Aliza Daniel, left, and Veronica Daniel, right, have made Black people tacos a central part of their cuisine at home.
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Topline:
Black families have for years put their own flavorful spin on the classic Mexican dish, using turkey and certain seasoning to create something unique to the culture.
Why it matters: As Mexican and Black communities lived near each other in big cities in the 50's, the intermingling of cultures led to a new take on the tradition.
Why now: As the next generation comes of age, 'Black Tacos' is having a moment, although Barbara “Sky” Burrell, the owner of Sky’s Gourmet Tacos in Mid City has been cooking that style for more than 30 years. "As years go on…you begin to experiment with this and that, and you understand cultures, and black and brown start coming together,” she says. “We break bread and it's like, ‘oh, these are different and they're good.’”
Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, Veronica Daniel remembers her mom Aliza making tacos differently than the ones she ate in a traditional Mexican restaurant.
Instead of just piling diced onions, cilantro, meat and freshly made salsa onto two lightly grilled corn tortillas, Aliza had her own approach.
“I didn't really realize that it was so culturally different until I became an adult,” says Daniel, who is now interning with LAist Studios.
#290: Today we're doing one of our favorite thing on HTLA: explore – and eating – LA's rich food scene. Every heard of Black tacos? Or as some people refer to them: Black people tacos? Well, they're a thing, especially in LA, and they are delicious. Think traditional soul food spices and braised meats with all the Mexican fixins' that Angelenos love.
#290: Today we're doing one of our favorite thing on HTLA: explore – and eating – LA's rich food scene. Every heard of Black tacos? Or as some people refer to them: Black people tacos? Well, they're a thing, especially in LA, and they are delicious. Think traditional soul food spices and braised meats with all the Mexican fixins' that Angelenos love.
Daniel’s mom uses ground turkey in her tacos instead of traditional Mexican meats like carne asada or al pastor, and lightly sprinkles an assortment of toppings to her tacos — shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, cheddar cheese, sour cream and, more recently, avocado salsa — inside an juicy, oiled-up corn tortilla shell.
But the key difference is the seasoning. Aliza uses the Trader Joe's version of Lawry’s salt, a blend of salt, herbs and spices, like paprika, that has been a staple in Black households for decades. Plus, she adds cumin.
Aliza Daniel adds shredded lettuce to her signature ground turkey taco.
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Aliza moved to Los Angeles from Texas when she was 10 years old with her mom and five siblings, and she recalls her mother making classic soul food dishes growing up.
But once Aliza started her own family in L.A., she tells her daughter she started making tacos in the home. “For me, cooking and making Black tacos was a way of having something healthy for my children, but also something that they could pick from … they could choose what they wanted inside of it,” Aliza explains.
Fixings to make the tacos Veronica Daniel grew up eating.
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Aliza Daniel adds taco seasoning to ground turkey.
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In fact, Black families in cities like L.A, Houston and Chicago have been making these traditional Mexican quick meals in their own unique way since the 1950s, mostly because of the close proximity of Black and Mexican communities. Those in the know affectionately refer to the dish as Black people tacos or, simply, “Black tacos.”
“For me, it's like the culture — it’s how you make it, what you do with it and the spirit behind it,” Aliza says. “I think, especially for African Americans, for us, food … it’s about family. It’s how we all come together. I’m not only cooking for myself, but family and anyone else who walks in that door.”
All about the seasoning
“I think the Black taco really is an intermingling of two cultures that have come together using traditional elements from Mexican food,” explains Debra Freeman, a food anthropologist, “and African Americans are taking some foods that they're renefamiliar with and cooking techniques and putting a spin on it.”
That “spin,” she says, is typically applied to the protein, which could be anything from oxtail to chicken or even sweet potatoes but, like Aliza’s tacos, ground turkey is a typical go-to. The seasoning is also essential. Unlike a traditional Mexican taco where a lot of the flavor and heat comes from the salsa, the meat is what gives a Black taco some kick.
Veronica Daniel and her mom Aliza add fixings to a ground turkey taco.
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“So the emphasis really is on how the meat is seasoned … cayenne, garlic powder, onion, onion powder, and braising the meats instead of searing the meats,” she adds. “That's actually really important.”
“My mom started getting the tortillas and I started makeshifting,” Burrell says. “I would get up to the stove with a chair … and prepare things my folks would never think about eating at the time.”
When she first began to play around with ingredients, she stuffed tacos with foods she knew: baked potatoes, fried chicken, eggs and spices like oregano and cumin.
One favorite recipe includes chicken breasts baked in corn flakes. “Add some good seasoning, strip it up, put in that taco,” she says.
Fusion cooking
Freeman likens the evolution of the Black taco to American barbecue, which has its origins in Virginia with enslaved pit masters.
“There are so many different types of barbecue that spring up as African Americans migrate,” Freeman says. “People kind of have these fusions of barbecue and they're using different ingredients.”
Barbara Burrell, owner of Sky's Gourmet Tacos, prepares her signature shrimp taco.
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Sky's Gourmet Tacos has been open on Pico Boulevard since 1992.
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This fusion cooking is at the heart of Black culinary culture in the U.S., Freeman says. As enslaved Africans were forced to do most of the cooking in homes in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was about adapting to a foreign land while trying to preserve traditions from home that had been left behind.
“They are, without knowing it, creating a new cuisine, right? Let's say yams to sweet potatoes … Yams were in West Africa, very prevalent,” says Freeman. “That was not the case in America, but [sweet potatoes were] similar enough that they knew how to prepare it, they knew how to work with it, how to season and flavor it.”
A ‘moment’ for Black Tacos
Freeman acknowledges that Black tacos are having a moment but notes the blend of cultures has happened in various cities over the last several years.
“I think that this has been happening in certain pockets of America in the Black community, but there wasn't necessarily a name for it,” Freeman says. “It was just something that was going on at home, in kitchens and folks were adapting tacos to what ingredients that they enjoyed and preparing it in a way that they were more familiar with.”
The signature shrimp taco at Sky's Gourmet Tacos.
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Sky’s owner Burrell has been at it most of her life, including more than three decades professionally. Long recognized, she says, as the “taco girl,” Burrell has been running her restaurant on Pico for 32 years.
Sky’s tacos are deeply grilled, and include a variety of meats and her special “Sky’s Sassy Sauce.” At her restaurant, you can try the shrimp taco that helped put the eatery on the map, plus salmon tacos, turkey tacos and even filet mignon tacos.
When Burrell finally opened up her own restaurant in 1992, there were definitely skeptics, especially among her Latino neighbors in Mid City. She says she attracted a lot of curious questions as a Black woman selling tacos — and ones stuffed with turkey, no less.
Barbara Burrell welcomes customers to her restaurant.
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“And all of a sudden you've got this taco and it's a turkey taco and you say ‘who eats a turkey taco?,’” she remembers with a laugh.
But after a while, she says, the turkey tacos — and the other varieties — caught on.
“As years go on … you begin to, you know, experiment with this and that, and you understand cultures, and black and brown start coming together,” she says. “We break bread and it's like, ‘oh, these are different and they're good.’”
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story said Aliza Daniel uses Lawry's salt on her tacos. She uses a version of the seasoned salt sold by Trader Joe's
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published March 31, 2026 5:55 PM
This April 2025 image shows an agency logo on a wall inside a LAHSA Commission meeting.
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Topline:
The Los Angeles region’s homelessness agency missed a Tuesday deadline to submit a federally required annual audit of the agency’s financial records, which could jeopardize its federal funding.
The agency's interim CEO blamed the blown deadline on leadership turnover and competing demands on the finance team.
Why it matters: LAHSA manages hundreds of millions in federal dollars for homelessness services across L.A. County. Missing the audit deadline could put that funding at risk.
LAHSA officials say the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — or HUD — seems understanding. LAist reached out to HUD for comment but hasn't received any.
How we got here: An outside auditor said LAHSA was supposed to turn over its financial statements around December but didn't submit them until March. The auditor's draft report also flags a "significant deficiency" in how LAHSA detects accounting errors — a finding LAHSA may contest.
What's next: On Tuesday, LAHSA officials said the single audit would be filed within the next few weeks.
LAHSA also said it has tapped accounting firm KPMG to overhaul its financial systems. The agency's interim CEO acknowledged that the current system "is not working at all."
The Los Angeles region’s homelessness agency will miss a Tuesday deadline for submitting its federally required annual audit of the agency’s financial records, which could jeopardize its federal funding.
LAHSA executives blamed the delay on a “perfect storm” of leadership changes and competing priorities within LAHSA’s finance department, including an L.A. County review of LAHSA’s delayed payments to contractors.
“Our staff made a good-faith effort to meet the deadline,” interim CEO Gita O’Neill said at a LAHSA Commission meeting Tuesday. “However, over the past year, we've experienced several transitions. As a result, we could not get all the required materials to the auditors as quickly as needed.”
Each year, LAHSA, like all non-federal agencies and organizations that get substantial federal dollars, is required to hire an outside auditor to determine whether it’s properly tracking and reporting the taxpayer funds it manages.
LAHSA’s single audit report for last fiscal year was due March 31, nine months after fiscal year 2024-2025 ended. Earlier this month, LAHSA officials said they were on track to meet the March 31 deadline.
Justin Measley, lead auditor for the firm CliftonLarsonAllen, had warned that LAHSA was months behind schedule turning over records.
At a meeting Tuesday, Measley explained that because of LAHSA’s earlier delays, the firm would need at least an additional week to complete a quality-control review process.
“We’re moving at the fastest pace we possibly can,” Measley said.
On Tuesday, LAHSA officials said the single audit will be filed “at the earliest possible opportunity,” within the next few weeks.
Federal funds at risk
LAHSA manages hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year, through grants from the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
O’Neill said the agency has been communicating with HUD officials regularly about the missed audit deadline and is “hoping for understanding.”
Janine Lim, LAHSA’s deputy chief financial officer, said she’s also been talking with HUD.
“They seem amenable to our situation and to our stated timelines,” Lim said. “So, we are hopeful that this will be a good outcome, despite having missed the deadline.”
HUD did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment Tuesday.
What went wrong
Measley said LAHSA’s financial statements should have been turned over around last December, but LAHSA only submitted them this month, after blowing through multiple extended deadlines.
Measley said he contacted LAHSA’s governing commission about the overdue documents March 3.
He said he also previewed his firm’s findings, noting one “significant deficiency” in its draft report, related to LAHSA’s timeliness in detecting accounting errors.
LAHSA could contest those findings, officials said. That would add additional back-and-forth between the homelessness agency and accounting firm before the audit report is ready to file.
Justin Szlasa, a LAHSA commissioner who chairs the audit subcommittee, told LAHSA’s CEO he’s concerned that there was no time provided for LAHSA’s governing body to review the audit report.
“Next year, we will absolutely do that,” O’Neill responded. “I think this year, we were under the gun, and so we felt it was the most important thing was to get it uploaded on time.”
O’Neill said the agency hired accounting firm KPMG to help modernize LAHSA’s financial systems, with a focus on its contractor payments.
“We have an outside, trusted voice to help us create a system that works going forward because the system we have is not working at all, in finance,” O’Neill said.
President Donald Trump has escalated his efforts to influence American elections, signing an executive order that the White House says seeks to create a list of confirmed U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state and use the U.S. Postal Service to "verify" mail ballots are for voters.
Why it matters: Trump has long railed — baselessly — about widespread illegal voting by noncitizens and mail voting fraud. The executive order comes as Trump's Justice Department is seeking sensitive voter data from states, and is engaged in more than two dozen lawsuits for that data. The administration claims it needs the data to enforce states' voter list maintenance. The order also comes as Trump pressures Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul that would impose new voter identification and documentation requirements. That bill is stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition and the legislative filibuster.
What's next: Trump said he believes the order is "foolproof." But election experts have already said the order — which was first reported by The Daily Caller — would face immediate legal challenges.
Updated March 31, 2026 at 20:44 PM ET
President Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to reshape American elections, signing an executive order that seeks to create lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state, and instructing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he believes the order is legally "foolproof." But election experts said the order was unconstitutional, and voting rights advocates and Democratic state officials quickly pledged to sue to block the order from going into effect.
A previous executive order on elections, signed about a year ago, has been blocked by federal judges who said the president lacked the constitutional authority to set voting policy.
The Constitution says the "Times, Places and Manner" of federal elections are determined by individual states, with Congress able to enact changes.
"This Executive Order is a disgusting overreach from the federal government and shows how little the Trump Administration understands about election administration," Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state of Arizona, said in a statement Tuesday. "We will not let this order stand without a fight and will meet the federal government in court," he added.
Arizona is among more than two dozen states Trump's Department of Justice has sued over access to sensitive voter data.
The Trump administration claims it needs the data to enforce states' voter list maintenance. Federal judges in three states have dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuits in those states.
In another case, a DOJ official admitted in court last week that the department plans to share that voter data with the Department of Homeland Security, to run it through the so-called SAVE system to search for noncitizens.
Trump has long railed — baselessly — about widespread illegal voting by noncitizens and fraud associated with mail ballots.
The new executive order — which was first reported by The Daily Caller — takes aim at both.
It instructs the Department of Homeland Security, working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to "compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State."
The order then "requires the USPS to transmit ballots only to individuals enrolled on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List, ensuring that only eligible absentee or mail-in voters receive absentee or mail-in ballots," according to a White House fact sheet.
Trump's executive order claims that "additional measures are necessary" to secure voting by mail, a form of voting he has used himself — including last week — but also falsely maligned for years. In the 2024 general election, nearly a third of all voters cast mail ballots.
The Postal Service should also review the design of mail ballot envelopes to protect "the integrity of Federal elections," the order says.
Collectively, the provisions would be a significant change to how mail ballot programs are currently administered in American elections, which are largely carried out by state and local officials.
"Our government's citizenship lists are incomplete and inaccurate. The United States Postal Service is overburdened and inadequate. This combines a car crash with a train wreck," the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded voting access and sued to block Trump's 2025 election executive order, said in a statement.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, wrote on his blog that the order is likely unconstitutional. And regardless, he added, "the timing here makes this virtually impossible to implement in time for November's elections. … It seems highly unlikely any of this could be implemented for 2026, even if it were not blocked by courts."
The order comes as Trump pressures Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul that would impose new voter identification and documentation requirements.
That bill is stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition and the legislative filibuster.
The Supreme Court is also expected to rule this year on whether Mississippi should be allowed to count mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received by election officials after Election Day.
The legal challenge, which could have sweeping implications for mail voting nationwide, was filed by the Republican National Committee and Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Copyright 2026 NPR
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Federal agents stand guard outside of a federal building and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in downtown Los Angeles during a demonstration in June.
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Topline:
Federal immigration officials arrested more than 14,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area in 2025 — the majority of whom had no criminal record, according to an LAist analysis of new data from the Deportation Data Project.
What’s new: In 2025, federal officials arrested 14,394 people, up from 4,681 the year prior. Forty-six percent of people arrested had criminal convictions, 15% had pending charges and 39% had no criminal charges or convictions.
Why it matters: Federal officials have highlighted the arrests of the “worst of the worst” in the immigration raids that began in June, including "murderers, kidnappers, sexual predators and armed carjackers,” but haven’t published the details of the number of people who had criminal records.
Federal immigration officials arrested more than 14,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area in 2025 — the majority of whom had no criminal record, according to an LAist analysis of new data from the Deportation Data Project.
The data project, an initiative between UCLA and UC Berkeley, publishes federal data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
In 2025, federal officials arrested 14,394 people, up from 4,681 the year prior. Forty-six percent of people arrested had criminal convictions, 15% had pending charges, and 39% had no criminal charges or convictions.
In a December news release, the Department of Homeland Security said it had arrested more than 10,000 people in the L.A. area since immigration raids began in June of last year, including "murderers, kidnappers, sexual predators and armed carjackers,” but did not publish details of the number of people who had criminal records.
The data from the Deportation Data Project shows that arrests in L.A. spiked in June, and about two-thirds of people arrested that month had no criminal convictions.
More than 313,000 people were arrested by ICE nationwide in 2025, according to an LAist analysis.
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the agency has not “verified the accuracy, methodology or analysis of the project and its results” and said “this only reveals how data is manipulated to peddle the false narrative that DHS is not targeting the worst of the worst.” The spokesperson said 61% of people ICE arrested across the country either had criminal convictions or pending charges.
The agency has regularly published press releases identifying people they have arrested and who they have called “the worst of the worst,” including from the raids in L.A. in June. But an LAist investigation and reporting from other outlets has found that some of the people on those lists already has been in custody and were serving lengthy sentences.
Like many vendors along the El Salvador Corridor in Pico Union, Maria Godoy sells goods alongside others on the sidewalk of Vermont Avenue between 11th and 12th streets.
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Topline:
Small businesses struggling financially in the neighborhoods of the neighborhoods of Koreatown, Pico Union, Westlake, MacArthur Park and Highland Park could qualify for to help pay the bills.
About the grants: Individual brick-and-mortar businesses can qualify for grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, while street vendors can receive about $3,000, according to city officials. A total of $400,000 is available through the program, and applications are now open. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez announced the program’s goal, describing it as a way to support locally owned businesses navigating rising operating costs, shifting customer patterns, and the impacts of recent wide-scale events, like the ongoing immigration raids, along with wildfires, and broader economic uncertainty.
Who is eligible: To qualify, businesses must have a valid Los Angeles business license and have been operating in Council District 1 since December 2020, with some flexibility for street vendors. They also need to show they’ve been financially impacted by any largescale events, like the COVID pandemic, immigration enforcement, or the broader economy. Funding will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, with applications remaining open until funds run out.
Read on . . . for information on how to apply.
Small businesses struggling financially have another program they could qualify for to help pay the bills.
The program is for businesses in Council District 1, which includes the neighborhoods of Koreatown, Pico Union, Westlake, MacArthur Park and Highland Park.
Individual brick-and-mortar businesses can qualify for grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, while street vendors can receive about $3,000, according to city officials. A total of $400,000 is available through the program, and applications are now open.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez announced the program’s goal, describing it as a way to support locally owned businesses navigating rising operating costs, shifting customer patterns, and the impacts of recent wide-scale events, like the ongoing immigration raids, along with wildfires, and broader economic uncertainty.
Small businesses struggling financially have another program they could qualify for to help pay the bills.
Who is eligible?
The program is open to independently owned businesses and street vendors located within District 1.
To qualify, businesses must have a valid Los Angeles business license and have been operating in Council District 1 since December 2020, with some flexibility for street vendors. They also need to show they’ve been financially impacted by any largescale events, like the COVID pandemic, immigration enforcement, or the broader economy. Businesses that changed owners can also apply if they’re essentially running the same operation.
How can the money be used?
Grants can be used for daily operational expenses, including rent, payroll, utilities, overhead and other business costs. Roochnik said the funding could also help businesses cover missed rent payments.
Who is running the program?
The grants will be distributed in partnership with the PACE Business Development Center and New Economics for Women. The two organizations provide support to small and immigrant-owned businesses across Los Angeles.
How will recipients be selected?
Funding will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, with applications remaining open until funds run out, Roochnik said.
What’s the goal?
Hernandez said the program is meant to help stabilize neighborhoods that have been affected by immigration enforcement and economic hardships.
“These small businesses are the backbone of our neighborhoods,” she said, adding the funding is meant to help them “stay open, keep workers employed, and continue serving our communities.”
Naomi Villagomez Roochnik, CD1 communications director, said the announcement was made during a press conference at Delicias Bakery and Some, a longtime Latina-owned business in Highland Park. The neighborhood has experienced significant rising rents due to gentrification and the location was meant to highlight the kinds of businesses the program is meant to support.
Is this a one-time program or part of a larger effort?
The grant is part of a pilot program, with the possibility of it expanding depending on demand and outcomes. The council office has launched similar aid efforts in the past, Roochnik said, such as food distribution and rental assistance.
Businesses that may not qualify for this specific grant can be connected to other resources, according to Roochnik, including the city’s legacy business program, which is for businesses operating for at least 20 years.
