Building A Latino
Rida Hamida
Enlarge this image toggle caption Rida Hamida Rida Hamida
But it wasn't until Orange County  Calif.   residents Rida Hamida and Ben Vazquez  created #TacoTrucksAtEveryMosque that someone tried to explore the political potential between Muslims and Mexicans in the United States with  their  shared foodways. The two put on events that are exactly what the hashtag promises. A lonchera parks at a mosque and serves free tacos after a religious service that includes a talk urging Latino-Muslim unity. Visitors feast on tacos of carne asada and chicken prepared by a halal-certified butcher.
It's a perfect meeting ground for Latinos and Muslims in Orange County  a long-conservative place that has changed dramatically since  Hamida  and Vazquez attended high school there during the 1990s. Today  Orange County is majority-minority; Latinos make up about a third of the county's 3.2 million residents  while an estimated 120 000 Muslims live there.
"We're our neighbors  but we don't know one another " says  Hamida . "We go and fight for justice at protests and stand side by side  but we really don't know our stories."
 Hamida  and Vazquez first met at a rally in 2015  and realized they shared a passion for immigrant rights because of their families: Vazquez's parents are from the Mexican state of Zacatecas  while Hamida's family is Palestinian. Their first collaboration happened in 2016 with "Adventures in Al-Andalus " a lecture series in high schools that sought to emphasize the commonality of Latinos and Muslims; it also included a voter registration drive at a mosque and a culinary tour of Little Arabia  an Anaheim neighborhood that's the largest Middle Eastern enclave in the United States outside of Michigan.
"It wasn't enough to take the [Muslim] community out of their space and bring [it] to a Latino-centric space "  Hamida  adds. "It's about bringing that taco truck model that everyone is demonizing  and embracing it and welcoming it to our space."
 Hamida  assured Muslims that the meats were fully halal  with no contamination. "We had halal markets cut it taco style and pre-marinate it  to ensure it was halal "  Hamida  said. Meanwhile   she  says  she  had to convince some Latinos who went to the event that "eating a halal taco doesn't make you Muslim. [People] thought they were compromising their own faith!"
The kickoff event drew more than 400 people. (Hamida's dad ate 10 tacos). More than 1 400 people attended the second happening  held a couple of weeks later at the Islamic Society. Since then  #TacoTrucksAtEveryMosque has traveled as far south as Baja California  in Mexico  and as far north as Sacramento  where they held an event last week. All told   Hamida  estimates  they 've served 7 300 people â and nearly 29 000 tacos â at the seven events  they 've held so far. ( They 've also inspired imitators.)
The taco tour quickly got national attention â a profile on NBC Nightly News  stories in the Los Angeles Times and PRI's The World. It even got the attention of Gutierrez: On Instagram  he posted a video of  Hamida  with the message  "I tried to warn you people. #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner has mutated into #TacoTrucksatEveryMosque!"
The next taco tour won't happen until May. In the meantime   Hamida  and Vazquez are preparing high school Latino-Muslim unity lectures where students will snack on halal tacos. "At the end of the events  they're not talking about how amazing the halal tacos are  although the tacos are great  " Hamida  points out. "They're saying  'Now  we can fight together.' "
Enlarge this image toggle caption Rida Hamida Rida Hamida
But it wasn't until  [TGT]  that someone tried to explore the political potential between Muslims and Mexicans in the United States with   [TGT]   shared foodways. The two put on events that are exactly what the hashtag promises. A lonchera parks at a mosque and serves free tacos after a religious service that includes a talk urging Latino-Muslim unity. Visitors feast on tacos of carne asada and chicken prepared by a halal-certified butcher.
It's a perfect meeting ground for Latinos and Muslims in Orange County  a long-conservative place that has changed dramatically since  Hamida  and Vazquez attended high school there during the 1990s. Today  Orange County is majority-minority; Latinos make up about a third of the county's 3.2 million residents  while an estimated 120 000 Muslims live there.
"We're our neighbors  but we don't know one another " says  Hamida . "We go and fight for justice at protests and stand side by side  but we really don't know our stories."
 Hamida  and Vazquez first met at a rally in 2015  and realized they shared a passion for immigrant rights because of their families: Vazquez's parents are from the Mexican state of Zacatecas  while Hamida's family is Palestinian. Their first collaboration happened in 2016 with "Adventures in Al-Andalus " a lecture series in high schools that sought to emphasize the commonality of Latinos and Muslims; it also included a voter registration drive at a mosque and a culinary tour of Little Arabia  an Anaheim neighborhood that's the largest Middle Eastern enclave in the United States outside of Michigan.
"It wasn't enough to take the [Muslim] community out of their space and bring [it] to a Latino-centric space "  Hamida  adds. "It's about bringing that taco truck model that everyone is demonizing  and embracing it and welcoming it to our space."
 Hamida  assured Muslims that the meats were fully halal  with no contamination. "We had halal markets cut it taco style and pre-marinate it  to ensure it was halal "  Hamida  said. Meanwhile   she  says  she  had to convince some Latinos who went to the event that "eating a halal taco doesn't make you Muslim. [People] thought they were compromising their own faith!"
The kickoff event drew more than 400 people. (Hamida's dad ate 10 tacos). More than 1 400 people attended the second happening  held a couple of weeks later at the Islamic Society. Since then  #TacoTrucksAtEveryMosque has traveled as far south as Baja California  in Mexico  and as far north as Sacramento  where they held an event last week. All told   Hamida  estimates  they 've served 7 300 people â and nearly 29 000 tacos â at the seven events  they 've held so far. ( They 've also inspired imitators.)
The taco tour quickly got national attention â a profile on NBC Nightly News  stories in the Los Angeles Times and PRI's The World. It even got the attention of Gutierrez: On Instagram  he posted a video of  Hamida  with the message  "I tried to warn you people. #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner has mutated into #TacoTrucksatEveryMosque!"
The next taco tour won't happen until May. In the meantime   Hamida  and Vazquez are preparing high school Latino-Muslim unity lectures where students will snack on halal tacos. "At the end of the events  they're not talking about how amazing the halal tacos are  although the tacos are great  " Hamida  points out. "They're saying  'Now  we can fight together.' "