Tejano Talks

Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Society & Culture

Empowering TEJANO men with the knowledge, mindset, and voice to build wealth, lead with purpose, and shape their future.

  1. 2d ago ·  Bonus

    Skipping the Bottom of Your Ballot? Here's What It Decides | Tejano Talks

    Skipping the bottom of your ballot? Those races pick who decides criminal charges, eviction cases, and flood projects in your county.   The district attorney decides how the law gets charged. The county judge and commissioners decide what gets built, funded, and fixed. The justice of the peace hears evictions, truancy, and traffic cases.This episode help you prepare for Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2026.   Hiram and Domingo sit down with four Democratic candidates at the 2026 Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi to talk about what these local offices actually do, and how each candidate says they would run theirs.   The candidates: Alfonso Salazar, Hays County Criminal District Attorney: https://www.alfonso4haysda.com Lesley Briones, Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 4: https://lesleybriones.com Dr. Letitia Plummer, Harris County Judge: https://www.drletitiaplummer.com Rodney Lee, Tarrant County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4: https://www.rodneyleeforjop.com   🎙️ More from Tejano Talks: • Texas is sitting on $28 Billion in won't spend, Sarah Eckhardt for Texas Comptroller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNk55x1O3l8 • Gina Hinojosa on her run for governor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzQWSZMkpo   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE — What a DA, a county commissioner, a county judge, and a justice of the peace actually decide — Charging discretion, second chances, and reviewing past convictions — Flood control, public health, and mental-health diversion at the county level — Bond money, hospital access, and how fast local government delivers — Court access for hourly workers who can't miss a shift — Trust between communities and the institutions that serve them   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:21 Alfonso Salazar — Hays County Criminal District Attorney 10:22 Lesley Briones — Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 4 24:08 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 24:23 Dr. Letitia Plummer — Harris County Judge 35:01 Rodney Lee — Tarrant County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE GUESTS   ALFONSO SALAZAR is the Democratic nominee for Hays County Criminal District Attorney. He served as a military police officer with the U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard, and State of Texas from 2008 to 2020, and holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and a law degree from Baylor Law School. On the show, he focuses on second chances, lowering recidivism, and a civil rights division in the DA's office.   LESLEY BRIONES is the Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 4 and is running for reelection. She grew up in Laredo, the daughter of teachers, taught 8th and 10th grade, and earned degrees from Harvard and Yale Law School. She previously served as judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4. On the show, she focuses on flood mitigation, county wages, and mental-health diversion.   DR. LETITIA PLUMMER is the Democratic nominee for Harris County Judge. A practicing dentist who began her career with the Harris Health System, she served on the Houston City Council in At-Large Position 4 from 2020 to 2025. On the show, she focuses on getting voter-approved bond projects built, regional collaboration, and health care access.   RODNEY LEE is the Democratic nominee for Tarrant County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4. He is a 22-year Navy veteran, a former juvenile probation officer, and a public school educator. On the show, he focuses on night court for hourly workers, evictions, and truancy.   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE HOSTS   DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.   HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.   Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok.   Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.   #TejanoTalks #TexasPolitics #Election2026

    Skipping the Bottom of Your Ballot? Here's What It Decides | Tejano Talks

  2. 4d ago

    There Was Never a Pure Taco — and That’s the Whole Point

    There was never a pure taco. José R. Ralat is Texas Monthly's taco editor — the first at an American publication Ralat has spent almost seven years tracing the origins of the best tacos. Lebanese immigrants brought a shawarma spit to Puebla and Mexicans adapted it into tacos árabes, then al pastor. Japanese and Mexican fishermen worked out the Baja fish taco together, tempura batter and all. Korean tacos came from Koreans and Mexicans living side by side in California. For his newest list he covered 14,000 miles and 437 taquerías to pick 25 of the best new or improved in Texas. Hiram and Domingo sit down with José R. Ralat to argue flour versus corn, explain why burritos are tacos, and make the case that a French tire company has no business telling Texas what tastes good. José R. Ralat’s work at Texas Monthly: https://www.texasmonthly.com/contributors/jose-r-ralat/ 🎙️ More from Tejano Talks: • Texas Has Two Supreme Courts. You’ve Never Heard of This One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnEN8wIku8&t=8s • Can Ericka Ledferd Fix Our Schools?: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m0_hNj6KcSk&pp=ugUEEgJlbg%3D%3D ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE — Why nearly every taco he traces turns out to be a record of somebody else's migration — How al pastor got from a shawarma spit in Puebla to a trompo in Monterrey — What he judges first — the tortilla — and why "flour or corn" is a trick question — What 14,000 miles and 437 taquerías cost him, including a shattered ankle — His account of being stopped by ICE and by a state trooper on the same reporting trip — The Michelin star a Mexico City taquería won and then lost — "New Tejano" cuisine, the term he coined in 2024 — and why a Puerto Rican gets to define it ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome — Texas Monthly's taco editor 01:16 Seven years on the beat; 1,000 taquerías for the book 03:05 Judging a lonchera against fine dining 04:14 How to judge al pastor: trompo, adobo, the slice 04:41 Lebanese immigrants, tacos árabes, and the road to al pastor 05:54 "Nothing is perfect until Mexicans get a hold of it" 07:03 The Baja fish taco and Japanese tempura 08:02 Fajitas: the cut nobody wanted 09:35 A shattered ankle in Veracruz 11:45 14,000 miles, 437 taquerías, 25 spots 12:22 "I had a run-in with ICE" 15:57 The criteria: tortilla, filling, salsa, story 17:39 Flour or corn — the trick question 19:15 Tradition versus innovation 20:55 Burritos are tacos 22:38 Korean tacos and fusion that works 24:17 His favorites from the 25 29:02 Austin versus San Antonio breakfast tacos 33:01 Big Red and barbacoa on Sundays 34:17 Mesquite, marinades, store-bought tortillas 37:49 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 38:20 Taco trends: birria, ribeye, wagyu 41:11 The taquería that lost its Michelin star 45:00 Why a French tire company can't judge Texas 46:59 "New Tejano" cuisine, coined in 2024 50:18 Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, and the gateway taco 52:49 The teacher who saw his breakfast tacos 56:26 Where to find José Ralat ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE GUEST JOSÉ R. RALAT is the taco editor at Texas Monthly — the first job of its kind at an American publication. He is the author of American Tacos: A History and Guide (2020) and won James Beard Awards in 2022 and 2023 for his Tex-Mexplainer column. In 2024 he introduced the idea of "New Tejano" cuisine alongside the magazine's 50 Best Tacos in Texas list, and his most recent project is "The 25 Best New (Or Improved!) Taquerías in Texas." He serves on the advisory board of Foodways Texas. Originally from Puerto Rico, he lives in Oak Cliff, Dallas. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOSTS DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years. HIRAM GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future. Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own. #TejanoTalks #Tacos #TexasFood

    There Was Never a Pure Taco — and That’s the Whole Point

  3. Oct 1 ·  Bonus

    “I Was Declared Dead”: Check Your Texas Voter Registration Now

    "I was declared dead about 4 months ago," Domingo Garcia says. His Texas voter registration had been suspended, and he had to get it reinstated.   His isn't the only registration with a problem. More than 1.2 million Texas voters are on the state's voter suspense list, according to KERA News. October 5 is the last day to register or update your address for the November 3 election. Being on the list doesn't mean you can't vote — but check now, not on Election Day.   Hiram and Domingo sit down, just the two of them, to talk about what's on the Texas ballot this November: the race for U.S. Senate between James Talarico and Ken Paxton, the governor's race between Gina Hinojosa and Greg Abbott, the cost of living, and why both hosts say turnout — not persuasion — is what decides Texas elections.   Check your registration, find your polling place, and see voting dates: https://www.votetexas.gov/   Registered online through a DPS driver's license transaction? A state error left tens of thousands of those applications unsent to counties. Confirm with your county elections office.   🎙️ More from Tejano Talks: • "No Te Dejes": Gina Hinojosa on running for governor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzQWSZMkpo&t=84s • Nathan Johnson Scored 67 Episodes of Dragon Ball Z. Now He's Running for Texas Attorney General: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3r7EO2nHU&t=29s   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   IN THIS EPISODE — Why October 5 matters, and how to check whether your registration is current — What the voter suspense list is, who ends up on it, and what to do if you're flagged — Talarico vs. Paxton for U.S. Senate, and why the hosts say the race comes down to turnout — Hinojosa vs. Abbott, and why Hiram and Domingo think the governor's race has tightened — Gas, groceries, rent, health care: how the hosts connect the cost of living to the ballot — Faith, values, and a direct appeal to young and conservative Latino voters — Hiram's closing case: elections change when turnout changes, not when minds do   KEY DATES Register or update your address: October 5 Early voting: October 19–30 Mail-ballot applications (eligible voters) must be received by: October 23 Election Day: November 3   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   CHAPTERS 00:00 What's at stake on November 3 00:37 Step one: register by October 5 01:19 "I was declared dead": check your registration 01:52 Redistricting and the fight over who votes 02:58 "My vote doesn't count": the 2018 Senate margin 03:23 Talarico vs. Paxton for U.S. Senate 05:49 Why some Latino conservatives still back Paxton 06:49 Diesel, tariffs, and the cost of living 08:31 Big money in Texas elections 09:51 Hinojosa vs. Abbott: why the governor's race tightened 11:46 The rest of the ticket 12:41 How to vote early and find your polling place 13:41 A message to people who don't vote 15:11 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 15:26 Marijuana, health care, and "small government" 16:38 Faith, history books, and Matthew 25 20:42 "Republicans win on fear. Democrats win on hope." 22:03 Take nine people to vote with you 22:26 Why turnout, not persuasion, decides elections   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   YOUR HOSTS   DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.   HIRAM GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.   Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok.   Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.   #TejanoTalks #TexasVotes #RegisterToVote

    “I Was Declared Dead”: Check Your Texas Voter Registration Now

  4. Oct 1 ·  Bonus

    "No Power Is Ever Given" — 5 Texas Democrats Running in 2026

    "No power is ever given. It is always demanded." That's Matthias Early, running for the Texas House the same year his father runs for Congress. Also here: a city councilman chasing a newly redrawn open seat, Opal Lee's granddaughter taking Juneteenth to Congress, and a Houston broker betting on "purple" politics. Five Texas Democrats, live from the convention floor in Corpus Christi. Justin Early for Congress (TX-31): votejustinearly.com Matthias Early for Texas House (HD-20): votematthiasearly.com Dan Barrios for Congress (TX-32): danbarriosforcongress.com Dione Sims for Congress (TX-25): dionesimsforcongress.com Melissa McDonough for Congress (TX-38): melissaforcongress.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome: live from the Texas Democratic Convention, Corpus Christi 00:21 Justin Early and Matthias Early: a father and son, both on the ballot 01:08 ★ Justin Early on affordability and his run for Congress in TX-31 02:49 ★ Matthias Early: from pre-med to a run for the Texas House 05:56 Regulating AI, and who new data centers are targeting 09:59 The data-center fight in Hutto, Taylor, and Temple 11:36 Operation Lone Star, ICE, and the immigration question 14:43 Justin Early's military background, from Fort Bragg to the Pentagon 17:08 Two campaigns, one family — and demanding a seat at the table 21:27 ★ Dan Barrios: a Richardson city councilman running for the newly open TX-32 22:50 From an 82-vote loss in 2019 to Richardson City Council 23:31 Why TX-32 is now in play, after redistricting 25:08 Term limits, dark money, and the "Take Back Congress" platform 28:04 "Breakfast with Barrios": bringing government back to the people 31:48 Meet the opponent — and a challenge to debate 34:27 ★ Dione Sims: Opal Lee's granddaughter, running for TX-25 35:37 Juneteenth, and the history most Texans were never taught 38:09 Mexico, slavery, and the Underground Railroad South 40:33 Redistricting, and why she decided to run herself 42:10 Coalition-building, and her first days in Congress 45:42 Getting Juneteenth passed: a case study in coalition-building 47:27 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 47:46 ★ Melissa McDonough: from professional flutist to candidate for TX-38 51:11 30 years in real estate, and why she calls Congress "checks and balances" 54:29 "Who are you working for?" — accountability and corporate money 57:50 "Backward town halls": McDonough's listening tours across the district 1:00:47 Purple politics, and talking with disenfranchised Latino voters 1:03:38 A border tour, SpaceX complaints, and a 400-page bill that stalled 1:06:05 Closing: five races, one election on November 3rd ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE CANDIDATES Justin Early (TX-31): Army veteran (Fort Bragg, Pentagon) and Dell cybersecurity architect. Faces Rep. John Carter (R). Matthias Early (HD-20): Justin's son, former EMT and ER tech, studied political science at UT Arlington. Faces Rep. Terry Wilson (R). Dan Barrios (TX-32): Richardson City Council member since 2023, running for an open, newly redrawn seat. Faces Jace Yarbrough (R). Dione Sims (TX-25): Granddaughter of Dr. Opal Lee, co-producer of Juneteenth Fort Worth since 2015, founder of Unity Unlimited. Faces Rep. Roger Williams (R). Melissa McDonough (TX-38): 30-year real estate broker, running for the seat Rep. Wesley Hunt left open to run for the Senate. Faces Jon Bonck (R). ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer  in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years. HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia, blending cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond.  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe, and tell us in the comments which of these five races you'll be watching closest. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own. #TejanoTalks #TexasDemocrats #Election2026

    "No Power Is Ever Given" — 5 Texas Democrats Running in 2026

  5. Sep 29

    Texas Has TWO Supreme Courts. You've Never Heard of This One

    Holly Taylor is running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It's the highest criminal court in Texas, and most voters have never heard of it.  The Texas Supreme Court handles civil cases. This one has the final word on criminal convictions in the state, including death penalty cases. Taylor has worked on both sides of the system. She spent 17 years as a Travis County prosecutor. Then she joined the Conviction Integrity Unit where she reviewed cases for wrongful convictions, including one that helped free a woman after more than 20 years in prison. "I actually had worked to put this person behind bars," she says, "only to find out later that she was completely innocent."  Today she's a defense attorney. Hiram and Domingo sit down with Holly Taylor, Democratic candidate for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9, to talk about what it looks like to reopen a case you won, why she says a wrongful conviction creates two injustices instead of one, and what she means by "smart on crime." Holly Taylor's campaign: https://www.hollytforjudge.com/ 🎙️ More from Tejano Talks: • Texas is sitting on $28 Billion in won't spend, Sarah Eckhardt for Texas Comptroller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNk55x1O3l8 • Can Ericka Ledferd Fix Our Schools?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0_hNj6KcSk ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE — What the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is, and why most voters have never heard of it — Why Texas is one of only two states with two courts of last resort — What a conviction integrity unit does — old evidence boxes, witnesses nobody called, science that has since changed — The case she prosecuted herself, then worked to overturn when the evidence fell apart — Why she argues a wrongful conviction creates a second injustice, not just one — "Smart on crime" versus "tough on crime," and what she says the difference buys you — Judicial independence, and why she says it matters who appoints Texas judges ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Who Holly Taylor is and what she's running for 00:44 What the Court of Criminal Appeals actually does 01:00 Why Texas has two high courts — and only Oklahoma does too 01:38 Free speech, digital privacy, and what's inside your phone 01:58 254 counties, 54,000 miles 02:32 25 years in criminal law, 17 as a Travis County prosecutor 03:09 Joining the conviction integrity unit 03:42 How a wrongful-conviction investigation actually works 05:05 The case she prosecuted — and later helped undo 07:18 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 07:38 Why she moved to criminal defense 08:19 How to reach the campaign 08:52 "No county is too red, no Texan is too conservative" 09:32 The second injustice — when the real predator walks free 10:09 "We need to be smart on crime" 10:56 Judicial independence and pressure on the courts 11:48 Vote November 3 — and go all the way down the ballot ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE GUEST HOLLY TAYLOR is the Democratic candidate for Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9, facing Republican John Messinger in the November 2026 general election. She has practiced criminal law for more than 25 years. She is board certified in Criminal Appellate Law. She holds degrees from Rice, UT Austin School of Law, and the LBJ School. She and her husband John have four children who attended Austin public schools. She was the Democratic nominee for Presiding Judge of the same court in 2024. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOSTS DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years. HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future. Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, and wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own. #TejanoTalks #TexasCourts #WrongfulConviction

    Texas Has TWO Supreme Courts. You've Never Heard of This One

  6. Sep 24 ·  Bonus

    Senator Cesar Blanco on Big Bend, Senator Royce West Endorses Talarico

    State Sens. Cesar Blanco and Royce West join Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia on Tejano Talks. Blanco on stopping the Big Bend border wall and El Paso's fight over AI data centers and water. West on 33 years in the Texas Senate, his Talarico endorsement, the body-camera law he authored. Domingo Garcia tells of how he was declared dead and purged from Texas voter rolls. 🎙️ More from Tejano Talks: • Jon Rosenthal on Fixing the Texas Railroad Commission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTQKpsZBECA&t=77s • Sarah Eckhardt for Texas Comptroller: [PASTE FULL WATCH URL ON THIS LINE — CONFIRM LIVE BEFORE PUBLISHING] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE — Why the Trump administration is building a border wall through Big Bend National Park, and the bipartisan pushback it's drawn — AI data centers, water use, and the fight over Meta's data center in El Paso — Sen. Royce West on the body-camera law that changed Texas policing, and 33 years representing Dallas in the Texas Senate — Building political coalitions "based on interest, not race" — The stakes of Texas's 2026 elections — the U.S. Senate race, redistricting, and a wave of voter-roll purges — How co-host Domingo Garcia was mistakenly declared dead by the Texas Secretary of State and purged from the voter rolls ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome: introducing State Sen. Cesar Blanco 00:41 Representing "the most beautiful part of Texas" — El Paso to Big Bend 01:23 The fight over the Big Bend border wall 02:31 Real border security vs. a wall that "doesn't work" 05:15 Protecting Big Bend's dark skies, ranches, and ecosystem 06:38 Winning back Latino voters who turned to Trump 07:28 Why economic policy, not immigration, is hurting Latino workers 10:02 The 2026 fight for West Texas: Cornyn, and the vacant TX-23 seat 13:15 AI data centers, water use, and the fight in El Paso 16:02 Looking ahead: insurance reform and broadband for West Texas 17:31 Chico's Tacos: the important questions 18:11 Closing: how to reach Sen. Blanco 19:08 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 19:42 Welcome: introducing State Sen. Royce West 20:36 33 years in the Texas Senate — and counting 21:38 From the DA's office to Austin: how he got here 22:24 Body cameras: the law that changed Texas policing 23:41 Racial profiling reports, and founding the University of North Texas at Dallas 25:10 Building coalitions "based on interest, not race" 26:38 Can Democrats win Texas in 2026? Talarico, Crockett, and the U.S. Senate race 31:54 Redistricting, a resigning Secretary of State, and "a legal army" for 2026 34:41 Domingo's own brush with a wrongful voter purge 36:21 Getting men back into the Democratic Party 37:47 Dallas Cowboys (obviously) 38:27 Closing: the barbershop, where politics happens ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT CESAR BLANCO Cesar Blanco represents Texas Senate District 29 (El Paso and far West Texas, including the Big Bend region), sworn in for his third Senate term in January 2025. He previously served three terms in the Texas House (District 76, 2015–2021), including as Democratic Caucus whip and chairman of the House Border Caucus. A U.S. Navy veteran and UTEP graduate, he serves on the Senate committees covering business and commerce, health services, and natural resources and water. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT ROYCE WEST Royce West has represented Texas Senate District 23 (Dallas) since 1993 — the second-most senior member of the Texas Senate. A former Dallas County assistant district attorney, he authored the state's 2015 statewide police body-camera law and legislation strengthening racial profiling reporting requirements, and led the effort to establish the University of North Texas at Dallas and its law school, the first public law school in Dallas. He was the Democratic runner-up in the 2020 U.S. Senate primary. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years. HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future. Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own. #BigBend #BorderWall #CesarBlanco #RoyceWest #TexasSenate #TexasPolitics #TexasElections2026 #TejanoTalks

    Senator Cesar Blanco on Big Bend, Senator Royce West Endorses Talarico

  7. Sep 22

    Texas Is Sitting on $28 Billion It Won't Spend: Sarah Eckhardt for Comptroller

    Texas is sitting on $28 billion it won't spend. State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, Democratic nominee for Texas Comptroller, joins Tejano Talks to explain what the Comptroller actually does — and why she says Austin is "stuffing money in a mattress" instead of investing in Texans. Hiram and Domingo talk with Eckhardt — former prosecutor, Travis County Commissioner, and first woman elected Travis County Judge — about the $28B Economic Stabilization Fund, Texas refusing Medicaid expansion, the paused HUB certification program, and her Republican opponent Don Huffines in the November 2026 general election. Learn more or get involved: saraheckhardt.com 🎙️ More from Tejano Talks: • Nathan Johnson on Running for Texas Attorney General: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3r7EO2nHU • Jon Rosenthal on Fixing the Texas Railroad Commission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTQKpsZBECA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE — What the Texas Comptroller's office actually does — tax collection, state purchasing, revenue certification, and more — The $28 billion Economic Stabilization Fund ("rainy day fund"), and Eckhardt's case for spending some of it now — Texas's decision not to expand Medicaid, in a state with the highest uninsured rate in the country — The Comptroller's Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) certification program, paused amid controversy and litigation — Meet Don Huffines: his business background, his 2022 primary challenge to Gov. Abbott, and his ownership of Jeffrey Epstein's former New Mexico ranch — Why Eckhardt says down-ballot races like Comptroller matter as much as the top of the ticket ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome: introducing State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt 00:47 From prosecutor to county commissioner to Travis County Judge 01:51 Six years in "the heart of darkness": Dan Patrick's Senate 03:48 The first woman elected Travis County Judge 05:22 What does the Texas Comptroller actually do? 07:14 The $28 billion Rainy Day Fund Texas won't spend 09:44 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 10:04 One-party rule, pay-to-play, and no-bid contracts in Austin 13:36 Meet Don Huffines, her Republican opponent 14:38 Huffines and Jeffrey Epstein's former ranch 16:37 "DOGE-ing" the Comptroller's office 17:33 Crony capitalism after 27 years of one-party rule 18:22 How to get involved, and why the down-ballot vote matters ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE GUEST Sarah Eckhardt represents Texas Senate District 14 (Austin/Travis County), where she has served since 2020. Before the Senate, she served five years as Travis County Judge — the first woman ever elected to that role — after eight years as a Travis County commissioner and eight years as an assistant county attorney. She holds a J.D. and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. She is the Democratic nominee for Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts in the November 2026 general election. Learn more: saraheckhardt.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOSTS DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years. HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future. Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own. #TexasComptroller #SarahEckhardt #DonHuffines #TexasPolitics #RainyDayFund #TexasDemocrats2026 #TexasElections #TejanoTalks

    Texas Is Sitting on $28 Billion It Won't Spend: Sarah Eckhardt for Comptroller

  8. Sep 17 ·  Bonus

    Can Ericka Ledferd Fix Our Schools? | Tejano Talks

    Get to know Ericka Ledferd, a candidate for Texas State Board of Education, in this exclusive interview on Tejano Talks. Fifteen people set the curriculum standards for every public school in Texas. Most voters can't name one. Ericka Ledferd who wants one of those seats. She is a mom, a twelve-year classroom teacher, and the candidate in District 9 — and on what she says is happening to Tejano, Black and Native history in Texas textbooks: "They are completely erasing." The board is nine Republicans to six Democrats, and she says three seats is all it would take: "We only need three Democrats and we flip them." Hiram and Domingo sit down with Ericka Ledferd — a mom, a twelve-year classroom teacher, and a candidate for the Texas State Board of Education — to talk about what the board actually controls, what she says is being cut out of Texas history books, where she stands on privatization and AI in schools, why the race at the bottom of your ballot may be the one that reaches your kid first — and, in Spanish, where her accent comes from. Ericka Ledferd's campaign: https://www.ledferd4texas.com/ 🎙️ More Tejano Talks: • Texas Is the 8th Largest Economy — So Why Is It Last in Health Insurance?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQnKL-WQTJc • Nathan Johnson Scored 67 Episodes of Dragon Ball Z. Now He's Running for Texas Attorney General: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3r7EO2nHU ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE — What the State Board of Education actually does — and why most voters can't name the person holding their district's seat — The three-seat math: how a 9–6 board becomes a different board — Her three pillars, in her words: privatization, the AI era, and curriculum "rooted in real opportunity" — Why she says Tejano, Black and Native contributions are being cut out of Texas textbooks — What twelve years in a Texas classroom shows you that a policy briefing does not — The Spanish-language exchange about her accent, and where she's originally from — The down-ballot problem — the race people skip on the way to the top of the ticket — What parents can do before November 2026 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 Who Ericka Ledferd is and what she's running for 00:42 "Number one, I'm a mom" — why she's running 01:20 Her three pillars: privatization, AI, curriculum 01:53 On what's being cut from Texas history books 02:26 "We only need three Democrats and we flip the board" 03:06 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm 03:25 What she says has hurt Texas kids most 04:05 Domingo asks about her accent — "I immigrated from Argentina" 04:56 What the State Board of Education actually does 05:31 Go down the ballot — the race voters skip 05:48 How to reach the campaign ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE GUEST ERICKA LEDFERD is a candidate for the Texas State Board of Education in District 9. She taught for twelve years at Royse City ISD, where she taught dual credit courses and served as ESL testing coordinator and director. She has also worked with East Texas A&M's TRIO Programs, Baptist Immigration Centers, and SMU's Upward Bound program, and brings more than fifteen years of board experience with community organizations. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in Spanish literature. She and her husband David have three children who attend or have attended Texas public schools. She is originally from Argentina. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOSTS DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.  @abogadodomingo   HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT TEJANO TALKS Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future. Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We're on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, and wherever you listen to your podcasts. Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own. #TejanoTalks #TexasEducation #SBOE

    Can Ericka Ledferd Fix Our Schools? | Tejano Talks
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Ratings & Reviews

5
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About

Empowering TEJANO men with the knowledge, mindset, and voice to build wealth, lead with purpose, and shape their future.

Information

  • Creator
    Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Tejano Talks
  • Show Website
    Tejano Talks

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