Season 4, Episode 7 : Eduardo “Eddie” Vega
If we both had shown up with a bag of tacos in hand, our platica would have run for hours.
Where we would have forgotten the whole interview and entered a taco platica, where we would
have talked in the language of taquito, and painted a culinary picture in the studio where like a
‘Water for Chocolate’ aroma fumes would have peeked and emerged out of our mics. Eddie
being a taco connoisseur and myself a cocinera estilo revolución would have perfected the
perfect taco. One that exist in the sanctity of our mothers and abuelas kitchens. I counter that
with the perfect puesto on the side of a windy dirt road in México, señoras greeting, slapping
masa on comals, filling with el guiso del día. Eduardo “Eddie” Vega, San Antonio’s current Poet
Laureate, storyteller, spoken word artist, and educator, is rooted in laughter, chistes, memory,
tacos, and verdades. Eddie reflected on how poetry first entered his life not as an academic
exercise, but as a necessity born from lived experience, barrio rhythms, and familia wisdom. We
traced the cultural roots that shaped his voice, the poets who opened caminos to him open, and
the urgencies that compelled him to write ‘Somos Nopales,’ a collection grounded in survival,
nourishment, and collective memory. Our conversation weaved between the sacred and the
everyday, from the responsibility of being Poet Laureate to poetry as a tool for community
healing, resistance, and preservation. Along the way, we detoured into taco theology (yes, carne
guisada and chorizo con huevo get their moment). Eddie offered powerful readings that embody
the spirit of Somos Nopales: about our gente rooted in resilience, rooted in orgullo, and
unapologetically ours. Todo se puede, somos nopales. (P.S.: so hungry after the interview, we
forgot to take the photo. Ya ni modo.
