Latest / Austin Signal / Austin elementary teacher released after nearly 300 days in ICE detention

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Austin elementary teacher released after nearly 300 days in ICE detention · Austin Signal

0:08
A fifth grade teacher in the Austin
0:09
district told his students at the
0:11
start of last school year that he
0:12
would need to miss a day for an
0:14
errand. He never made it back to
0:16
those students, spending nearly 300
0:18
days in ICE detention before
0:20
being released.
0:21
We've got more about his story and
0:22
how he used his time to plan for
0:24
future students.
0:25
And there's plenty of ways to have
0:26
some THC in Texas, including
0:28
a surge of canned beverages.
0:30
But what are the benefits to a
0:31
canned high, and how much demand is
0:33
there for these sort of products?
0:34
We've got more about those stories
0:36
coming up on today's show.
0:38
The Austin Signal is a production
0:40
of KUT News, hosted by
0:42
Jerry Quijano.
0:43
Plus, Eric Byrd is a native
0:45
Austinite and civic strategist who
0:47
says brilliance can be found in the
0:48
places we least expect.
0:50
He spoke with the hosts of the Black
0:52
Austin Matters podcast.
0:54
His story, up next, right here
0:56
on Austin Signal.
1:01
Thank you.
1:07
Howdy out there, this is
1:09
Austin Signal.
1:09
I'm your host, Jerry Kikano.
1:11
It is Tuesday, July 21st.
1:13
We're glad to have ya.
1:15
The Austin Independent School
1:16
District is ending its partnership
1:17
with a non-profit charge with
1:19
turning around three struggling
1:20
schools. That partnership was made
1:22
to avoid a potential fifth failing
1:24
accountability rating at Burnett,
1:25
Doby, or Webb middle schools that
1:27
could trigger a state takeover of
1:29
the district.
1:30
AISD partnered with Texas Council
1:32
for International Studies to manage
1:33
the schools, but The plan hit a bump
1:35
in May when the Texas Education
1:37
Agency rejected the plan.
1:39
AISD says a district-led turnaround
1:41
plan that began in 2025 has
1:43
already shown improvements at these
1:45
schools. We have more about this
1:46
story at KUT.org
1:48
and on the KUT app.
1:52
An Austin ISD teacher who told his
1:54
students he needed to miss one day
1:55
of school for an errand never
1:56
returned to his students or that
1:58
classroom.
1:59
Instead, his routine check-in with
2:01
immigration officials turned into
2:02
nearly 300 days of tension.
2:05
The story of how he focused on his
2:06
students and teachings to get him
2:08
through those detention days is
2:10
captured in the latest story from
2:11
Emiliano Tawi-Gomez.
2:13
He is a freelance writer who covered
2:14
this story for the Austin Current,
2:16
and he is with us now.
2:18
Emiliano, welcome back to the show.
2:19
Thank you for having me, Jared.
2:20
So tell us first about Roberto Lopez
2:22
Falcón.
2:23
Who is he?
2:24
Where did he teach?
2:25
Yeah, Mr. López Falcón was
2:28
a grade school, fifth grade teacher
2:30
here in Austin, in northeast
2:32
Austin at Hart Elementary
2:34
School, who taught a
2:36
bilingual fifth grade classroom
2:37
there at the school.
2:39
Okay, and how long has he been here
2:40
in the Austin area?
2:41
He first came to the U.S.
2:43
In 2022, claimed asylum,
2:45
he's a Cuban immigrant, said that
2:48
he had clashed with his superiors
2:50
as a teacher in Cuba.
2:52
Gets to Austin,
2:54
and then last, so not this most
2:56
recent school year, but the school
2:57
year before then had been his first
2:59
school year as a full-time teacher,
3:01
right? He was a well-liked teacher
3:02
from The Sound of it.
3:03
I mean, I've spoken to families and
3:05
they tell me, I mean he had a
3:05
reputation for a teacher you want
3:07
it.
3:08
Yeah, that's pretty impressive,
3:08
especially for just being there the
3:10
the one year alone, so
3:12
take us back to this most recent
3:14
school year that just passed a few
3:16
weeks in he tells the students that
3:17
he's going to be gone for a day why.
3:20
I mean, so Mr. Elvis Falcon was,
3:22
at the time, several years into
3:24
his asylum case, right?
3:25
Which in the United States can take
3:26
many, many years.
3:28
He had a check-in, right, which I'm
3:30
not sure how much you remember, but
3:31
last year, especially last summer,
3:34
was really when we started noticing
3:35
that a lot of immigrants from here
3:36
in the Austin area
3:39
were going down to San Antonio,
3:41
going to check-ins to show the
3:43
ICE officers, look, I'm still here.
3:45
I'm still planning on showing up to
3:46
my court dates, you know, it was
3:47
considered very routine.
3:48
At the time, yes. At the times,
3:49
right? And then little by little, I
3:51
think, detentions at those check-ins
3:53
grew quite a bit.
3:55
And Lopez Falcón, who had, was very
3:57
much keeping up with his case,
3:59
thought he had a strong case.
4:01
You know, one day, he tells
4:03
the students, he goes up to Morgan,
4:04
he has the substitute, be well,
4:07
just be gone for a day, just have to
4:08
run an errand all the way back the
4:10
next day, and he wasn't,
4:12
right.
4:13
And so that really kind of begins
4:15
this question, right, for many of
4:16
the students who continue to tell
4:17
their parents day after day, you
4:19
know, our teacher's not back, what's
4:20
wrong.
4:21
Basically, the kids believe that he
4:23
was sick, because this is what they
4:24
were hearing from the other staff,
4:26
the other educators at the school,
4:28
right?
4:29
And that was what was being told
4:31
to the students, that's what was was
4:32
being fed to the parents.
4:33
I think, little by little, some of
4:34
the parents began to ask questions,
4:36
and that's why last fall after
4:39
getting some concerns from some of
4:40
these parents.
4:41
I was able to report out the fact
4:42
that he had been detained by ICE at
4:44
this check-in and that was news to
4:46
many.
4:46
Yeah, Mr. Lopez Falcón was in
4:48
detention for nearly 300 days.
4:51
Tell us a little bit about what his
4:53
experience was like, at least from
4:54
what he told you.
4:55
You know, he,
4:57
from my conversations with him,
4:59
routine was everything, right?
5:00
Trying to kind of keep your sanity
5:02
while you're in detention for so
5:03
long and just don't know, right?
5:04
It's an indefinite.
5:05
It's not like you know you were sentenced
5:06
to an amount of time in detention.
5:07
If you believe that you don't want
5:09
to return to your
5:11
home country, which in his case is
5:13
Cuba, and you believe you want to
5:14
fight your case, you don't t know
5:15
how long that's going to take
5:16
because of the administration's
5:18
policy of indefinate mandatory
5:19
detention, right?
5:20
You're going to be detained for as
5:22
long as you are fighting.
5:24
This immigration court of view, if
5:25
we have hold of you, which they did.
5:27
And so for him, that was reading
5:29
like crazy. I mean, he could list
5:31
all the books, all the 30 books he
5:33
had read while in detention.
5:34
He told me about working at the
5:36
library, having told staff there
5:37
that he was a teacher and he got put
5:39
to work at the Library.
5:41
Yeah, he was far away from his
5:43
students, but it sounds like his
5:44
students they were never far away
5:46
from his mind.
5:46
No, they weren't.
5:47
You know, I asked him, you know, how
5:49
do you kind of keep a sense of hope,
5:50
right? And he talked about his wife
5:52
and his daughter in Cuba, but he
5:54
also very much, and actually,
5:56
I should preface this, I mean, I
5:57
interviewed him after he got out,
5:59
but I also interviewed him while he
6:00
was in and had no idea when he was
6:02
going to get out.
6:03
And that's when he told me, you,
6:04
he's like, you to kind of, keep my
6:06
mind straight, I just think of
6:08
lessons plans and I think of how I
6:09
could teach. And this is a man who's
6:10
been a teacher his whole who very
6:12
much wants to be a teacher who
6:13
gets...
6:14
Purpose from that, right?
6:15
He would tell me how he was thinking
6:16
through math problems and how he
6:17
wanted to teach those math problems.
6:19
And I was talking to him, I didn't
6:20
know if he was going to get out or
6:22
when he was gonna get out is
6:23
probably the better thing and
6:24
neither did he.
6:25
How eventually did Mr. Lopez Falcon?
6:27
How did he get released eventually?
6:29
Yeah, Mr. Lopez Falcón
6:31
had been fighting an asylum
6:33
case, right, as I mentioned, saying
6:35
that he feared political
6:37
repercussions from returning back to
6:39
his native Cuba.
6:41
So his asylum case gets denied.
6:43
He appeals that, but an appeal
6:45
is indefinite.
6:46
You are just waiting for the U.S.
6:48
Government to give you a response,
6:49
there's no timeline.
6:52
His attorney turned to what many
6:54
immigration attorneys have turned to
6:55
in the past many months, which are
6:57
um, habeas corpus orders, which is
6:59
that you go to a federal judge,
7:01
right? As opposed to the immigration
7:02
judge, immigration system.
7:04
And you say, listen, I think my
7:05
client is being illegally
7:07
detained because of the amount of
7:08
time, because this does not need to
7:10
happen and, um,
7:12
secured him actually, uh, an order
7:13
from a federal.
7:15
That's the department of justice and
7:17
immigration system had to allow him
7:19
out on bond, but
7:21
the government's attorneys were able
7:22
to find a way around that by saying,
7:23
we think he's a flight risk because
7:24
he's afraid to return to Cuba.
7:26
Not going to give him bond.
7:27
That kept him in there even longer,
7:28
which is why we got to the almost
7:29
300 days.
7:31
Eventually, they returned to the
7:32
federal courts. Courts said, you
7:33
have to let him go.
7:35
And despite the government not
7:36
wanting to, they released him.
7:37
Okay, so what is Mr.
7:40
Lopez-Falcón thinking about when it
7:41
comes to the near-term
7:43
future? Is he planning to return
7:44
back to teaching?
7:46
He wants to, he wants to.
7:47
Because he was detained for so long,
7:49
he no longer has his spot at Hart
7:51
Elementary. He has to reapply.
7:53
I know that's, he told me
7:55
that that's something that he really
7:57
wants to do is go back to Hart or go
7:58
back into an Austin school and
7:59
teach.
8:01
But yeah, that's what we're gonna
8:02
wait and see is will he be in a
8:04
classroom next fall.
8:05
Well, the last thing I wanted to ask
8:06
you about, I mean, it's clear that
8:08
this has been a traumatic
8:10
situation for Mr. Lopez Falcón,
8:12
but your reporting kind of goes into
8:14
the effects that it had on the
8:16
communities, particularly his
8:17
students. You spoke with some of the
8:19
mothers of students who were in his
8:21
classroom. How did those students
8:22
handle his absence?
8:24
Yeah, that was kind of what I was
8:26
very interested in because as
8:28
the year went on, and I mean, I had
8:30
very little answers on Lopez Falcón,
8:32
just besides the fact that I could
8:33
look him up and see that he was
8:34
still detained.
8:35
And I would reach out to the
8:36
families a little over time,
8:38
intermittently, and see that they
8:39
themselves had no answers and were
8:41
kind of just guessing.
8:42
And so this was
8:44
hard on the children, as you
8:46
might imagine.
8:47
I know one mother said her daughter
8:47
was diagnosed with depression.
8:48
So it took a strong toll and
8:51
Students graduated, they walked, and
8:52
still thinking of Mr. Lopez-Falcón
8:54
as a teacher. I mean, I spoke to one
8:55
student who talked to me about that,
8:57
and yet didn't get any resolution
8:59
until just now, and no answers
9:01
until just now. And so that toll was
9:03
very heavy on both Lopez-
9:05
Falcón and his students, and I think
9:06
that's what I was interested in.
9:08
All right, we have been speaking
9:09
with Emiliano Tawi-Gomez.
9:11
We're gonna have a link to his
9:12
reporting in today's show notes.
9:13
Emiliano, thank you.
9:14
Thank you for having me.
9:22
The hemp beverage industry sold
9:24
more than 2 million cases last
9:26
year.
9:27
Texas is one of the largest markets
9:28
for these sort of drinks with an
9:30
estimated value in the billions
9:32
of dollars, but clouding
9:34
all that growth is the looming
9:36
threat of bans and restrictions.
9:38
Texas Standard's Charlie Sharp
9:40
visited an industry conference this
9:41
summer here Austin and spoke to
9:43
producers about their concerns.
9:48
I'm in the American Canning Machines
9:50
facility in southeast Austin.
9:53
Rows of silver drink cans jitter
9:55
in what looks like a miniature
9:56
cattle corral.
9:58
They're picked out single file,
10:00
filled with a glittering liquid,
10:02
sealed and sent for packaging.
10:04
In this professional, orderly
10:06
environment, it's easy to forget
10:07
what I'm looking at.
10:09
These are no ordinary drinks.
10:12
These drinks will get you high.
10:18
Just north of the canning facility,
10:19
the Hemp Beverage Expo is underway.
10:22
Neat rows of corporate chic booths
10:24
fill the echoey, well-lit space
10:26
in the Palmer Event Center.
10:28
Business owners exchange cards and
10:30
promises to stay in touch.
10:33
No one here is talking about the
10:34
munchies.
10:35
We've come a long way
10:37
since Brownie and the Couch Days,
10:39
and now we have these incredibly
10:41
accurately dosed, reliable
10:43
products that you're going to know
10:44
how you feel every time you take a
10:46
shot of Social Potion.
10:48
You may have seen them at the corner
10:49
store. Neon-colored six-packs
10:51
promising elevation, buzzes,
10:53
clarity.
10:55
But what exactly are hemp
10:57
beverages?
10:58
George Jage is the CEO of the
11:00
company that put on this expo with
11:02
the Hemp Beverages Alliance.
11:03
Beverage has never been really big
11:05
in the cannabis space, but I've
11:06
always believed that if we can
11:08
change the intoxicant, but not the
11:09
social lubrication that's so
11:11
ingrained in our society of
11:12
gathering around libations
11:14
and socializing around beverage,
11:16
that this is where THC as a molecule
11:18
and cannabis and hemp combined
11:20
as a plant, as really
11:22
nature's medicine can
11:25
have a massive transformative
11:27
effect.
11:28
According to the Hemp Beverage
11:29
Alliance, hemp beverages are any
11:31
drink that contains hemp-derived
11:33
cannabinoids.
11:35
Those are the chemical substances
11:36
found in cannabis and other plants.
11:39
CBD and THC are the most
11:41
common, but there are hundreds of
11:43
other so-called minor cannabinodes.
11:46
Your body even makes its own!
11:47
Those are called endocannabinoid.
11:50
As I passed by the stalls of the
11:52
Expo, I saw opaque purple
11:54
liquids and turquoise glasses.
11:57
What looks like energy drinks,
11:59
tequila, tropical beers,
12:01
and even wine.
12:02
This is a THC spirit,
12:04
so similar to any other alcohol
12:06
spirit. You could shoot it, you
12:07
could sip it, you can mix it.
12:08
This is more like alcohol or
12:10
tobacco. It's going right into your
12:11
bloodstream and you feel it in two
12:12
to five minutes. For example, for
12:14
me, almost every single time,
12:16
it's two minutes and 37 seconds,
12:18
two minutes in 40.
12:19
If you're not drinking alcohol, it's
12:21
another option for you.
12:22
It's good for a pre-workout and
12:23
post-work out recovery.
12:25
That was Jasmine Hupp, Ryan Brooks,
12:27
and Eddie Velez.
12:28
Almost all of the business owners
12:29
and representatives call their
12:31
products a social lubricant.
12:33
It's a nice pair of words.
12:34
It sounds both poetic and
12:37
scientific.
12:38
It's clear what the category is
12:40
trying to say, though.
12:43
You don't like alcohol?
12:44
Try us.
12:46
David Rancio is co-founder of
12:48
American Canning Machines, that
12:50
facility I toured earlier.
12:52
Frankly, per capita alcohol
12:54
consumption has actually been flat
12:55
to slightly down for something like
12:57
50 years.
12:58
You know, what are consumers doing?
13:00
While they're drinking less alcohol,
13:01
that's sort of obvious.
13:05
Hemp and cannabis products are
13:06
growing though, so it stands to
13:08
reason that they are taking some of
13:09
that share.
13:10
George Jage, with the group putting
13:12
on the event, said that generations
13:14
are moving away from alcohol.
13:16
They love cannabis, they love
13:17
psychedelics.
13:19
The older generations, it's just a
13:21
health thing, right?
13:21
Like they, it is harder,
13:23
I'm 56 in a week.
13:25
So if I drink too much the night
13:27
before, it's really hard for me to
13:28
get moving in the morning.
13:30
So if drink hemp beverages and THC,
13:32
I have none of that effect.
13:33
The sellers at the expo told me
13:35
they're drawing in a diversity
13:37
of customers.
13:38
Our products appeal to
13:41
that person that had that kind of
13:43
weird brownie experience in
13:45
their youth and was like, no, I
13:47
can't do edibles.
13:48
Everybody,
13:50
from 21-year-olds
13:52
who basically said
13:54
no to alcohol,
13:56
to grandmothers who
13:58
are also looking for an
14:00
alternative.
14:01
People are drawn to the product
14:02
right now it's going to be 45 and
14:04
older it's going to the
14:04
professionals people are looking for
14:06
more of a balanced life
14:08
It sounds like there's a drink for
14:09
everyone, but is it paying off?
14:12
According to Whitney Economics, the
14:13
Texas hemp markets have estimated
14:15
about $5.5 billion.
14:17
David Rancio expects it's only going
14:19
to grow from here.
14:20
I had probably three or four
14:22
conversations yesterday with friends
14:23
in the industry that are kind of in
14:25
the supply chain side here, be it
14:27
cans, bottles, raw ingredients
14:29
in different ways.
14:30
And on the packaging side
14:31
specifically, some of these
14:33
people that were 95% craft beer
14:35
five years ago are now 50-50
14:37
cannabis, everything else,
14:39
or hemp, everything else.
14:41
But all of these talks of a thriving
14:43
industry and billions of dollars in
14:45
revenue happen in the shadow of an
14:47
imminent threat.
14:49
Jasmine Hup is a representative with
14:50
Joy of the Adventure Living, which
14:52
produces THC mix in powders
14:54
and spirits.
14:56
Now we're in trouble.
14:58
At this point on November 13th,
15:00
these products aren't going to exist
15:01
for anyone.
15:03
Most of the products displayed in
15:05
the expo are only currently legal
15:07
because of language in the 2018
15:09
Farm Bill, which legalized hemp
15:11
containing less than 0.3%
15:13
Delta-9-THC.
15:14
To have that basically deleted
15:16
overnight would be a massive
15:17
problem. I mean it will literally
15:19
translate to job loss day
15:21
one for a lot of these people
15:22
because they have nothing to
15:24
backfill that loss capacity
15:26
for.
15:26
And Jasmine Hup says the situation
15:28
is even more confusing right now
15:30
in Texas.
15:36
Ryan Rooks is co-founder
15:38
of American Weed Company, an
15:40
Austin-based beverage company.
15:42
It's legal one week, the next week
15:44
it has to get out of the state,
15:46
then it's legal again.
15:47
And so we have, we've been
15:49
a big advocate of
15:52
low-dose THC hemp beverages.
15:55
We understand the
15:57
market appetite, not just here
15:59
in Texas, but nationwide, and
16:01
we think a low- dose beverage
16:03
like ours has a chance to make a
16:04
real impact in the future.
16:06
And, so we're pushing for that both
16:08
federally in Washington, but also
16:10
here in Texas.
16:11
For most of the business owners.
16:12
The path to salvation is paved with
16:14
regulation.
16:16
Hup says that in order for this
16:17
industry to survive, they'll need to
16:19
take some notes from alcohol.
16:20
I imagine a future
16:22
where cannabis and
16:25
hemp are treated equally and
16:27
fairly and are easily
16:29
available to the adults that want to
16:31
choose them.
16:32
We imagine great labeling,
16:35
great packaging, super clear,
16:38
age-gated, ID checks,
16:40
all the things that we want,
16:42
regulation.
16:43
We're here for it."
16:44
It might be the influence of the
16:46
products at the expo, but I didn't
16:48
see a single frown.
16:50
Despite the challenges, as a whole,
16:52
the industry seems pretty
16:54
optimistic.
16:56
David Rancio says, it's simple.
16:59
You can't regulate away demands.
17:01
Consumers always win and they vote
17:03
with their dollars and there seems
17:04
to be broad support for
17:06
hemp beverages basically across
17:08
the aisle and across the nation and
17:11
So I'm not a betting man,
17:13
but if I were to put a couple bucks
17:14
on and I'd say something gets done
17:15
here before November
17:17
It's a billion-dollar bet.
17:20
Come November, we'll see who gets
17:22
the pot.
17:24
In Austin, I'm Charley Sharp.
17:27
We are coming up on a break here on
17:29
Austin Signal, but we wanted to let
17:30
you know that the National Weather
17:31
Service has issued a heat advisory
17:33
for Travis Hayes, Williamson,
17:35
and most other counties in Central
17:37
Texas.
17:37
That heat advisory is in effect now
17:39
through tomorrow night at eight.
17:41
Some of the counties to our west are
17:43
not included in that advisory.
17:44
However, some counties to the east
17:46
will be under an extreme heat
17:48
warning. That's from 8 p.m.
17:49
Tonight to 8 p?m.
17:51
Tomorrow. We have more Austin
17:53
Signal coming your way after this
17:55
break. Stay with us.
17:59
This is Austin Signal, welcome
18:01
back.
18:02
Eric Byrd is a native Austinite,
18:04
civic strategist, and community
18:06
leader. He's also the executive
18:08
producer of the recent film,
18:09
Thoughts and Prayers.
18:11
He sat down with Black Austin Matter
18:13
host Lisa B.
18:14
Thompson and Richard J.
18:15
Reddick to reflect on growing up
18:17
here in Austin and how brilliance
18:19
can be found in the places we least
18:21
expect.
18:22
You are from Austin.
18:24
Straight from the east side.
18:26
So we gotta do the whole roll call
18:27
of your schools and I'll make really
18:29
rude comments as you speak.
18:30
So tell us where you went to
18:31
elementary school, middle school,
18:32
high school, the whole thing.
18:33
All right. So elementary was Norman,
18:36
the great Norman elementary.
18:38
The principal was principal Jones
18:40
at the time.
18:41
And we had,
18:43
I would say a very robust curriculum
18:45
that taught us who we are.
18:46
I'm very proud of the fact that they
18:48
did not shy away from, um,
18:51
enveloping us in our blackness and
18:53
our culture and our history.
18:54
And so I know who I am partly
18:56
because of their dedication to,
18:59
to teaching us who are.
19:00
Um, then I went to Dolby middle
19:02
school. We were opposite
19:04
the Pierce Pirates
19:05
Oh.
19:07
And, uh, Dolby was a great
19:08
experience as well.
19:10
Um, lots of love for that community.
19:12
Um, and then I
19:14
went to LBJ through.
19:16
Lassa.
19:18
Oh Lassa, okay, okay.
19:20
Started off at the science academy.
19:23
Oh, yeah, see, it was a
19:25
great program.
19:26
Started off at the Science Academy,
19:27
actually was the first graduating
19:29
class of Lawson.
19:30
Wow.
19:31
It's a remarkable institution.
19:34
It is, it was challenging.
19:36
The degree of rigor was
19:39
something I hadn't had before.
19:41
So it was a big challenge for me,
19:42
and I was an introvert, so I
19:45
kinda receded into my shell, but
19:46
there were enough supports for me to
19:48
graduate and get out the door.
19:49
A lot of people don't realize that
19:51
it is one of the best high schools
19:52
in the United States.
19:54
Yes. Not just in the state of Texas.
19:56
And this is a great chance for us to
19:57
give a little bit of Austin history,
19:59
because the science academy started
20:01
at LBJ and the liberal arts academy
20:03
started at the Johnston high school.
20:05
Wow.
20:05
And my wife was
20:07
in the second graduating class of
20:09
liberal arts academy.
20:10
And so they merged at LBJ
20:13
and then you have LASA and LASAs
20:14
now located at the former
20:16
side of the Johnston High School on
20:18
Arthur Styles Road.
20:20
So shout out to the,
20:22
what are they again?
20:24
I don't know, they're new, they are
20:25
current.
20:26
Raptors. Raptors, yes of course.
20:28
Raptor, yeah, like, short
20:30
arm.
20:30
I was focusing on his college right
20:32
now, so I'm sorry.
20:35
So yeah, we got these
20:37
connections together.
20:38
So it's better now, but shout out to
20:40
the Jaguars anyway.
20:41
And what about after that?
20:42
You're younger than us, so it wasn't
20:44
the Southwest Texas state.
20:45
I was the first
20:48
graduating class of LASA,
20:50
the first incoming class
20:52
of Texas State.
20:55
But right before us, it was
20:57
Southwest.
20:58
Nah, do you have any Southwest swag
21:00
that you walk around with?
21:01
You're just like, nah, I'm Texas
21:02
State, man.
21:02
You know, we were never Southwest.
21:04
Okay. We were the first class of
21:05
Texas State. So we kind of were
21:06
there proudly.
21:07
Okay, I love it.
21:08
He likes to begin things.
21:11
Yeah, he's up
21:12
Terrorism in many ways.
21:13
So, Lolita's Tacos, you down with
21:15
it?
21:15
Uh Oh, it's,
21:17
you know, it has been so long.
21:19
Man, I'm talkless.
21:20
I have to say.
21:21
Off the chain.
21:22
What are your favorite memories of
21:23
growing up in Austin?
21:25
Oh, my favorite memories
21:27
are playing with my cousins.
21:29
So I have a
21:31
big family. My grandmother had 14
21:33
kids and she was one
21:35
of 11.
21:36
And I think the last count were
21:38
at 52 cousins.
21:40
Wow.
21:41
Just on my grandma's side,
21:43
and so it was a lot of
21:45
us, you know, we were there after
21:46
school, especially during summers,
21:48
we would all get dropped off with
21:49
our bags with our play clothes in
21:51
it, and we would just roam the
21:53
neighborhoods and that was it was
21:54
the most fun I ever had.
21:56
We would play games, run from
21:58
dogs,
22:00
play football, basketball, all
22:02
the things, just go on walks
22:04
and it was it, was the best fun I've
22:06
ever had, so those are my fondest
22:07
memories in Austin.
22:08
It's so beautiful.
22:11
What are the changes in the city
22:12
that you're really happy about?
22:16
Austin's changed a lot and
22:18
I think the changes that
22:20
make me the most happy are
22:23
the opportunities for
22:25
folks. I think we have,
22:27
as a growing
22:29
city and as a bigger city now,
22:31
we have a lot of economic
22:33
opportunity.
22:35
There's opportunity for people to
22:36
make more money through tech and all
22:38
of the investments that have been
22:39
placed in the city. Yeah
22:41
Because usually we talk about
22:43
what disappoints us about the
22:44
changes, but I do want to hear about
22:45
that too.
22:46
What's the most disappointing part
22:49
of Austin's change,
22:52
changes in growth?
22:53
Yeah, along with the opportunities,
22:56
there's also the downside.
22:58
There are certain people who aren't
22:59
able to take advantage of those
23:00
opportunities.
23:01
And I think the most disappointing
23:03
part is the growth without
23:05
community input or
23:07
community investment.
23:09
I think when we do it right, it
23:10
looks like the community taking
23:12
part in the planning and the
23:14
execution of the growth.
23:16
But when we it without the people,
23:18
then we ultimately get harmed.
23:20
That was Austinite and civic
23:22
strategist Eric Bird speaking with
23:24
the hosts of the Black Austin
23:25
Matters podcast, Lisa B
23:27
Thompson and Richard J
23:29
Reddick. We're going to have a link
23:30
to that full episode in
23:32
today's podcast show notes.
23:34
That is it for us today here on
23:36
Austin Signal.
23:37
Thank you for making us part of
23:39
your day.
23:40
And we have more from the show at
23:42
kut.org slash signal
23:44
our Austin Signal team.
23:46
Is Rayna Sevilla, Alexandra Hart,
23:48
and Kristen Cabrera.
23:49
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
23:51
We will be back at the same time
23:52
tomorrow and we'll talk to you then.