The Film
Backstreet to the American Dream follows entrepreneurs from vastly different backgrounds as they pursue their piece of the American Dream. Cleveland natives Matt Chernus and Chef Ryan Harkins burst onto the national stage when their heavy-metal-themed burger truck, Grill ’Em All, won the first season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race in 2010. Their victory propelled the business into reality-TV fame, a devoted social-media following and a booming brand.
Doña Guillermina Villa’s path looks nothing like theirs. She immigrated from Mexico in 1977 to provide for her toddler son back home in Nayarit. In 1982, she launched El Pescadito, a family-run mariscos lonchera in South Los Angeles, building a livelihood through family labor and deep community ties, on the same street corner, for decades.
Placed side by side, these stories expose the complicated relationship between survival and spectacle, asking how race, class, immigration and media visibility shape economic opportunity, whose work is celebrated and whose labor is overlooked.
An award-winning four-minute animated journey from Ancient Mexico to South Los Angeles, told in English, Spanish and Náhuatl, traces the cultural roots of street food across generations, connecting today’s entrepreneurs to a deeper history of migration, labor and cultural identity.
“I loved the film and so did my class. I highly recommend this joyous, inspiring film to anyone teaching ethnic studies at the university or secondary school level!”
– DR. MARK NAISON, Founder and Director • Bronx African American History Project
Dolores Huerta
Executive Producer, Medal of Freedom Recipient, and Social Justice Advocate. Learn how to get involved: Dolores Huerta Foundation
The Cast
CHEF RYAN HARKINS
Chef Ryan is a Cleveland native and co-founder of Grill ‘Em All, which is the first-season winner of the Great Food Truck Race TV show.
@GrillEmAll
DOÑA GUILLERMINA VILLA
Doña Guille owns/operates the mariscos food truck, El Pescadito, and she’s been parking in the same immigrant neighborhood since 1982.
@ElPescadito
SAL LOPEZ
Sal is a veteran actor, who started his acting career after landing a key role in the hit play Zoot Suit. He was born in Mexico and grew up in South Central Los Angeles. Sal is a founding member of The Latino Theater Company with numerous plays to his credit. Now, IMDB lists 137 actor credits for him.
Sal is known for roles in Full Metal Jacket, American Me, Batman v Superman, Selena, and TV shows, including: Westworld, Queen Of The South, and Too Old To Die Young. Some of his voice credits include: Grand Theft Auto, L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption, Dark Void, Call Of Juarez: The Cartel, and Grim Fandango.
@SalLopez
CHEF ROY CHOI
Chef Roy is the co-founder of the Kogi Korean BBQ Truck, which sparked the gourmet food-truck revolution in 2008.
@Kogibbq.com
RAUL ORTEGA
Raul owns/operates the Mariscos Jalisco food truck that’s been parking on Olympic Boulevard in Boyle Heights since 2000.
@MariscosJalisco.net
LUIS VALDEZ
Legendary playwright, filmmaker and theater director Luis Valdez is a pioneering force in American theater and cinema, celebrated for groundbreaking works including Zoot Suit and La Bamba.
@LuisValdez
The Crew
PATRICIA NAZARIO
Patricia Nazario is an award-winning bilingual filmmaker, journalist and producer with more than 20 years of experience across broadcast news, documentary filmmaking and live production. A graduate of UCLA and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, her work has earned five Golden Mike Awards, four L.A. Press Club Awards, Associated Press honors and three congressional recognitions.
Nazario wrote, directed, produced and edited Backstreet to the American Dream, which has screened at 14 film festivals and earned 18 awards and commendations. Executive produced by civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, the documentary is now nationally distributed to educational institutions through New Day Films.
BILL ESPARZA
Bill Esparza is a journalist, professional musician, author and food writer whose travels across Latin America have made him a leading expert on Latin American cuisine. He fell in love with Mexican cooking at his grandmother’s table and was introduced to street food on childhood trips back home to Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Esparza acquired his knowledge about street food the old-fashioned way, through firsthand experience on the streets and at market stands in L.A., Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, and writing about those experiences.
Esparza won a James Beard Award in 2016, and in 2017 authored the book L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People & Places.
MITCH LEVINE
Mitch Levine is an award-winning film and stage director whose work spans the screen, theater and live performance in the United States and internationally.
A graduate of the American Film Institute, Levine was the recipient of the first James Cameron Fellowship in Directing. His career includes directing and producing independent film, documentary and theatrical projects through AntiMatter Entertainment.
As Editorial Consultant on Backstreet to the American Dream, Levine brought his experience in narrative structure and visual storytelling to the film’s development. He conceptualized the four-minute animated open that traces street food through time from Ancient Mexico to South L.A.
MARTIN ESPINO
Martín’s heritage reaches back to Sonora and Durango, Mexico, as part of the indigenous Yaqui and Tepehuáno people. He is a Sound Worker (using principles of Neuroscience for beneficial well-being or healing), and the creator of “Ancient Mexico Vibration Experience” for the hearing impaired.
Martín is based in Los Angeles. In the tradition of his ancestors, Martín hand-carves his musical instruments, and he performs locally, nationally and internationally as a soloist and with his acclaimed ensemble. Martín is also a Master Outreach Teaching Artist and facilitates Sound Bath Meditation events. @MartinoEspino.com.
GEOFFREY BEATTY
An animator, designer, artist, and educator, Geoff began his career at the MIT Media Lab, creating animation for research into artificial intelligence and robotics. Through his animation practice, Germantown Studios, Geoff has worked on a wide variety of projects for clients as diverse as Google, Target, Hermès, Hasbro, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Geoff is currently Assistant Professor of Digital Arts at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. @GermantownStudios.com
JULES RIVERA
Jules Rivera is an illustrator, graphic novelist, colorist, animator and writer. A trained engineer and former defense contractor, Rivera served as lead illustrator for the film’s four-minute animated open, which she also drew from scratch.
Rivera’s passion is indie comics. She’s the creator of Love, Joolz, a webcomic about weaponized femininity. Rivera contributed to the Eisner Award-winning Puerto Rico Strong (Lion Forge) and Ringo Award-winning Where We Live: A Benefit for the Survivors in Las Vegas (Image Comics). She is the co-creator of sci-fi graphic novels Spectre Deep 6 and 200.
A prolific creator and avid surfer, Rivera reimagines sci-fi designs for TV and film.
“Food movies are untouched. Hollywood has not discovered the genre and has not yet touched on the drama of the food industry. Unlike the Hollywood feature film, Chef, the indie doc, Backstreet to the American Dream, keeps the drama in the kitchen. It captures the drama of presenting food, and the drama is real! Kitchens should be Hollywood’s new frontier.”
-Robert Cantu, Film Director • Corpus Fusion