When Jacqueline Anaya moved to Fort Worth from south central Los Angeles in 2019 for what her family considered to be a safer, more financially secure life,...
Like Anaya, Calisience is a blend of California and Jalisciense, the word for the denizens of Jalisco, Mexico, where her mother and grandmother were born. Jalisco is also the birthplace of birria, which was historically a celebratory goat stew.
“Anything can be threatening if people use it to make a quick buck,” Anaya says. “But, then again, [birria] helps other people stand out — because you can see and feel the love in the food.” Timing definitely helped when Calisience’s food truck on East Belknap Street opened Feb. 1, 2020, a month before the world was upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Without wanting to seem insensitive, she knows the pandemic helped her growth. While restaurants regrouped, people hungry for a meal not cooked at home parked their cars with laptops and hotspots and waited for tacos dorados, which take at least 15 minutes after ordering.