up on in October.
• 17:00
  It'll be one year inside the
• 17:01
  taqueria and so yeah.
• 17:03
  Well, congratulations!
• 17:04
  Are there things about the food
• 17:05
  truck life that you miss, or things
• 17:07
  about the brick and mortar that you
• 17:08
  couldn't have anticipated or maybe
• 17:09
  couldn't have achieved in your old
• 17:11
  ducal truck?
• 17:12
  Yeah, I think all of it, you know,
• 17:14
  I really miss being able
• 17:16
  to connect with folks as
• 17:18
  anxious and I think socially awkward
• 17:20
  as I feel all
• 17:22
  of the time.
• 17:23
  On the truck, it was
• 17:25
  almost like having a
• 17:28
  persona or a shield, you know,
• 17:30
  because my livelihood
• 17:32
  depends on this, so I have to
• 17:33
  be able to
• 17:36
  sell you a taco and I have to make
• 17:37
  sure it's a good taco so that you
• 17:39
  eat it and you want to come back.
• 17:40
  I
• 17:42
  miss, I think, or I think fondly
• 17:44
  on the opportunity that we had to
• 17:45
  connect with folks, because at the
• 17:47
  same time, I would be able
• 17:49
  to like take your order and
• 17:51
  then turn around, cook the
• 17:53
  order, um, if I noticed,
• 17:55
  you know, that maybe you had
• 17:58
  some hesitation about the crispiness
• 18:00
  of something, you know, I was like,
• 18:01
  okay, I, in my, in my head, I'm
• 18:02
  already like, I think I can, I think
• 18:04
  I can wow them or I think I can
• 18:06
  prove them wrong.
• 18:07
  And, um and so it was very very
• 18:09
  personal and very intimate, I think,
• 18:11
  in that sense.
• 18:13
  I remember even my wife
• 18:15
  Hayden getting upset and my mom
• 18:17
  yelling at me because I used
• 18:19
  to just tell customers our recipes.
• 18:21
  They were like, I really like this
• 18:23
  salsa, how do you do it?
• 18:24
  And again, I was like, I don't have
• 18:25
  anything written down for it, but
• 18:27
  you just do this, this, and this,
• 18:28
  and a little bit of that, and you
• 18:30
  can make it happen.
• 18:32
  And they would come back.
• 18:34
  Some folks would come like.
• 18:36
  Weekly and say, hey, well, I tweaked
• 18:37
  this, you know, how do I, I'm almost
• 18:39
  there.
• 18:41
  And they were like, Hey, we're going
• 18:42
  to be out of business.
• 18:43
  If you just tell everyone how to
• 18:44
  make what you're making.
• 18:46
  But, but yeah, I think, I, I think I
• 18:47
  missed that, that aspect of it.
• 18:49
  And as far of as, um,
• 18:52
  things that we have
• 18:54
  in a taqueria now that, that I
• 18:55
  don't, that we didn't have in the
• 18:57
  food truck, it's, or maybe things
• 18:59
  that I didn't anticipate it's
• 19:01
  it's been all of it, we've learned a
• 19:03
  lot as far as.
• 19:05
  How to be more organized and
• 19:07
  how to be more consistent
• 19:09
  because of that.
• 19:10
  And also because of that we've been
• 19:12
  able to bring on more folks.
• 19:13
  So it's no longer,
• 19:16
  um, as intimate, maybe in that
• 19:18
  regard that it's not just my wife
• 19:19
  and I, and maybe my mom or my pops,
• 19:21
  you know, it's like now we have a
• 19:23
  whole team, but it's really cool
• 19:25
  because now we also have
• 19:27
  that many more
• 19:29
  hands that are ready to feed you.
• 19:31
  I think from the moment that we
• 19:32
  opened up last October to where
• 19:34
  we're at right now, approaching one
• 19:36
  year, we've grown
• 19:38
  so much and learned so much.
• 19:40
  And I feel like our tacos are
• 19:42
  better than ever.
• 19:44
  Well, I think that's
• 19:46
  being felt all over the place
• 19:47
  because the New York Times
• 19:48
  recognized your taqueria as one of
• 19:50
  the 50 best restaurants in the
• 19:51
  country. That is obviously huge
• 19:53
  recognition and goes beyond here
• 19:54
  in Austin.
• 19:56
  One year into the restaurant, what
• 19:57
  is something that you'd like to
• 19:58
  learn in the future or add to the
• 20:00
  restaurants or, I don't know, just
• 20:01
  learn about the business that you're
• 20:02
  in right now?
• 20:03
  Yeah, yeah, there's a lot
• 20:05
  really.
• 20:06
  One of the, or not one of
• 20:08
  the biggest, I think,
• 20:10
  overarching ultimate goal for us
• 20:12
  would be able to
• 20:14
  nixtamalize our tortillas in-house.
• 20:16
  It's something that we haven't had
• 20:18
  like the space or the bandwidth.
• 20:20
  When I opened the food truck, that
• 20:21
  was kind of the big decision.
• 20:22
  I was like, hey, am I going to focus
• 20:24
  on the tortillas or am I gonna focus
• 20:26
  on everything else?
• 20:27
  Because that's how big of
• 20:30
  a responsibility that
• 20:32
  is. And And really
• 20:34
  out of respect for that, we haven't,
• 20:35
  you know, we will make small
• 20:37
  batches of masa that will,
• 20:39
  will nixtamalize and will grind.
• 20:41
  We have a little molinito and we'll
• 20:43
  run specials and we used to do that.
• 20:44
  I think a little bit more frequently
• 20:45
  on the truck and the taqueria
• 20:47
  because of time, we hadn't been able
• 20:49
  to, but that's, that's still
• 20:51
  very present as something that
• 20:53
  I want to work on.
• 20:54
  And with that also being from
• 20:55
  Northern Mexico and
• 20:58
  eating breakfast tacos here in
• 21:00
  Austin for years now.
• 21:01
  It's like, I also want to
• 21:04
  get to the point where we can make
• 21:05
  our tortillas de harina in house.
• 21:08
  And again, same thing, growing up
• 21:09
  with just phenomenal tortillas
• 21:11
  harina at home, it's tough for
• 21:13
  me to put anything that's not
• 21:15
  up to that standard out into
• 21:17
  the world.
• 21:18
  So that's why right now we get a lot
• 21:20
  of flak from folks that we don't.
• 21:21
  We don't offer our tacos on flour,
• 21:23
  but it's because I don't I
• 21:25
  don't feel like the quality
• 21:27
  is there for many of the
• 21:29
  store-bought ones or the other ones
• 21:31
  that I can get my hands on.
• 21:33
  So that's something we're working
• 21:34
  on.
• 21:35
  And then really learning more about
• 21:37
  just so many of like
• 21:40
  ancestral techniques
• 21:42
  and foods and drinks that you
• 21:44
  see in
• 21:46
  Mexican gastronomy and
• 21:48
  also just with the cuts, you know,
• 21:50
  if like we wanna, we just recently
• 21:52
  have been.
• 21:53
  Teaching ourselves how to make
• 21:55
  buche, and I think it's turning out,
• 21:58
  I think it's turned out pretty well.
• 22:00
  And now we're like, okay, well,
• 22:02
  how can we make cueritos and
• 22:04
  how can we make a better chicharrón?
• 22:06
  And so everything has been
• 22:08
  just learning it, like you said, on
• 22:10
  the job.
• 22:11
  OK, well, I have to end the
• 22:12
  interview there because my mouth is
• 22:13
  watering and I can't take any more.
• 22:15
  We have been speaking with Margarito
• 22:17
  Perez. He is the owner of Paprika,
• 22:19
  one of the New York Times 50 best
• 22:20
  restaurants of 2026.
• 22:22
  Margarita, thank you for your time.
• 22:24
  Aw, thank you so much, Jerry.
• 22:25
  And thank you out there for tuning
• 22:27
  in. That is it for us today on
• 22:28
  Austin Signal, but we're gonna have
• 22:30
  plenty more about the stories we
• 22:31
  share today in the podcast show
• 22:33
  notes, and you can always find more
• 22:35
  from us at kut.org
• 22:37
  slash signal.
• 22:40
  Caroline File is our technical
• 22:41
  director, Alexandra Hart is our
• 22:43
  producer, and Kristen Cabrera is
• 22:45
  our managing producer.
• 22:47
  I'm your host, Jerry Keakono.
• 22:48
  We're gonna be back at the same time
• 22:49
  tomorrow.
• 22:50
  We'll talk to you then.