damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today, the annual tamale festival returns to the show. plus, the music of little joe with tortilla soup. this is your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: we begin with a new special friend of the show here on "comunidad del valle." his name is faz poursohi. is that correct? faz poursohi: that's correct, poursohi. damian: and he owns some of the finest restaurants across the bay area, but also he's giving back. first, let's talk about the fine cuisine, sir. why only the finest for you? faz: we do have restaurants in oakland, danville, and pleasanton, palo alto, sunnyvale. now, we're going to be in san jose at 181 east tasman.

so our concept at faz restaurants is mediterranean, near eastern cuisine. we use--you know, we use-- we work with local farmers, keeping everything as organic as possible. i have a--as a team, have a beautiful job feeding everybody for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. so it's--so that's our concept at faz. and my counterpart in palo alto, which is like a landmark restaurant, we've been there since 1981. damian: and the reason you're--one of the main reasons you're on the show, sir, is because of what you're doing for our latino future entrepreneurs, just the residents who immigrate

into this country. and they help you and you help them. tell us about how you help them. faz: i'm an immigrant of this country from iran and i adore the spanish population as a whole. so majority of our workforce is spanish. as you know, they are very strong in hospitality. without them, we cannot do it, as simple as that. i admire all the farmers that we work with, that they produce the best of the best for us. i cannot tell you how thankful i am with that. and of course, our chef staff, wait staff, management,

majority they are spanish. damian: now, when they come to this country, they're used to making tortas and tacos. now, we introduce them to mediterranean food, how difficult is it for them to catch on? faz: it's just--they are very smart and they learn. you'll be shocked to see what they produce. hopefully you get a chance to come to our restaurant, try the food that has been prepared. we put them through training, but they have their smart together. they get it quick and do it right. and the work ethics that they have, it's just unbelievable. damian: no, you don't have to explain that one to me. but explain, if you will, the sponsorship part of it because we use the word "sponsor." you were sponsoring a lot or some--many of these workers.

faz: so if someone is qualified and they have the background--as you know, hospitality and restaurant is very hard to find good chefs and so on. so when we see someone is qualified, we work with their law firm or attorney or immigration attorney that they have. and i'm delighted that we've been able to do it successfully. damian: and now, a lot of them are entrepreneurs and they credit you and what you did for them for where they're at. faz: for example, jorge, i sponsored him in 1986. and then he became an entrepreneur himself. he opened his own restaurant in mission street. now he sold that restaurant. he's doing a bunch of other things. and he's a very successful man and that's the trait. that's the way things should be. damian: all right, well, he mentioned faz restaurants are all over the bay area, one coming to san jose,

and this is what he does. they help him, latinos do, and he helps them in return. thank you, sir. we will have one of your lead chefs on our telemundo show, so thank you so much for all that you do. thank you very much. and up next here on "comunidad del valle," tortilla soup, stay with us.

for a nice tardeada. with me is robert payne of tortilla soup, and he brought a fellow with him. actually, he's brought darrell cortez. because some of the proceeds benefit shop with a cop and darrell is here to benefit-- or to talk about shop with a cop. but welcome to the show. but talk about your band. i mean, you guys have been around for a long time and you're still going. you're bringing el chicano, little joe. robert payne: that's right, august 1st, coming up soon. saturday, it's going to be at history park in san jose. and yes, we're honored to have little joe. he's a five-time grammy award winner and he's the king of tex-mex. you can't get no better than that, so we're going to be bringing him august 1st. damian: and so it's a nice opportunity for everybody to go out and have fun, and enjoy, and dance a little bit, throw some chanclasos and whatnot. here's some video of some of you guys.

but the nice part is that it benefits a nice organization like shop with a cop. robert: absolutely. you know, tortilla soup has been around for about 13 years. we just started tortilla soup music productions this year. we got our license, so we're official now. and it's no better feeling than giving back to the community. and being that i'm a police officer full-time, i've reached out to pal last year and we did a show with them, and we raised some good money for them. and now i reached out to darrell cortez, shop with a cop, and we're going to do it for them this year. damian: and talk about the significance of that, darrell, because your group--i mean, a lot of groups need the funds, but your group in particular. darrell cortez: yes, damian, we're very grateful for robert and his group to designate us as the beneficiaries for some of the proceeds that day. you know, it's critical to sustain. there's thousands of great charities out there. we feel that we're doing an impact, especially as law enforcement, representing law enforcement,

to help out the disenfranchised, the underserved youth, and especially in the latino community. and so these funds that they raise that day are really going to be critical for the impact that we're making in the community. damian: and some of that is you guys give out backpacks before the school year starts. and you take some kids, some needy kids christmas shopping during the holidays. darrell: we do the operation backpack and school supplies every year before school to have those students who cannot afford those materials to start the school year off right. and then our signature event is the holiday shopping spree for underserved youth, each year at target in december. case in point is recently, the news of the two children who got severely injured in a house fire, an apartment fire there on story road. one of my good friends, a local fireman for the city, reached out and says, "hey, the mother really needs some funds. it's really a sad story." and, "yes, i agree, and we'll help you out." and we wrote a check for $500 to that family, to that mother.

and tears were shed, and we can do more. we also supported fallen officer--san jose fallen officer mike johnson with $1,000 sponsorship or scholarship for the judo studio that he was involved with to help out kids who cannot afford those fees to take martial arts. and so that's the type of outreach that we do. and we want to do more. these proceeds are really going to help us out. damian: yeah, more reason to attend this. and i would imagine that little joe is opening for you guys, tortilla soup? robert: no, no. damian: how do you get-- i mean, you got el chicano, you guys, the nightlighters, and little joe all on the same stage. different hours, but, boy, that's pretty amazing. robert: yes, it is. and again, it takes a lot of time and effort to get these bands in. and it's something that we enjoy doing. so actually, little joe was number one. we were going to reach out to him and he said yes. and then i got a phone call from el chicano, so they weren't even on the list and they got a call because they heard what we were doing.

and that's how they got on board. and by all means, they're legends in our minds too, and we said yes, you can come out, come on in. damian: i mean, anytime you get, you know, a kind of a billing like that, it's easy to take the money and put it in your pocket and say, "we'll see you next year." but again, you don't do that. you're giving some of it back. robert: no, no, we're very blessed. i promote it to my band and we talk about it all the time is, you know, we've been given a gift of talent per se. and it could be taken away at any point, so we don't take things for granted. and i talked to my band earlier this year and said, "you know what? we're going to start to give back to the community." and they all agreed 100%. and no better way than to plug me being a police officer into reaching into our own backyard and finding guys like darrell that are helping with the community. damian: well, give us your sales pitch. i talked a lot about the bands, but you give your sales pitch. this is pretty spectacular. robert: okay. so august 1st, we're going to have five bands. we're going to have food trucks out there, plenty of dancing.

people have been asking, "is there going to be a dance floor?" we are going to have a spot for dancing. we're going to have two djs out there, so it's just going to be a continued day of music from 11 o'clock till 7 o'clock that evening. and you know, ticket sales are going very well. just i tell everybody to get their tickets ahead of time. and we look forward to it. damian: but i mean, it can't be any more safer when you have cops and former cops there actually part of the organizing group. robert: and of course, security is my number one concern, so not only are we going to be there off-duty, but there's going to be a lot of other cops there to make sure we have a good time. darrell: and if i may add as well, we're going to have two tables set up, so anybody that wants to make some extra donations in the jars to collect more money for the programs we're going, we're going to be right there by the beer stations. so if you don't want to tip the beer server, you know, put the extra money in the jar for us. and it's going for a good cause. damian: there you go. well, yeah, it's coming up here. it's happening at the history park, that place is getting popular, 11 to 7 a.m. on august 1st.

little joe y la familia, tortilla soup, el chicano, those nightlighters, and everybody else come out and have a good time and support a good cause. thank you for what you're all doing. robert: thank you. damian: and up next here on "comunidad del valle," some more food. my friend roy avila and a tamale festival up next. stay with us. grass fed? mhmm. i'm super into health. bottled tap water? well all bottled water is the same right? you need crystal geyser alpine spring water. made by nature, not by man.

crystal geyser alpine spring water. bottled at the mountain source.

♪ da da da da ♪ da da da da ♪ da da da da ♪ da... sorry brenda. crystal geyser. bottled at the mountain source. da da da. is right around the corner. with me is my good friend, roy avila. as you can see, roy, i eat quite a few tamales in my lifetime. roy avila: i got the girdle on today. i know what you mean. damian: boy, this is, again, another opportunity to come out and have a good time, support a good cause, eat tamales, and enjoy some good music. roy: absolutely. and we are so blessed to have a great lineup we're having. malo is going to be our headliner, $7 to see malo. damian: what is that? roy: right? that's like two coffees during the week, you're in. damian: that's it. and then kids under 12 are free. roy: and it's going to be-- we're going to have tamale demonstrations. let me just go down the line real quick here so we get all the stuff.

johnny maxwell is going to be--bay area kid from up north is going to be there. we have too smooth band, integro latino, again malo, and a bunch of locals. i think what's really important for us is that we show off our neighborhoods. we're really encouraging--and for the future, the young kids. and we want the tamale festival to be where you go and then, 2 or 3 years say, "you know, i saw them at the tamale festival." that's really our goal. damian: but the genres that you guys are going to have, you're going to have from bandas to, like you said, to malo. roy: oh, absolutely, absolutely. on sunday, we'll have-- and i could go on about it. el coyote and nina conde are going to be there. i probably mispronounced their name. damian: no, that's good. no, we have video because this is what it's all about. talk about what you remember about the traditions and doing this. i don't know if you ever--if your mom or whoever ever put you-- roy: oh, i still-- i make them now. it's part of the deal, pass it on, pass it on, pass it on. oh yeah, before christmas, we'd stay up all night, make tamales,

go to church, come back, and eat them. right, absolutely. but you know what i found out in being involved is that tamales, depending on where you come from, are different all over. i've learned so much about the difference in tamales, which is a mind-blower. damian: no, it is. i mean, my mom would make--she would grab some wood ash and mix it with corn, and then grind it. and before you know it, we're eating ash tamales. and they were-- roy: ooh, yeah, i've heard them being done in, like, green leaves and some--i mean, it's amazing of the different styles of tamales that are out there. damian: and again, it's a good cause and you're helping out the community as well. roy: well, yeah. we're putting--we're going to put money back into the community to scholarship kids to go to tech camps, to play soccer, to do music and arts. that's really why i'm involved. damian: right. well, talking about yourself, what are you up to now? because we miss you on tv and, you know, we got to get you back on.

we got to get that chulo face back on tv. roy: i'm an entrepreneur like everybody else, right? i have a financial practice and i'm doing some media events, so i'm staying busy. and this was really an exciting opportunity. i've been traveling around the country, but to come back home and get involved and do the things i love, you know, doing events and raising money to, you know, help the kids out in our neighborhoods. and to show them off. i really have a thing of, you know, little kids who have never performed on a professional stage to be able to come out, stand there in front of people. you know, as time goes on, i'm even looking for the, you know, future damian trujillos to come and emcee. because i don't want--i mean, i like doing it, doesn't bother me, but i want the new ones to come up that we can show, exactly, exactly. damian: now, there's something to be said because this festival is going--has been going on for a while. and the fact that the organizers are still active and doing it well, and the fact that the support has been there from the community, too, to keep a festival like this, the tamale festival, going. roy: you know, and speaking of that, we really have to thank councilmember magdalena carrasco and her staff, angel rios,

the new director of parks and rec for their support in helping us put this on. because, you know, it's had a roller coaster. you know, there was redevelopment funds there in the beginning. those no longer exist. so you know, we're having to hustle a little more to make sure that we can pull this off. damian: what do you hope-- those who attend, what do you hope that, at the end of the night-- roy: i hope they have a fabulous-- they walk away knowing that they can come to prusch park, have a wonderful family day, and go home and just feel like they've had a really safe, great time, supporting some outstanding work that's going on in the community, and continue the tradition to, you know, keep our tradition alive to everyone. damian: will there be tamales there, do you know? roy: a couple, probably. if i don't eat a lot of them. damian: you talk about why it is that you got involved. i mean, you know, it's the gift that you have in supporting

the community that we're serving here. and this is happening in the heart of the east side. i mean, that's--it shouldn't be anywhere else, probably. roy: exactly, exactly. and i don't want to run out of time without thanking the folks that really helped us out. liquid restaurant and lounge; vibe soccer, who is one of the beneficiaries; radio lazer; el observador; and your sister, telemundo. thank you for their support. but no, it's really exciting to be able to do something in the heart of our neighborhood. damian: that's it, story and king. if you'd like to attend, it's the annual tamale festival happening at emma prusch park. live bands beginning at noon on august 2nd, and there is the web address for more information. any final thoughts before we let you go, roy? roy: malo for $7, you cannot get that anywhere. and all the tamales you want. damian: okay, good to see you, brother. and again, in case you don't know who malo is, we're going to play a little bit of music when we continue here on "comunidad del valle," stay with us.

august 1st and 2nd. it's a two-day event right there at emma prusch park, so make sure you do attend that great event. and now, here's what's happening in your comunidad on que pasa. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] damian: and our saludos to those celebrating a special day. felicidades. [music]

[music] [music] damian: and here is our address for next week's saludos. you can follow me on twitter. my handle is @newsdamian. you can also pick up a copy of el observador newspaper and support your bilingual weeklies all across the bay area. we also invite you to watch us on telemundo channel 48. we are in espanol, "comunidad del valle" every saturday at 5:30 p.m. so if you don't catch us on sundays, you can catch us on saturdays, 5:30 p.m. on telemundo 48. we thank you once again for joining us here on "comunidad del valle." just remember that the tamale festival is august 1st and 2nd. it's a two-day event at emma prusch park in san jose. and we're going to leave you now with some music from that great event.

this is with some great local bands. el chicano will be there at the event over at the history park in san jose, but this one will feature. again, this is malo with some great local artists. so we'll see you again next week. buenos tardes. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

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