User:Rdetrick1/New sandbox

Overview

Origin and Raul Martinez

In 1969 Raul Martinez and his family left Mexico City, and migrated to the United States of America. After his migration, he struggled with finding genuine Mexican-style food. By 1974 Raul Martinez purchased an ice cream truck from the 1950s and reworked it into a mobile taco stand. The summer of that year Raul Martinez parked his truck outside a bar in east Los Angeles. That first night, Raul Martinez earned $70. In 1975 Raul Martinez bought and opened a space, that would be used for culinary purposes, in Cypress, California. This location is one of the only surviving original restaurants left in Los Angeles. The years that followed included mobile expansion and more restaurants across California. Raul Martinez died in 2013. Upon Martinez's death, a past employee who was acquainted with Raul since the 80's said "Before he came around, nobody used to sell pork tacos [al pastor], so he started to sell that at midnight outside of a bar on Brooklyn, which is now called Cesar Chavez Avenue. We didn’t have food trucks back in the ‘70s -- back when he started” Within the United States, Raul Martinez revolutionized something that has become regular yet treasured in today's America.