Moving to San Marcos, TX for school after being raised in San Antonio for almost 20 years, didn’t seem like the most drastic change for Adriana Fuentes, 21. However, she only had yet to realize the impact It would have on her palette and drive for the future of Texas State University.
Fuentes is running to be president next year for Student Association of Campus Activities (SACA). This means she would be in charge of more types of vendors and events here at Texas State. While she has experience being in the Executive board for SACA already, she wants to be able to take more initiative to implement her ideas into what events can happen on campus.
SACA had just finished an event on April 22nd, at 5pm near West Campus Fields called Gaillardia Fest.
This is an event where SACA comes together to hire music acts, local restaurants, and party vendors to participate to give students a unique experience.
Fuentes states that SACA tries to bring something unique to the table to not only introduce students to new forms of entertainment and food, but to be a memorable experience to take home.
However, she says it doesn’t always go as planned.
“We originally wanted foods trucks, but if you want to bring foods trucks there’s some paper work you need to have done 45 days in advanced of the event itself. We did not realize we needed that much time. So, by the time we started the paper work process, it was way passed the 45 days.”
The Executive board of SACA originally tried to bring a local San Antonio food truck to the festival called Snoopys. Snoopys is small on-the-go fruiteria (A Mexican styled desert shop) business that sells treats like mangonadas and corn in a cup.
The owner of Snoopys, Fernando Chagolla, has been serving customers for 10 years and was more than happy to be brought down as a vendor for the annual Gaillardia Fest to give the Texas State students a taste of San Antonio.
However, Snoopys said they were more than happy to one day come down to campus for another student event or just to simply sell to students near campus.
“we are open to doing anything!” said snoopy before to continuing to say “We do a lot of high schools and a lot of elementary’s. We had just never been invited to a college before, but now we are thinking about serving to a local community college near by in San Antonio.” when discussing any future plans with Texas State and for Snoopys.
Fuentes talks about being open to bringing different kinds of food and implementing students favorite taste in their future events.
“I can assure you that now that we know about the 45 days in advance requirement, I am going to make sure Gaillardia planning is earlier and a goal of mine is to be able to get more vendors.”
Fuentes is hoping to incorporate more tastes from San Antonio, the town she grew up in, to share with the rest of the students at Texas State in the future.
Other Texas State students like Kelsie Brouillette, 20, have their own spots they go to that remind them of home when they can’t find that same flavor on campus. That spot for Brouillette is Herbert’s Taco House on 419 Riverside Dr, San Marcos, TX.
“I really like that it reminds me of the food I’d have at home. I grew up a lot with Tex-Mex food and Mexican food is my moms favorite food so It’s kind of nostalgic.”
Although Brouillette is from Dallas, TX, her father is Cajun. She hopes to see more different types of food represented for students not just from different areas, but for students who grew up with different comfort foods to help get through the semesters.
“I also grew up with a lot of Cajun food and I haven’t really seen restaurants here that have those things, so I try my best to attempt to re-create my favorite dish, Gumbo, if I can.”
Some students at Texas State University hope to be able to see some more representation in the school foods in the future when it comes to their favorite foods they can’t get in San Marcos, TX.
“I feel like they do a good job, but at the same time they repeat the same meals. I’d like to see them do a lot more cultural food nights. We have a lot of just fried chicken places and ‘picky eater’ food. I think we should try and introduce more basic meals from different cultures.”
