Michael Montenegro, the founder of Chicano Culture SB, brought Los Angeles Times Food Editor, former Vice TV reporter and “chingon” Daniel Hernandez to Santa Barbara last week for a rich discussion about food, culture and his diverse career as a journalist.
Montenegro hosted Hernandez for a 45-minute discussion at Center Stage Theatre and a reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Hernandez told his story of growing up on the San Diego-Mexico border and how he found his love of journalism at the library through reading and writing and accidently through his brother, who was taking a high school journalism course. He popped open the book one day and fell in love.
“I started reading and found it so fascinating that you could combine both a love of writing and a form of service to the community,” Hernandez told a crowd of about 70 people. “That connection clicked in my head really early that I think this is for me and this is what I really want to do.”
Hernandez and Montenegro bantered about on stage as the two walked through Hernandez’s career and some of his major stories.
He previously worked as a staff writer at LA Weekly, Mexico bureau chief, correspondent for Vice News, reporter for Styles at the New York Times, and in 2017 led a relaunch of the local site L.A. Taco. He has a degree from UC Berkeley and was editor of the campus newspaper, the Daily Californian.
He also wrote the nonfiction book “Down & Delirious in Mexico City.”
“I realized, I was 26 at the time, and I thought I am going to focus on young people,” he said. “I realized that very few young Latinos, Mexicanos, have these kinds of opportunities.”
While he was writing the book, the publisher fired his editor.
“They assigned my title to like a new young editor who had never been to Mexico, a guy from Ohio, and the guy was that guy who was going to read my manuscript,” he said.
The book was a success, however, and he said he focused on the Mexican diaspora, his self-journey, how Mexican he really was.
“I was often told in Spanish I was just a gringo, often being told I was ‘guero’ on the street, which means light-skinned, white in Mexico,” he said.
They use it as a compliment, he said.
“If they are trying to sell you something they will say ‘guero, guero, guero, come buy this,’” he said.
At the same time, he said he would basically be called a “cultural mutt” because he was from the United States.
“I took that as a challenge, and I took that as a way to assert myself in the story of Mexico,” he said.
He said the book inspired a lot of Mexican-Americans to check out Mexico for themselves.
“I am not a native of Mexico City,” he said. “This is a native’s narrative. It is very clearly and openly the narrative of someone who is visiting and who is a guest and ends up submerging in it.”
Hernandez talked about stories where he dealt with drug lords in Mexico, with a story for VICE titled “Inside El Chapo’s Drug Tunnel.”
He wrote about a punk and drag, gay-friendly club on the underground Eastside of Los Angeles, and the explosion of lowrider culture in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
“A lot of the stories that had been done on this topic had been based out of East L.A., Hernandez said. “But I wanted to live East L.A. alone and started going to cruises in Orange County and Riverside, Pomona and the San Fernando Valley.”
After months of research, he focused on a cruise that happens on Saturday nights on Van Nuys Boulevard. He researched the topic and realized that cruising goes all the way back to the drag race era of the 1950s. He said he tries to keep a real-low profile and not let people know the stories he is working on.
“A lot of the stories that I am interested in happen very early in the morning or very late at night, they are on the weekend and in weird places,” he said. “I tell people I can’t do anything Saturday night because I am working.”
He started talking to people and collecting stories.
“Every car has a story,” he said. “Every car that is loved by someone has a story.”
He said politically California liberals are moving away from gas as a fuel.
“The liberal discourse is get on your bike,” he said, adding that he is a cyclist.
“My dad owns vintage cars, and that was my entry point and that was my cultural connection to the story,” Hernandez said.
Montenegro has organized lowrider and bicycle events in Santa Barbara.
“You captured the essence of cultura at that time,” Montenegro said.
Montenegro wore a shirt that said “No Guacamole for immigrant haters.”
Hernandez, the food editor for the LA Times, was the former editor of LA Taco, which combined taco culture and any ethnic food culture with the news. His path to the top position was unconventional.
“I am probably the only known drug war correspondent turn food journalist in the history of journalism,” Hernandez said. “I am not ashamed about that.”
Most of his work is editing writers, but recently he shared his guacamole recipes before the Super Bowl. His recipe: guacamole, serrano chile, lime juice, smashed raw garlic, a little bit of cilantro and a little bit of sea salt.
He learned that from his time in Mexico, drinking beer and grilling nopal and carne. It’s spicy, it’s hot and no onions allowed.
The headline in the print story was: “It’s time to drop your onion and tomato from your guacamole.”
He said the recipe created a lot of controversy.
“A lot of people were upset,” he said. “I do read the comments. I don’t care. It does not offend me. I have dealt with criticism from the beginning.”
Hernandez said he also likes “accountability journalism to institutions that matter to us.”
He’s had people protest him in East Los Angeles. His coverage of drugs in Mexico, however, prepared him from whatever is to happen in the U.S.
“Do you know what I have been through in Mexico?” he said. “This is nothing.”
The response to his guacamole column generated responses from readers where people sent in their own recipes.
“There was a lady who said she put pear in her guacamole,” he said. “My little recipe is mild compared to some of the stuff we got.”
The event was the latest by Montenegro, who organized Chicano culture events in Santa Barbara and has a popular Instagram page, chicanoculturesb. Wine was provided by @bibijisb, food by @rascalsvegan and beverages by @licoresperros.us
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