PSU alum connects art, queer community in Mis Tacones
Entering Mis Tacones feels like entering a celebration of color, love and community. Adorned with piñatas, tchotchkes, art featuring Walter Mercado — a Puerto Rican astrologer and cultural icon — and two intensely colorful murals depicting Mayan goddess Ixchel and the Aztec god Xolotl, Mis Tacones is the lovechild of Carlos Reynoso and Polo Abram Bañuelos.
“Whether it’s the food, the music, or the aesthetics, we want people to have an experience,” says Reynoso.
In creating Mis Tacones, he sought to embody his grandmother’s house in Mexico which was always filled with color and gave Reynoso a feeling of safety and security. “With our socially-engaged aspect of the restaurant, I want people to feel that — you’re in a space that’s hopefully special,” he says.
Reynoso and Bañuelos started Mis Tacones in 2016, just one year after moving to Portland from Los Angeles.
“Originally, Mis Tacones was an art project,” Reynoso says. “We set up in parking lots, [or] wherever would take us.” They even spent two summers set up next to a dumpster outside the Vegan Mini Strip Mall in Southeast Portland.
Whether it’s the food, the music, or the aesthetics, we want people to have an experience
As chef, Bañuelos would cook wearing 6-inch heels to match the vibe of the queer dance parties they worked. Mis Tacones translates to both “my big tacos” and “my high heels,” in a fitting tribute to the early days of their pop-up restaurant.
“Using that name for our business, it encompasses our intersectionality as queer brown people,” Reynoso says.
As an artist, Reynoso MFA ‘21, also uses his experiences at Portland State to inform what’s possible with socially engaged art.
“My approach to art has always been extremely community-led and inspired by experiences being out in the community,” he says. While in PSU’s Art and Social Practice program, Reynoso used the burgeoning Mis Tacones to develop a narrative project telling his family’s story as they recalled crossing the Mexican border illegally to see their family over and over again.
“For me, the Art and Social Practice program is the future of what art can be,” he says. “Your journey can be so many different things. You can be a business owner. You can be a social activist. There are so many possibilities.”
At Mis Tacones, this also looks like creating a safe and welcoming space for the Trans POC community. Reynoso and Bañuelos are part of the Trans POC Always Eat Free initiative, based on a similar pay-it-forward program at Oakland’s Gay4U.
“We have people from the community who come to depend on that free meal,” Reynoso says. “For example, we have one particular community member that comes in, they just recently got top surgery. So that meal is one less stressful thing they have to think about.”