First time we came in to Texas
we just crossed the river in
tubes, like air tubes and air boat.
You know we made it to some place in Texas.
Second time was when
we cross the river on the horse.
You know we pay somebody again
to cross us the river
and we don't made it that time.
Nine or ten times you know.
One time we walked to
maybe nine days to San Antonio
just walking in mountains and hills and all kinds of,
you know.
One of these times the immigration stop me
and take me back to Mexico
and he told me, "If you cross the river again
"I'm going to put you in jail."
Two weeks later I just come back again
and the same officer they stopped me again
they put me three months in jail.
Carne asada.
My name is Pedro Leyva.
I'm 51 years old
and I'm in the Taco Shop and bar
in Oxford, Mississippi.
I'm original from Mexico,
Rio Grande Zacatecas, Mexico
and I am citizen in United States.
The first time I came into United States was in
1984, you know we made it to Texas,
some place in Texas
and worked for maybe three months
and they pay us real low, real cheap
about $13 a day.
Later on I went to Georgia
and other states too, New York.
The reason I came to United States
because we don't have jobs in Mexico
and my brothers, they helped me to come in.
We just decide to stay in Oxford, Mississippi.
We saw some Spanish people coming in every year
and we decide to put like a store
'cause the Spanish communities they
looking for some kind of service
to send the money to Mexico
and central America or whatever.
Mundo Latino was a grocery
and the services for sending money.
(speaking in foreign language)
Ramon Rafael,
he used to work in another restaurant
I think in the square
and my wife, Maria, she started working over there
in the same restaurant
and they are friends, you know.
And Ramon talk to me about
put a taqueria, you know tacos.
And he told me that he would help us to do it.
He knows how to cook and everything.
We just get a little bit of money
and we started in a taqueria.
Its been be long time
and he's still here
cook for us.
(speaking in foreign language)
The Americans, like students
and girls and that kind of stuff,
they ask us about a name.
Say, "Hey lets go to the sick Taco" or
you know, "Taco Shop".
We just like the name.
We just put the name
and Taco Shop and Bar.
(food sizzling)
Taco Shop really is a taqueria.
Its taqueria means in Mexico, is like
we selling all the tacos,
different kinds of food.
Tortas, burritos, quesadilla.
(food sizzling)
We got a steak taco.
We got a sausage taco.
We got different kinds,
chicken and that stuff.
The favorite is the tongue taco.
And some people don't
like it, the tongue taco, the head taco.
In my case, I think its a good one you know.
(food sizzling)
It's good, so you wanna try it?
Cow tongue?
Give me a (mumbles)
burrito.
- [Pedro] A good day is we probably have 200 people a day.
Sometimes we have a 100.
Some days we don't have many people, like 80.
And at lunch time, maybe 40 people.
Pero you know,
some people still come and eat
but they don't have no place to sit and eat.
They leave and come back in maybe 20 minutes
when the people leave, they finish eat.
The other people coming in.
(food sizzling)
A lot of people say
they like Taco Shop best.
But I think its the flavor, the prices.
We gotta put good prices for the customers.
(speaking in foreign language)
We have to find a good location,
a big location for more people can come and eat.
But I'm not scared to do that because
I think all these people they like
the flavor and that kind of stuff.
And I'm not scared to put a big business
because we gonna do good
and I think we got a pretty good future.
I doing pretty good on my business
and my family they happy too.
Because if we don't come into the United States,
we can't have what we got right now because
in Mexico, if we stayed in Mexico
its difficult to live.
This is the opportunity country.
Everybody got opportunity to do whatever
make a business, you know
everybody can do it.
(Mexican guitar chords)
Americanos, morenos, hispanos...
(speaking in foreign language)
You know everybody is welcome to
Taco Shop.
(Mexican guitar chords)
- [Man] We still have a lot of African ways,
a lot of dishes we cook,
a lot of words we say that people don't understand.
There's Muslim and African mix.