The Film
Backstreet to the American Dream is a modern-day look at the classic American Dream done through the quintessential 21st Century entrepreneurial endeavor – food trucks! This deep dive into the birthplace of the $2 billion dollar global industry, Los Angeles, profiles two trucks and juxtaposes the experiences of American entrepreneurs and Mexican immigrants. Indeed, these are very different operations in the same city: the gourmet burger truck, Grill ‘Em All, is the first season winner of The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network in 2010, and El Pescadito, a mariscos lonchera (seafood truck), that has been parking at the same swap meet in an immigrant neighborhood since 1982.
For Cleveland natives Matt Chernus and Chef Ryan Harkins, reality TV popularity quickly becomes overnight rock-star success and social-media stardom. Fans flock to the gourmet burger truck all around town. Contrarily, Doña Guillermina Vella Rio crossed the U.S. border illegally in 1977 to provide for her toddler son back home and does not use social media to promote her business. The grandmother, with salt and pepper hair, relies exclusively on blue-collar immigrants, many of whom have been customers for generations, to sustain her business.
Through rich and vibrant stories of everyday Americans, this powerful 90-minute feature takes the audience on a journey waved from intimate moments. You’ll consider pop culture and family traditions, formal and informal economies, and the unifying quest for the American Dream. Additionally, a four-minute animated open (in English/Spanish/and the indigenous Náhuatl language), scored with native sounds from handmade instruments, traces street food from South L.A. back to Ancient Mexico and reveals many Náhuatl names still used for food to this very day.
“I loved the film and so did my class. I highly recommend this joyous, inspiring film to any one 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
GUILLERMINA VELLA RIO
Doña Guille owns/operates the mariscos food truck, El Pescadito, and she’s been parking in the same immigratn 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 list 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. Noir, 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 in2008.
@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
Best know for his play, Zoot Suit and his movie, La Bamba, Luis is considered the father of Chicano film and theater.
@LuisValdez
The Crew
PATRICIA NAZARIO
Patricia is an international journalist with 18 distinguished recognitions, including
two Congressional Awards. Her career spans from hurricane coverage in Florida and New York during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to Argentina’s severe financial, social, and political crisis in 2001. Her outstanding coverage of Miami’s Cuban community won South Florida’s WLRN (NPR affiliate) its first award and prestigious statewide recognition.
Partially raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Los Angeles, Nazario was aware of the Mexican-owned mom-and-pop taco truck that parked in the same spot every night for years, and that they didn’t exist in the more expensive parts of town. When gourmet food trucks became a pop-culture phenomenon in 2008, Nazario noticed mostly gourmet, but some traditional trucks, as well, parking where Mexican-owned taco trucks were not commonly welcomed before. That observation provoked Nazario to get curious about negative stereotypes, social perceptions, and racial injustice.
Nazario is a UCLA alumna with a B.A. in Political Science. She moved to Buenos Aires in 2002 and freelanced during Argentina’s worst-ever social, economic, and political crisis. Nazario became bilingual by living and traveling extensively across South America, and she produced a large body of print and radio work. Nazario holds a Master of Science degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was in class the morning of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and spent the next year reporting its devastating effects on families in New York’s East Harlem community.
@PatriciaNazario.com
BILL ESPARZA
Bill is a foodie whose travels throughout 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 to his family’s hometown of Aguascalientes, Mexico,
The writing style of this professional musician, with passion for culture, has made Bill a go-to goldmine for magazines, newspapers, and food travel shows. Bill acquired his knowledge the old-fashioned way, firsthand experience on the streets and at market stands in Los Angeles, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, and writing about those experiences in his blog, @streetgourmetla.
Bill won a James Beard award in 2016, and in 2017 authored the book, L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People & Places.
@StreetGourmetLA
MITCH LEVINE
Mitch is a consultant to filmmakers and festivals around the world. He is also an award-winning film and stage director, a directing member of BAFTA and the Actors Studio, and was a Fellow at AFI and the Juilliard School.
Mitch presents filmmaking seminars around the globe, produced the Refugee Voices in Film Conference at the Cannes Film Festival and AFI’s Great Filmmakers series. He directed the current national tour of GOD HELP US!, starring Ed Asner, and is preparing We Are the Light, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, commemorating our journey through Covid.
Previously, Mitch served as a Special Representative to the United Nations.
@MitchLevine.net
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 is an illustrator, graphic novelist, colorist, animator and writer. This degreed engineer and former defense contractor is the creative genius behind the four-minute animated open, which she drew from scratch. Jules’ passion is indie comics. She’s the creator of Love, Joolz, a webcomic about weaponized femininity.
Jules 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, Jules lives and works in San Diego and enjoys surfing as often as possible.
@JulesRivera.com
“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