{"id":469595,"date":"2026-10-18T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/469595\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:00:11","slug":"san-antonio-market-square-vendors-channel-spirit-of-chili-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/469595\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Market Square vendors channel spirit of ‘Chili Queens’"},"content":{"rendered":"

To celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary, Robert and Angelica Saldana left their home in Austin and drove 80 miles south to visit Market Square<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beneath branches of shade trees and strings of colorful papel picado, the couple strolled along a red brick plaza. They moved past vendors and a band playing \u201860s music until they arrived at an antojitos stand serving a Mexican specialty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One bite of a picadillo gordita brightened Angelica\u2019s dark eyes. The corn masa pocket stuffed with ground beef, papitas, shredded cheese, lettuce and tomatoes stirred a childhood memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reminds us of back home, of Monterrey,\u201d Angelica said on a recent Saturday. \u201cEver since I was a young girl, like 5 years old, I remember my aunt making gorditas on the street. The masa, the picadillo and all the trimmings. It\u2019s exactly like Monterrey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The woman behind the gorditas stand, Estela Saenz, 57, is a spiritual descendant of the chili queens<\/a>, working-class Tejana and Mexican entrepreneurs from a bygone era. The vendors, mostly women, sold chili con carne from rows of open-air tables in downtown plazas from 1860 until 1943.<\/p>\n

Saenz learned the craft from her late mother-in-law, Queta Gomez, a native of Nuevo Laredo, who ran the Market Square gordita stand for more than 20 years. Gomez called gordita-making \u201can art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hand that gordita to a customer, it must be perfect \u2014 shape, texture and taste,\u201d Gomez told the San Antonio Express-News in 2001<\/a>. \u201cGorditas are mas laboriosas (very labor intensive). You can\u2019t rush them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A food stall worker prepares gorditas for customers at a stand located in Historic Market Square in downtown San Antonio. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Gorditas \u2014 Spanish for \u201clittle fat ones\u201d \u2014trace their roots<\/a> to the Aztec empire. The practice of slicing open one side and filling the pocket with ingredients was popularized<\/a> in 19th Century Mexico.<\/p>\n

Elio Maltos, 61, savors the historic dish at Market Square, also known as El Mercado. A regular at the gorditas stand for more than 30 years, his ventures to the plaza include visits to neighboring vendors for mini tacos and agua frescas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come here all the time,\u201d Maltos said. \u201cWe have to get the gorditas. We have to get the tacos. We have to get the Mexican drinks. You just can\u2019t go wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

Under the watch of Saenz, the owner, a small, rotating army of (mostly) women runs the gorditas stand. Like the chili queens, they create their magic in the open air: molding corn masa by hand, frying it until it puffs like a small balloon, creating a slit and filling the pocket with ground beef, chicken, chicharron or bean and cheese, then adding lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese and guacamole.<\/p>\n

The smell of sizzling ground beef on the grill attracts customers. Between bites of a picadillo gordita, Maltos explained the appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go somewhere else and the gorditas taste a little different,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople try too hard to make them really delicious. But these are homemade. These are my wife\u2019s favorites. These are my favorites, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio native Elio Maltos bites into a gordita from a vendor while visiting Historic Market Square for a car show on Oct. 3, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

There appears to be no clear historical link between chili queens and gorditas. <\/p>\n

According to the book \u201cChili Queens, Hay Wagons and Fandangos,\u201d author Lewis Fisher details a range of food, in addition to chili con carne, prepared by 19th Century vendors in Military Plaza: \u201cfrijoles, tamales, enchiladas, chiles, rellenos, menudo, goat meat, tongue and fried eggs topped with chili sauce.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The earliest mention of gorditas in local media appears to be in a story from a March 21, 1941 edition of the San Antonio Evening News.<\/p>\n

An unnamed reporter described a dish that bears little resemblance to a modern day pocket: \u201cMexican restaurants appear to be selling gorditas nowadays: they are small round thick tortillas with grated cheese or mashed fried beans spread on top \u2026 Yum yum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later, the city forced the chili queens out of business. According to the San Antonio Light, health inspectors found a range of unsanitary conditions where the women worked at Haymarket Plaza, today known as Market Square. Among them were meat \u201ckept over 24 hours without refrigeration\u201d and a \u201ccat sitting in the cart calmly chewing on the coming night\u2019s menu.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foot traffic all but died in the plaza during World War II as produce wholesalers moved to a new market on Zarzamora Street. In the 1960s, merchants who remained in the plaza persuaded city officials to study reviving the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of architect Boone Powell<\/a>, Historic Market Square was reborn 50 years ago. Dedicated on Sept. 30, 1976, the renovated plaza<\/a> opened with pedestrian malls, stone fountains and food stalls, one of them a gordita stand.<\/p>\n

\"\"Visitors listen to live music and pass through the Historic Market Square in downtown San Antonio on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

An annual Gordita Cookoff launched in Market Square in 1982. Gorditas were included in \u201cThe Return of the Chili Queens Festival,\u201d which kicked off in 1985 and lasted for years until the festivities became part of Market Square Memorial Day Weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow gorditas at Market Square during fiestas became a staple,\u201d recalled former Market Square City Department director Bob Tagle, \u201cand many folks looked forward toward eating them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rachel Rodriguez began working with Queta Gomez at the gorditas stand in 1985. At the time, Rodriguez recalls, gorditas sold for $2. Now they sell for $12. The size of the masa pocket, she says, remains the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to pay our employees $50 a day,\u201d said Rodriguez, who runs her own catering business<\/a>. \u201cNow they want $160 a day. If you have three or four employees, that\u2019s $500 or $600. Rent is another $500 to $600. And the booth they set up for you, that\u2019s $75 a day and you still have to buy all your merchandise. You make some money but not a lot anymore like we used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Market Square vendors say they have yet to recover from the Zona Cultural Project<\/a> that tore up surrounding streets. Foot traffic remains slow, even on weekends.<\/p>\n

And yet, the 21st Century chili queens remain upbeat and grateful. Rodriguez married at 15 and did not finish high school. But she earned a GED and used income from selling gorditas, mini tacos and agua frescas to help put three children through college.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rachel Rodriguez runs Rachel\u2019s Gorditas, a food stall and catering service based out of the Historic Market Square in downtown San Antonio. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to do what I do,\u201d said Rodriguez, 68. \u201cI have five grandkids and I\u2019m still going to Market Square. Right now the money is not good because of the economy. But we struggle and stay there trying to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary, Robert and Angelica Saldana left their home in Austin and drove 80…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[159605,159606,17955,159607,159608,14621,82,5806,84,83,92,93],"class_list":["post-469595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-boone-powell","tag-chili-queens","tag-culinary","tag-el-mercado","tag-gorditas","tag-market-square","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-food","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-top-story","tag-typefeature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}