Americans are crazy about tacos, no matter what form they take. They were introduced to the United States in the early 20th century and today you can find them everywhere. What’s even harder to imagine is that the now ubiquitous taco truck didn’t appear in Los Angeles until the mid-1970s.

The Aztecs are believed to have eaten tortillas, but whether they invented the taco is pure speculation. We know that street vendors sold tacos in Mexico City in the 18th century, and when Mexican migrant workers immigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, their wives brought their native cuisine with them, including recipes for tacos and tamales. These resourceful women sold their tasty fare to street workers from wagons and handcarts called “loncheros,” or lunch boxes. A few decades later, when car culture took over Los Angeles (a major hub for Mexican immigrants), loncheros took to the streets and sold lunches at construction sites.

The story of the taco truck, however, begins in 1969, when immigrant Raul Martinez made a life-changing decision. Martinez and his wife Lupe came to Los Angeles from Mexico City, where he worked as a dishwasher and later as a butcher. Lifelong soccer fans, Martinez and Lupe attended games at MacArthur Park. When they realized there was no place nearby to buy food, they brought their own grill and prepared carne asada tacos to enjoy during the game. When soccer players tried Martinez’s tacos, he came up with the idea of ​​selling them from a truck.

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From ice cream truck to empire

In 1974, Martinez bought an ice cream truck, which he converted into a taco truck. Martinez ignored his friends’ warnings that such a crazy idea would never work, and he, Lupe, and his father took to the streets of East Los Angeles selling soft-shell tacos al pastor, a Mexico City staple that apparently hadn’t really been sold in LA before.

At midnight, Martinez parked his taco truck, named La Güera (slang for a blonde woman), outside a popular bar in downtown LA’s Latino district and sold $70 worth of al pastor tacos and his (now famous) sweaty salsa on the first night. La Güera was a smashing success, and sales rose to $150 a night.

Six months after opening his taco truck, Martinez had saved enough money to buy a small building to serve as a kitchen for his taco truck business. It also eventually became Martinez’s first real restaurant, which he named King Taco. In 1978, Martinez bought another property called King Taco #2 and turned it into a take-out restaurant.

Today, 22 King Tacos remain in operation and the taco truck culture continues to grow across the U.S. After his death in 2013, Martinez was praised for his innovation, his philanthropy for the East Los Angeles community, and his promotion of Mexican cuisine and culture. Unfortunately, the original taco truck, La Güera, was destroyed in a fire, but Martinez’s culinary legacy lives on.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.