Zócalo's Connecting California
Finding a Civic Identity, Con Mucho Sabor
Fresno's Minor League baseball team – the Grizzlies – is changing its name every Tuesday to the Fresno Tacos. Really. It's just the latest example of a taco mania that's sweeping through Fresno and offering a point of pride to a community that has been among California's poorest.
By Joe Mathews • • 4m ListenRapidly growing Fresno is California's fifth largest metropolitan area. Fresno has long struggled with poverty and blight, but things are changing, and help is coming from an unlikely source: the humble taco. There's taco madness in the Central Valley's largest city, and that's spurring local pride and bringing the population together in way that hasn't been seen before. Joe Mathews says it should be the start of a civic conversation about Fresno's future.