{"id":187030,"date":"2026-04-06T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187030\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T12:03:10","slug":"a-20-year-old-taqueria-reflects-the-evolution-of-parkchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187030\/","title":{"rendered":"A 20-year-old taqueria reflects the evolution of Parkchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Taqueria Tlaxcalli in Parkchester, a burrito has become more than just a menu item.<\/p>\n

The dish \u2014 recognized by Beli Eats and Yelp awards \u2014 has helped turn the family-run Mexican restaurant into both a neighborhood staple and a destination for visitors from around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had people come in from France, Australia \u2014 we had a couple come in from Australia,\u201d said Rosa Gomez, who helps run the business with her family. \u201cWe had a group of tourists come in from Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant is preparing to celebrate 20 years in Parkchester this September, located along a busy stretch of Starling Avenue. Gomez, who was born and raised in the neighborhood, said its diversity is a major reason she continues to call it home.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Parkchester in the Bronx was originally built with housing policies that excluded nonwhite residents
\n
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 helped transform the area into a more inclusive community
\n
Parkchester is now one of the Bronx\u2019s most diverse communities according to census data<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a big melting pot,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cYou have Boriquan neighborhoods. You have Bengali neighbors, and I love it because sometimes when you come up the stairs, you smell their cuisine, what they are cooking, and it\u2019s really good. It\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the 2020 census<\/a>, Parkchester\u2019s population is 35.1% Black, 33% Hispanic, 25.4% Asian and just under 3% non-Hispanic white.<\/p>\n

That diversity stands in stark contrast to the neighborhood\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

Steven Payne, director of the Bronx County Historical Society, said Parkchester was initially developed with exclusionary housing policies. Built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the complex \u2014 later known as Parkchester South Condominiums \u2014 opened in 1940 with rental practices that barred nonwhite residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very hard, if not impossible, for most applicants of color to get a space in Parkchester,\u201d Payne said.<\/p>\n

He added that while some Puerto Rican or Cuban applicants who could pass as white were able to secure housing, many others were denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were residents of the Bronx who were involved in groups like the NAACP, CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality and other civil rights organizations who would continually contest the Jim Crow policies of Parkchester and continually found the barrier there,\u201d Payne said.<\/p>\n

For Yesenia Caballero, co-owner of Taqueria Tlaxcalli and Gomez\u2019s mother, those barriers were personal.<\/p>\n

She recalled traveling as a child from the South Bronx to Parkchester for shopping and movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t welcoming,\u201d Caballero said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t welcoming at all. They looked down at you because of your race and because of where you came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned housing discrimination, Parkchester began to change. Over time, it evolved into the diverse community it is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s different. It\u2019s so much diversity,\u201d Caballero said, adding she is proud to have moved to the neighborhood 32 years ago to raise her family and open a business.<\/p>\n

For Gomez, that transformation is reflected in the customers who walk through the restaurant\u2019s doors each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity now just speaks of the world that we\u2019re living in,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cNothing belongs to one person. It belongs to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Taqueria Tlaxcalli in Parkchester, a burrito has become more than just a menu item. The dish \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[2296,2024,25,128,231,36776,9,24,12,63,10387,129,131,130,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-187030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-in-the-community","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-bronx","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-in-the-neighborhood","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-ron-lee","19":"tag-the-bronx","20":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","21":"tag-the-bronx-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}