Behind the counter Maria Delores is chopping up slabs of carne asada for the next round of tacos. The steamy food truck smells of fresh cilantro, onions, carne asada and chicken.
“The food speaks for itself,” Delores said.
Delores manages a family food truck, or lonchero, called La Frontera. It’s one of three food trucks owned by the family, and is nestled on the corner of 16th street and Van Buren in a parking lot.
The name La Frontera is engraved on a cement pole at the front of the lot. Six folding tables with red tablecloths and bottles of hot sauce sit near the food truck. A blue tarp shades the tables where customers come to eat from 8 a.m. until 1 a.m. seven days a week.
The food trucks rely on word of mouth, media food reviewers, and yelp comments to attract customers.
Delores works at La Frontera six days a week. She said, “My uncle asked for help, so I left my job and joined the family business. I haven’t looked back since.”
It’s cash only and reasonably priced. For $5 you can buy a Sinaloan style hot dog. Based out of Mexico, a Sinaloan hot dog is wrapped in bacon and smothered in beans, guacamole, onions, tomatoes and mayonnaise. It is topped with queso fresco, with a handful of french fries on the side. They resemble Sonoran hotdogs, which are a less-cheesy version.
History of Food Trucks
Twenty-seven years ago, Donaciano Nunez decided to open a food truck in Central Phoenix selling the dishes he was raised on: shellfish, or mariscos, carne asada and tacos. His brother joined him and now they own three trucks, two of which are parked right next to each other on the Central Phoenix lot. Both brothers cook.
Thirteen years ago, Delores’ uncles brought her into the food truck business, which has roots that trace back to the late 1870s.
Before the rise of food trucks, there were food wagons. During the early days of America, tamales were a popular dish sold on the streets. According to Los Angeles Times writer Gustavo Arrellano, the people selling tamales would use wagons to sell several different types of Mexican dishes.
Once cars entered mainstream society and were affordable for most individuals, there weren’t as many people walking the streets anymore, slowing down a lot of street food vendors. With this invention came the rise of loncheros, commonly known as food trucks.
In 1974, Raul Martinez was credited with creating the first taco truck. He transformed an ice cream truck to a taco truck on the coast of California. What made his truck different from the rest was the fact that it was stationary. During that time, trucks would go from site to site, but Martinez established his truck’s location across the street from a bar. Eventually other food businesses joined the trend.
This industry has since boomed and, according to the website Statista, it was valued at $856 million in the United States in 2015.
Culture of the Customers
On a recent afternoon, Gladis Borques Enriquee climbs down the stairs of the marisco food truck and wipes off the tables with a wet rag. She wears a red hat and black apron covering her t-shirt and jeans, talking with a teenage customer buying takeout.
She’s an immigrant from Mexico and has been working here for four months, she says in Spanish. She loves it because she’s well-treated and the food tastes good, she says.
“Every kind of person comes here, different nationalities,” she says. “A lot of people like it, Mexicans, Americans, Cubans.”
The clientele is mostly Latino, although people of all ethnicities stand in line to buy the food. You’ll see a construction crew that’s getting off work, a family of five tumbling out of a black Suburban, a dad picking up to-go burritos and shrimp cocktails for everyone at home.
A couple from the North Valley, Dennis and Isabel Thompson, said that sometimes they drive 50 miles just to eat at La Frontera. Five years ago, they came across the food truck while driving and were impressed by the authenticity.
“It’s the best Mexican food in the valley,” Dennis says. They sit in metal chairs eating a carne asada burrito with beans on the side.
The Road to Success
The Nunez Family struggled with bureaucracy in establishing their business.
“We had a lot of challenges with the state because before this there weren’t businesses like this. We had to fight hard to have an established location,” Delores said.
In the past, Arizona has been known to have strict rules on where food trucks can serve food.
When food trucks became popular in Phoenix in the late 1990s, many residents complained about the trucks and wanted to regulate them requiring them to change locations often and restrict when they could operate.
According to The Arizona Republic, some of the initial concerns had to do with their lack of proficiency in English.
Nunez and other activist food truck owners reached out to neighbors and helped create a city ordinance that was passed in 1999. It allowed the food trucks to stay at the same location for longer periods of times and gave leniency to their hours of operation.
This positive outlook on Mexican food trucks has continued to grow over the years. In 2018, Doug Ducey signed a new bill to allow food trucks across Arizona greater freedom. The bill supports creating a statewide licensing framework for food trucks to establish a standard across the counties.
The Nunez family pays an annual fee of $610 for each food truck to the Maricopa
County. Vendors are required to provide the county with menu information, pictures of the truck, and route and location information. There are also extensive requirements in regard to the size of the food truck, the materials used and regularly scheduled inspections.
It’s been a long road in the fight for neighborhoods to sell their food, because people were uncomfortable with having so many Mexicans in the area, Nunez said. However, now there are a lot of Mexican establishments in the area.
“A lot of people come to our trucks because they like what kind of food we have to offer,” Nunez said in Spanish. “It’s only gotten busier over the years.”
Contact the reporter at ykenney@asu.edu.
