Texas
This Persevering Taquera’s West Texas Restaurant Feels Like Your Abuelita’s Kitchen
Silvia Hernandez, with her hair pulled back into a long ponytail, is visible from the kitchen only when she comes to the metal-framed pass, where the server grabs plated dishes to run to customers. Her glasses are precariously balanced on the lower bridge of her nose, but she snaps them back into place as she turns to attend to the cooking at her restaurant, Taqueria Gael, in Andrews.
Crossing north five years ago was the easy part of her life’s journey, Hernandez says. Growing up in El Salto, a small, quiet town in the northern Mexican state of Durango, she worked long hours hawking street food and cooking in her parents’ restaurant. She opened her own business, a hot dog cart, as a teenager, and got married at sixteen to a husband who eventually became abusive, she says. Moving to Texas was, Hernandez believed, her way out. Once she arrived in the Permian Basin town of Andrews, she began to work at local food trucks and would feed fellow food truck employees home-cooked meals of sopa de fideo, chicken, and caldo.
One Christmas, she brought the workers a holiday meal of lengua, fries, and soup. It wasn’t much, but the six young men who had no family to spend Christmas with were delighted and thankful. “It’s one of my favorite memories,” Hernandez says. So it’s no surprise that when Hernandez visited Mexico for fifteen days, the workers in Andrews messaged and called her, pleading with her to return. To their relief, she did. Then, a year ago, she opened Taqueria Gael.
Until my recent trip, my experience with tacos in West Texas had been disappointing at best. Tex-Mex in general, and the burrito in particular, was where restaurants in the area shone—that is, until my visit to Taqueria Gael, a bastion of Mexican home cooking that stands alongside the best of Texas’s Mexican restaurants.
The same goes for the previous business that was located inside the yellow building that houses now Taqueria Gael, near the Andrews Highway. It was called La Morena and was owned by famed curmudgeon Greg Revelez. Back in 2020, the Tex-Mex joint was more of a community hub than a good restaurant. Not that it was bad—the Kitchen Sink Burrito, a smothered package of carnitas, refried beans, fries, and pearls of yellow rice topped with melted cheese and smothered in spicy brown gravy, was one of my favorite dishes of that year. Otherwise, the food was, with all due respect, forgettable. In other words, I didn’t expect such exciting and soothing comida casera (home cooking) in the oil patch town about 45 minutes north of Odessa, much less the matron behind the taqueria.
Taqueria Gael is a symbol of Hernandez’s resilience. Through her food, Hernandez shares with customers the traditions and craft passed down through the generations of women before her as well as through a life of extreme hardships.
Hernandez’s grandmother, Teresa, was a single mother of twelve children. To support her family, the matriarch, who could neither read nor write, sold menudo and other dishes she learned from her elders and passed on to her children and grandchildren. At twelve years old, Hernandez’s mother, Modesta, moved from Durango to Mexico City to work in a hospital. About a decade later, she returned to El Salto to work in Restaurante Anita. It was at the restaurant that she met her future husband. The two were immediately inseparable and married in eight days. To help provide for the growing household, Modesta opened a small restaurant, Comedor Valeria, in the family’s living room. She sold carnitas, chicharrones, gorditas, and, of course, the clan’s specialty, menudo.
Hernandez joined the family business as a teenager when she opened a hot dog cart, which she later expanded to sell carnitas. Soon after, her troubles with her husband started. Hernandez hadn’t known the kind of man he would become: a womanizing and abusive drug addict and alcoholic, as she describes him. She dealt with it as best she could, through work. “I promised myself that my children would never know cold or poverty,” Hernandez says.
Their first child, daughter Valeria, was diagnosed with epilepsy at three months old. To pay for Valeria’s treatment, Hernandez added tamales and buñelos to her street cart’s menu. Her daughter’s epilepsy disappeared at the age of four. Four years after that, Hernandez says her husband raped and impregnated her. She gave birth to a boy, Adrian. “My son is the product of abuse, but he is a blessing. He’s my baby,” Hernandez says with joy and pride in her voice. The young man is now studying information engineering, a field that blends computer science with math. “He is a man in every sense of the word. He is responsible. He is a man of his word. He isn’t lazy, nor does he drink or smoke,” Hernandez says.
In April 1998, Hernandez’s father passed away. At this time, violence was at a disastrously high level in Mexico. Her brother was kidnapped and eventually released. On another day, her husband said he was going to work and never returned. “I was left alone to raise my kids and work harder,” she says. Hernandez continued to add dishes to her cart’s menu. She did whatever she needed to do to provide for her family. She was also once more pregnant. To her anguish, the baby was stillborn.
As soon as she could, Hernandez began the paperwork for a visa to come to the United States. She knew however hard she worked in Mexico, it wouldn’t be enough to give her children the educations and futures she dreamed they deserved. The only option was to find work north of the Rio Grande. Finally, five years ago, she was able to settle in Andrews, where she eventually opened Taqueria Gael, named after her supportive, caring partner, whom she met while working at various food trucks in Andrews. Love and the gratitude for a better life are evident in every dish.
The tacos she serves are all tacos de guisado wrapped in soft, nixtamalized-corn tortillas that are made in-house. The green picadillo, stewed with tiny potato cubes, translucent chopped onion, and invisible but fiery chiles, was a delight. The asado verde—rough-chopped chicken blanketed in a dark green salsa—was even better and hotter. The asado rojo, plump with pork obscured by an inky red sauce, left me silent. My eyes closed, and I smiled. The barbacoa was a dark bramble peeking out from below freshly grated queso blanco. For the quesadilla, queso blanco is enveloped in a corn tortilla and cooked on the flattop until the cheese melts into a milky, stretchy consistency. It only took one bite for me to feel at home.
The pozole—deep red, almost clay-colored—was a bowl of guajillo chile–punctuated stew bobbing with tender, juicy bits of pork chop. It was a hot day when I visited Taqueria Gael, but as I recalled the voices of many women in my life, I remembered hot days are made for hot food. The small, round, Nutella-filled doughnuts, glazed and shiny in the midday sun coming through one of the restaurant’s windows, were so good. I wanted to eat them all lest I offend Hernandez, who brought them to the table herself. Alas, the stop at Taqueria Gael was one of several I had planned en route to the Panhandle. Otherwise, I would’ve lingered, asked for coffee to wash down the dessert, and likely consumed the whole plate of doughnuts.
The worst of Hernandez’s life is behind her. She has made peace with the past and how it has formed her, thanks to her children and her partner. She welcomes every customer like she’s welcoming her own children to eat. As trite as that sounds, the proof is in the amazing pozole. Eating it, I felt like I belonged in Taqueria Gael, like Hernandez was happy to see me enjoy her food. Hernandez expresses it better: “I have been able to overcome obstacles with food. Everything I cook, everything I do, I do with all my heart and with love.”
Taqueria Gael
500 SW Avenue D, Andrews
Phone: 432-223-8827
Hours: Monday–Saturday 7–2, 5–8
For more than a year, high-profile Texas Republicans have argued that Muslims are secretly plotting to take over Texas, centering their outrage on the East Plano Islamic Center, a mosque and Muslim community in North Texas known as EPIC. That hysteria resulted in a range of government enforcement actions last year, including a probe by the Texas Funeral Service Commission that barred EPIC from performing funeral rites. Last July EPIC sued the state, alleging Texas had violated its religious freedom. Late Wednesday, a federal judge in the Western District of Texas ruled that the mosque’s lawsuit can proceed despite the state’s attempt to dismiss it. In his ruling, the judge also issued a strong rebuke to claims made by Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials, writing that “no evidence has been presented” that EPIC intends to impose “Sharia law,” Islamic teachings based on the Quran and words of the Prophet Muhammad, on Texans.
The case stems from last March, when the funeral commission issued a cease and desist order that barred the mosque from performing traditional cleansing, shrouding, and prayer over bodies, on the grounds that EPIC may have been unlawfully conducting such rites without a license. (EPIC denies this allegation.) As Texas Monthly has reported, the agency was pushed to issue the order by some of Abbott’s closest advisers, who had made unsupported claims that EPIC and a proposed housing development it was affiliated with, EPIC City, was building a “no go zone” exclusive to Muslims (it was not).
EPIC sued the funeral commission in July 2025, arguing that the cease and desist order was an unconstitutional prohibition on religious practices. In Islam, preparing bodies for funerals stands as one of the most sacred rites; by the time of EPIC’s lawsuit, according to the petition, at least eleven congregants had been forced to receive rites elsewhere—away from their home mosque.
EPIC later amended its lawsuit to include former funeral commission chair Kristin Tips after text messages were released showing she had shared anti-Muslim messages and videos as the agency’s investigation unfolded. Among the examples was a graphic Tips had sent to the commission’s then–executive director, Scott Bingaman, that accused Islam of allowing child marriage and pedophilia. After sending it, Tips texted Bingaman a YouTube video with the title: “EPIC CITY TEXAS! Are Muslims planning a TAKEOVER?”
For nearly a year, the case has been locked in a procedural back-and-forth as Tips and the agency—represented by Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office—have pushed for the court to dismiss the case. Late Wednesday evening, Judge David Alan Ezra, a Ronald Reagan appointee, issued an order denying Tips’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. He also rejected Tips’s claim of qualified immunity, which can shield government officials from personal liability in civil cases. That rejection is rare in courts, such as this one, that appeal to the Fifth Circuit, which is one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the country and is typically welcoming to government defendants.
In his ruling, Ezra cited the funeral commission’s deviation from historical norm in the EPIC case, as the agency has repeatedly asserted—first in 1987 and again in 2014—that Islamic religious organizations could conduct funeral and burial services without government oversight. The judge also affirmed that the alleged conduct—including the cease and desist order and Tips’s anti-Muslim messages—was seemingly “the result of religious discrimination” that violated EPIC’s clearly established religious rights under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and other laws protecting religious liberty. In a rather remarkable footnote, the judge added that, based on the evidence offered, the court firmly rejected claims “suggesting that EPIC has applied, or intends to apply, ‘Sharia law’ in its practices.”
Though the case will now continue to wind through the courts, the judge’s ruling is a firm rebuke of the anti-Muslim political hysteria fueled by Abbott and his team of advisers. As Texas Monthly reported this month, the governor’s inner circle took an unusually active role in the funeral commission’s regulatory case against EPIC. After being looped into the agency’s pending investigation, which stemmed from an April 2024 complaint levied by a private individual, the governor’s attorneys, including Abbott’s general counsel, Trevor Ezell, edited the boilerplate cease and desist order the commission was ready to issue to make it more severe and punitive.
The original document, drafted by a funeral commission staffer, included a line warning that noncompliance would result in the agency taking “legal action.” Abbott’s team struck that line and suggested replacing it with a “criminal referral” to the Collin County district attorney—in what amounted to a hijacking of the agency’s usual independent regulatory process. At one point, a close adviser of Abbott even reported to a commission staffer that Abbott had texted him that after the cease and desist order was sent out, the funeral commission was his new favorite agency.
Over the following months, the governor’s advisers, including Ezell and a budget and policy adviser, Alex Aragon, weighed in often on the EPIC probe, requesting regular updates, coordinating public statements, and, at times, directing regulatory action. When the agency investigated other cases—such as a high-profile incident in which a Dallas funeral home allegedly accidentally shipped a stillborn baby to a Louisiana laundry facility—the governor’s team exhibited no similar interest. More than a year after the funeral commission’s cease and desist order, its investigation remains ongoing. No violations have been found.
Tips, the agency’s former chair, led the funeral commission until March 12, when, according to an email obtained by Texas Monthly, she “prayerfully” resigned, effective immediately, late in the night. While the circumstances around her departure remain unknown, she had spent months under fire for allegations that she had illegally lobbied for tort reform in her position as chair, which she denies. But in her absence, the governor’s pursuit of EPIC has continued. In March, the funeral commission issued a broad new subpoena to EPIC, seeking every record of funeral services that the mosque has on file.
After EPIC’s attorneys pushed back, arguing the order was too large in scope, Paxton’s office got involved—issuing a letter that demanded EPIC comply. Meanwhile, Abbott has continued his crusade against the mosque, going on Fox News earlier this week to deride EPIC and what he alleged were “multiple violations” of the law. The governor has touted that a dozen state agencies have investigated EPIC. To date, no criminal charges have been filed against the mosque, and a federal probe into EPIC by the the Department of Justice was dropped with no findings of malfeasance.
The NHL took the first step toward expansion in Texas earlier this week, agreeing to terms with billionaire Dan Friedkin and his family to explore the feasibility of putting a franchise in Houston or Austin.
Far enough from the Dallas Stars, who relocated from Minnesota in 1993, a new team would not interfere with their territorial rights. And the league has shown no fear of adding one team at a time, so No. 33 does not have to come with No. 34.
“Symmetry I don’t think should necessarily govern expansion,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday. “You expand if you think it makes sense and enhances what the league has.”
What is behind the NHL’s interest in Texas
Money is the obvious answer. Bettman said the total investment of the project would be some $3.5 billion, which would include expansion fees paid to established owners along with the cost of building a new arena.
The Houston Rockets’ arena downtown is publicly owned but controlled by team owner Tilman Fertitta’s Clutch City Sports and Entertainment group. The home of the American Hockey League’s Texas Stars, in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park, has a capacity of 8,000 that is a little over half the size of the NHL’s smallest current rink (Winnipeg).
“I would be surprised if the NHL would be OK with an expansion team that does not have a new arena,” said Brian Mills, an associate professor at the University of Texas who teaches courses on sports economics and strategy. “The revenue potential with the luxury boxes and the way that they set those up and the money that they like to extract from the local cities is way too large to pass up.”
They are also huge markets. Houston at nearly 2.4 million is the fourth-most-populated U.S. city; Austin at just over 1 million is in the top 12.
“Obviously it makes sense if you’re a sports league to have a franchise in the nation’s fifth-largest metro area and one that is growing rapidly,” said Holy Cross professor Victor Matheson, an expert in sports economics. “Houston obviously makes sense in general as a destination for any league.”
Austin is smaller but has doubled its population since the mid-1990s and has seen an infusion of people over the past five years. Only eight of the NHL’s existing markets are bigger.
“It’s becoming more and more of a tech city, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more hockey fans here than there used to be,” Mills said. “I would imagine there’s some market for the NHL here in Austin, particularly more than when it was a sleepy, small town capital of Texas 30 years ago.”
History of hockey in Houston and Austin
When hockey was picking up in popularity in the 1960s and ‘70s and the NHL went from six teams to 18, the rival World Hockey Association was founded and Houston got a franchise when the one in Dayton, Ohio, failed to get off the ground.
The Aeros’ inaugural season was in 1972-78, and they were best known for “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe playing for them along with sons Mark and Marty. They won four Avco World Trophies as WHA champions before folding.
An AHL team using the same name existed in Houston from 1994-2013. The Texas Stars have played in Austin since ’09.
“There’s some interest of hockey,” University of Houston economics professor Steven G. Craig said. “Houston is full of immigrants from around the country and around the world. And Austin is sort of similar in the sense of a pretty heterogeneous population.”
Pros and cons of a Houston or Austin NHL franchise
Growing the sport in another so-called non-traditional spot is a big benefit. Smashing successes in places like Las Vegas and Tampa, Florida, show what hockey can do across the Sun Belt when strong ownership is involved.
“Southern cities have been doing pretty well now these days in the NHL: the Lightning and the Panthers,” Mills said of the two teams in Florida. “You’ve got some pretty good hockey teams after some pretty miserable failures with some earlier expansion to the South.”
Abandoning the second try in Atlanta (the Thrashers from 2000-11) was more a failure of ownership than the market. The same could be said in Arizona, where a revolving door of owners led to arena miscues and eventually the Coyotes being sold and moved to Salt Lake City in 2024 to become the Utah Mammoth.
A 33rd team also means 20-23 more NHL players and hopefuls in the minors. The changing landscape of hockey development at the junior and college levels has the potential to churn more talent through the pipeline in North America than ever before, along with players coming from Europe.
“You do have a pretty big pool of players,” Matheson said. “I’m not particularly worried about diluting the talent there because I think there’s a lot of skill.”
What’s next and where the 34th team may be
After this six-month exploratory phase is complete, recent history suggests a season-ticket drive would be one of the subsequent steps. Ticket drives validated interest that led to the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken.
The Board of Governors would need to approve moving forward in the process. No vote has yet been held, though the executive committee supported exploring Houston and Austin.
And while the NHL is comfortable with unbalanced Eastern and Western conferences, getting to 34 teams seems inevitable if it goes to 33. Bettman said the board on Tuesday was updated on situations in Atlanta and Arizona, and it would be no surprise if one of those places got another crack at it.
ere’s everything you need to know about one of the most recognizable trophies in North American sports — The Stanley Cup.
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