An Ode to Tacos
An Ode to Tacos
Jennifer Drinkwater. An Ode to Tacos, acrylic on wood, 24” x 24” x 1.5” , 2025.
An Ode to Tacos arrives wired and ready to hang. Each panel is handcrafted by mounting a smooth plywood surface onto a sturdy, mitred wooden frame that provides depth and support to the painting. The sides of the panel are sanded and finished for smoothness.
Please allow 3-4 weeks for shipping and handling. Shipping costs are $50 anywhere in the United States. If you are international, please email me at jennifer@whatsgoodproject.com.
Twenty percent of profit supports ArtPlace Mississippi, an nonprofit arts organization in Greenwood, Mississippi.
P.S. Check out a stop-motion animation of the creation of An Ode to Tacos.
In 2019, I spent a day with Yolande Van Herdeen, an expat South African whose path serendipitously led her to Greenwood, Mississippi. When I met her, Yolande was serving as the artist-in-residence at ArtPlace Mississippi, a community art center in downtown Greenwood offering classes and programs for all ages. We ended our visit at San Miguel Arcangel Tienda y Taqueria in Greenwood, which inspired An Ode to Tacos.
The reasons this meal stuck with me were twofold: 1) it was fabulous, full stop. 2) Yolande casually pointed out that this place, San Miguel Arcangel Tienda y Taqueria, was the only place in town where everybody eats, no matter race, age, income level, ethnicity. E’erbody. And in my amateur hour opinion, she wasn’t wrong.
San Miguel Arcangel Tienda y Taqueria was born from two generations of the Simon family, who landed in Greenwood from Mexico via Walla, Walla, Washington; New Jersey, and West Helena Arkansas. At 19 while working at a Mexican restaurant, Serafin Simon Jr saved $500 to fulfill his parents’ dream to sell authentic Mexican foods and groceries to the Hispanic communities in Arkansas and Memphis. His folks worked at local chemical plant, which, as you might imagine, took a significant toll on their health.
What started as selling these goods from their van slowly transformed into a brick and mortar business in Arkansas, and which the family moved to Greenwood in 2005. Since then, Serafin Simon Jr and his wife Francisca have grown the grocery into a small, 6-table, Wal-Mart griddle, taco shop to a now 20-table restaurant and large Mexican grocery store, complete with sweet tea. Throughout all of this, Serafin Jr worked as a police officer in Greenwood, coached Pillow Academy’s high boys soccer team, and launched the Delta Red Bulls, a youth traveling soccer program.