Mitote Food Park

BY CHRIS VOMVOLAKIS

LOCATED IN THE SOUTHWEST section of the city, Roseland is the home to the largest Latino population in Santa Rosa. However, it was not until the fall of 2017 that Santa Rosa annexed Roseland, a community of about 8,000 residents spanning 714 acres. The benefits of annexation include representation on the City Council and the City’s investment in roads, sidewalks, and parks.

Now, Roseland is celebrating the

Over the last year or so, the food truck park has been a gathering spot in the heart of Roseland for several food trucks, including Charro Negro, Lucha Sabina, Gio y Los Magos, La Victoria and Maria Machetes.

The busy Sebastopol Road location in front of the former Dollar Tree store, now Mercadito Roseland, has become a destination for those seeking some of the best birria, tacos, tamales, aguachiles and tlayuda around. Tents and tables

with colorful tablecloths serve as the communal dining area, allowing eaters to sample different trucks.

In the ancient Nahuatl language, the word Mitotl frames a series of ceremonies where pre-Columbian Mexicas gathered to celebrate heritage and culture through regional cuisines, music and the arts. Mitote Food Park refers exactly to that.

According to Diaz, local food trucks from all over the North Bay will soon have a space to offer taste experiences from all over Mexico: Oaxaca, Jalisco, Michoacan, Yucatan, and Mexico City. Visitors will also be surprised to find cuisine from other corners of the world with Asian, African, European and South American food joining the food truck line up.

“It’s going to change Roseland in a good way, and make it an even happier place,” said Rodrigo Mendoza, owner of the Charro Negro food truck.

Mitote is part of the much larger Roseland Village project, Tierra de Rosas, which has been in the works since 2005 as a neighborhood improvement concept put together by the Sebastopol Road Urban Vision Plan, the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, and the nonprofit MidPen Housing of Foster City (San Mateo County). Plans for the Tierra de Rosas development include 75 affordable rental apartments, 100 market-rate rental apartments, a civic building, a one-acre public plaza, a public library and a Mercado food hall.

For the food truck operators at the 7,000-square foot Mitote Food Park, the experience will be much more than a transition from plates and silverware to compostable take-out boxes. The highend trucks—each mobile kitchen can cost $100,000 to $200,000, Diaz said—cater to locals and visitors from across Sonoma County who are eager to try such Charro Negro highlights as the layered aguachile of raw shrimp marinated in lime and chile then mixed with mango, cilantro, jicama, pickled onions, avocados and cucumbers, all piled in a tall plastic cup rimmed with hibiscus and mole salt.

Mitote is serving up authentic delicacies long enjoyed by families at the dinner table and celebrations. Birria tacos from the Los Magos truck have shredded beef laced with onion tucked into corn tortillas, then deep-fried and served with spicy pickled carrot, radish, jalapeno, lime and hot sauce. Guests sit at widely spaced folding tables under a large white tent and savor fruit aguas frescas while enjoying mariachi music strumming from speakers.

One truck, Antojitos Victoria, offers familiar fare like nachos, but also serves up quesadillas stuffed with interesting ingredients like nopales (cactus), chicharron salsa verde or chicken mole verde. The bundles are lightly fried for delicious crunch.

Speaking about Mitote Food Park, current Santa Rosa City Council member Eddie Alvarez said, “What’s going to happen tomorrow, what lays ahead of us? It gives me hope, it makes me excited.”

Food truck owner, Neil Pacheco, a second-generation Latino entrepreneur, smiles as he unrolls a banana leaf on one of the specialty tamales he sells at his Tamales Oaxaqueños stand at Mitote Food Park.

Pacheco and his business partner have a kitchen where a five-person crew makes fresh tamales around the clock, about 2,500 a day. Area farmers and construction workers stop by his stand from 5 a.m. to noon for a tamale, usually for breakfast.

Marlene Orozco, lead research analyst with the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, said Latinos are twice as likely as other ethnic groups to become business owners, no matter if their families had operated businesses or not.

An economic sociologist contracted to work on entrepreneurship research for local Santa Rosa Latino leadership group Los Cien, Orozco said the U.S. growth of Latino-owned companies is a two-decade trend that coincides with population increases. Indeed, the county’s Latino population grew 17.4%, from 120,430 residents in 2010 to 141,438 in 2020 according to new U.S. census data released in August.

Latinos now make up nearly 29% of Sonoma County residents, up from a decade ago when their share was just under 25%. White residents comprise slightly less than 59% of the total local population of 488,863 people. That’s a sharp decline from 66% 10 years ago.

Although the county’s population growth slowed considerably to a scant 1% in the past decade, clearly Latinos continue to relocate in Santa Rosa.

As a result, Latinos’ latest estimated local aggregate annual household income was $2.3 billion in 2019, representing strong consumer buying power that’s growing, according to Orozco’s research.

While Diaz is also looking forward to Mitote’s development and “steady rhythm,” he’s grateful for how the city, county and vendors have all worked together to make the nascent project a reality.

Mitote food park represents a long journey—from rural and urban kitchens in Mexico to community-centered projects such as murals, performances, artisanal crafts and open-air markets.

Despite the challenges, including some local resistance to the annexation of the land to the City of Santa Rosa, the vision of Mitote Food Park is becoming a reality.