The Laredo Taco Company has released a Brownsville episode of the “Made Right Here Road Trip” featuring Tejano artist Veronique Medrano and host Mando Rayo taking viewers to La Pulga at the 77 Flea Market for a taste test of their personal Laredo Taco favorites.
The episode features native Brownsville recording artist Medrano, and Rayo, a self-described taco journalist, eating their favorite tacos at a Laredo Taco location and then touring the 77 Flea Market to see the essentials for making tortillas and the salsa for tacos being sold, like Rayos favorite ingredient chile de arbol.
“I think Brownsville is the perfect combination of Mexico and the U.S.,” Medrano, who was born and raised in the city, says in the video. “Truly, if we’re going to have an actual physical place where you can feel it happening around you, it’s at La Pulga.”
The video is a running commentary about what makes Brownsville such a great place for tacos and everything else Mexican-American.
“A lot of what makes up this area is not just the cultural aspect but the food,” she says. “It’s almost like oral history but also physical history in a sense with the food itself.”
“Yeah,” says Rayo, “You’re passing down secrets generation to generation.” To which Veronique adds, “That love and the richness of the culture and everything that we do.”
Medrano said she sees the Made Right Here video series as another big step in her career, with Laredo Taco Company now all over Texas and expanding.
(WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5-wX7LNyvYQ)
“To have them see my work in Tejano music and to have them say ‘we want her as part of this program,’ and then sharing it on YouTube and other platforms that are available to everyone, it’s a big deal for me and my career because they see the work that I’m putting in for my founder and for my industry,” she said.
Medrano bills herself as a regional Mexican and South Texas Country Americana recording artist with three full studio albums including “Loteria,” “Mi Ano Dorado” and “Encantadora,” numerous singles and a large digital presence.
She recently was highlighted by the Grammys as one of the “Top 5 LatinX Mexicana artists making a way for themselves in Country Music, blending those two together like the way Freddy Fender did, so to have that acknowledgement all across the board, I see so much for my career because I’ve worked so hard at it and I’ve done all of this work while living in Brownsville and still having my base of operations out of this city,” she said.
Then she added: “That says a lot about there’s nothing wrong with where you’re from. There’s no limit to the possibilities of what you can do even if you’re from a town that’s maybe far from what would normally be considered a big city like Austin or Dallas or Los Angeles and still getting recognized by these bigger organizations while I’m still based out of the Valley. … I’m just really excited about what’s to come.”
The Laredo Taco Company has released a new episode every week on “Taco Tuesday” since the beginning of October and will continue to do so into November.
“ It is a privilege to represent the Rio Grande Valley in the ‘Made Right Here Road Trip’ series,” Medrano says in a news release about the Brownsville episode. “I was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. I am from Brownsville and have lived throughout the Valley since my college days. I am honored to showcase the beauty and authenticity of Brownsville. I am proud of the Rio Grande Valley, and I like reminding people that the Q-Taco came from here!”
