L.A. Taco, a Website, Brings the Flavor of a Fractured City

Try to walk a half-mile in Los Angeles without seeing a taco. It may be impossible in most of the roughly 469 square miles of this sprawling city. Latinos are the largest ethnic group in the city and the vast majority trace their roots to Mexico.

In the humble taco, some see a symbol of the city, so it seemed obvious to call a website dedicated to the city’s news and culture L.A. Taco.

“The taco is the unit that binds, it’s the most natural unit that represents who we are as a city and as a culture,” said Daniel Hernandez, the editor of L.A. Taco, which now posts daily stories on the city’s food, history and subcultures. “It’s the unifier at a time when we’re so fractured as a country and we’re in a city that is so structurally fractured.”

For years, the website was largely a repository of photos and anecdotes about the city’s tacos and street art, hosting an annual taco festival. But earlier this year, Hernandez, whose previous employers include The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and Vice, took over. He turned the site’s focus to news at a time when many local news media outlets are struggling.

“We wanted to do something that talks to and about street-level LA,” he said. “We’re a black and brown town, and we want to build on that and talk about that.”

“Our premise is that in LA everyone is at least 5 percent Mexican,” added Hernandez, who grew up in San Diego and has spent much of his life straddling Mexico and the United States. “It’s neither good or bad, it just is.”

The site is particularly popular with Latinos and Asians in their 20s and 30s, who are the children or grandchildren of immigrants and who grew up comfortable with multiple cultures.

“That demographic — multiethnic — that is already the mainstream of California,” Hernandez said. “That train has already left the station. Instead of falling into the very easy traps of Balkanization, the vibe we’re reaching for shows beyond the very narrow view of us as freshly arrived victimized immigrants.”