Food trucks leverage border street food tradition into storefront businesses

Borderzine reporter Nicole Madrid explores how some El Paso entrepreneurs used food trucks to test and build their brick and mortar businesses. 
Story Script
FROM FOOD TRUCK TO STOREFRONT
5:42
NICOLE MADRID

NATS 1: [Fade in sounds of food truck generator humming. Keep low under TRACK, fade out under “options.” ]

TRACK 1: (:28)

THE HUM OF A FOOD TRUCK HAS BECOME THE SOUNDTRACK TO MANY EL PASO MEALS IN RECENT YEARS, ATTRACTING DINERS WITH THEIR UNIQUE AND AFFORDABLE OPTIONS. NOW, FOOD TRUCK OWNERS LIKE PALOMA TREJO ARE MAKING THEIR NEXT STOP A BIT MORE PERMANENT. ACT 1: Paloma Trejo (:07)
“We always had the idea of doing a store front, and we used the food truck as sort of like the vehicle to get us here.”

TRACK 2:
TREJO STARTED SWEET ADDICTION, EL PASO’S FIRST DESSERT TRUCK, IN 2012.

Putting the ‘her’ in hero: Why Hollywood needs superheroines

After 10 years and 20 films, Marvel Studios did the apparently unthinkable: released a woman-led superhero film. In the two months since its release, “Captain Marvel” has smashed box office expectations, raking in over $1 billion worldwide and having the third largest worldwide opening weekend ever for a superhero film behind “Avengers: Endgame” and “Avengers: Infinity War.”
What has been even bigger though, is the debate the film has set off. Because apparently some people still feel that films highlighting women – especially in the superhero genre – are unnecessary. While many fans praise the much-needed representation and empowerment for young girls and women who are fans of Marvel that the film provided, some took issue with Marvel’s decision to place a woman hero at the forefront.The film was subject to a troll campaign, with some trying – and failing – to boycott the film in order to tank its box office numbers. Others organized a smear campaign on film aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, leaving negative reviews of the film before it was even released.

Community Cats: How El Pasoans are using TNR to live alongside feral cats

Three years after the City of El Paso switched from its policy of euthanizing feral cats to instead supporting a trap-neuter-return program, El Pasoans are finding ways to coexist with community cats. Community cats, or feral cats, are ownerless cats that live outdoors. They make their homes, often in small colonies, in neighborhoods. While some can be friendly towards people, most are not socialized and cannot be adopted. “The cats are our neighbors, we just have to learn to live with them,” said Patti Hack, director of the Cats Spay/Neuter program at the Humane Society of El Paso.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Boots that began as Beto O’Rourke promotion ‘absolutely the funnest thing’

Nevena Christi says she wants to start a girl gang. The bosslady at El Paso-based Rocketbuster Boots, 115 Anthony St., is building a community of women, and it’s all centered on a pair of cowgirl boots featuring former-congressman turned presidential-hopeful Beto O’Rourke’s likeness. “It really is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Beto Boots,” Christi says. In September 2018, Christi was inspired to create a pair of boots featuring an image of O’Rourke after seeing a print that El Paso artist Partick Galbadon had made during O’Rourke’s unsuccessful Senate run. “So I was thinking well, what if it was like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?” Christi says, referring the popular movie about a group of women who share a pair of jeans.

Beto O’Rourke launches official presidential bid from the U.S. border with pledge to unite a divided America

Declaring that “El Paso represents America at its very best,” Beto O’Rourke officially kicked off his presidential campaign Saturday morning before a cheering hometown crowd about six blocks from a bridge to Mexico. About 4,000 people filled a two-block corridor on El Paso Street to see former congressman O’Rourke in his first appearance back home since announcing his candidacy in a video on March 14. “This community has offered me my inspiration in life and every single opportunity that I’ve had,” he said. O’Rourke’s presidential bid is historical for the borderland. If he were to win, he would become the first U.S. president from a border city.

Meet the Empower Squad: Chica Chat launches supportive movement for El Paso’s next generation of women in entrepreneurship

The El Paso business community is getting a fresh, feminine makeover thanks to the new organization Chica Chat. “We’re here to empower each other, and to help each other, and to provide a safe space for women,” Chica Chat treasurer Ashley Valdez says. The nonprofit organization brings together young women who are entrepreneurs to provide them with the tools and knowledge for success. President Zoë Gemoets says she was reading the book “Work Party: How to Create and Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams” by Jaclyn Johnson when the idea for the group came to her. “At the end of the book she asks, ‘what are you doing to help the women of your community?’” so I was like ‘damn, what am I doing?’