Burritos Frontera is a concept that was born with my parents, with whom I had the great joy of growing up, loving, laughing, and eating. The story begins with them, when they met in Cd. Juárez and formed a beautiful couple in the 1970s. Toward the end of that decade, they had my brother, and as the surprise addition, I didn't arrive until the early 90s. During the 90s, it was a constant back-and-forth between Cd. Juárez and El Paso, TX, until one day we finally moved to the United States. And that is when the story truly begins.
In 1999, my mother, Maria Luisa Flores Acosta, was diagnosed with breast cancer and told that we would have approximately 3 to 6 months together because the cancer was already at stage 4. That didn't stop her, and when I was barely 6 years old, my mother taught me what it would be like to live a life without her, but very subtly.
While my father worked to support a family of 4, my mother took care of the house, her children's education, love, and above all, cooking. Those pastries during the holiday season, tamales, menudo, her crispy taquitos, and that chicken soup were among many teachings my mother shared for when the day came. Mind you, whenever she could, she always sent my father to work with a packed lunch, and that was one of the most beautiful things my father used to tell me about the two of them. Even so, she helped me with homework, soccer practice, and how to grow into a good man. So, 7 years passed, full of doctor visits, chemotherapy, radiation, unfair news, and cancer that had already metastasized to different parts of her body, but my parents never gave up. Seeing my father sacrifice so much for the love of his life taught me a lot about what life can be. At the start of 2007, my mother closed her eyes.
What followed would be an incredibly beautiful life alongside the best man in the world, my father, Don Angel Flores Loboguerrero.
Right after my mother passed away, my father became the strongest person in the world, because even while saying goodbye to the love of his life, he never let me see his pain. Working overtime to give me the life he wanted for me, and guiding me to do the right things that my mother had already taught me. Years passed like this, and my father became my best friend. My best friend who, at 65 years old, retired from his job and, that same year, graduated with a GED. Always with a smile. He was so amazing.
Time went on, and we realized that our language of love was food, so we started planning a restaurant together. So much so that he would let me cook dinners at home and invite friends over so we could all drink and eat together. Even on his 67th birthday, we made a dinner where we brought a mariachi band for my old man. That night was unforgettable. Over the next few years, our tradition was Saturday carne asada and Sunday burritos after mass. My goodness, what a treasure those days were. Right after picking up burritos and eating them while watching Liverpool, or his beloved Chivas de Guadalajara, or América, spending time together in the living room watching games, enjoying each other's company, and talking about what we would do one day: open a restaurant. But the 2020 pandemic arrived, along with my plans to move to San Antonio, TX, where I would later build my life between Austin, TX, and San Antonio, TX.
Time passed, and I kept learning. In every daily phone call to my father, I told him that I was getting closer every day to fulfilling our dream: a restaurant. But the summer of 2024 arrived, bringing liver cancer that struck so hard that by the time it was diagnosed, it had already metastasized to the stomach. A difficult trauma to process growing up had returned on September 8, 2024, when Don Angel Flores Loboguerrero closed his eyes to reunite with the love of his life, my mother.
Unfortunately, going through one of the most difficult situations of my life, Burritos Frontera officially launches, where little by little we are writing our own story with what was one day our greatest love.
