The following is an original production of AZPM News.

(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, we'll show you how to spend a day biking the streets of Tucson with no cars.

(Prabjit) Get people out and active and seeing their city at a different speed.

(Tom) Get to know the family behind the sweet treats of one of Southern Arizona's most iconic bakeries.

(Isabel) That's why we value so much because it's all them, my parents.

It's their work ethic, they're everything.

So when we see the bakery, we see them.

(Tom) Go behind the scenes of a major Mexican TV show being filmed right here in the Sonoran Desert.

(Monica) Si hemos encontrado esta tendencia que producciones que usualmente graban en Los Ángeles o Nueva York están buscando locaciones nuevas.

(Tom) And members of the IDD community share stories of bravery.

(Stephanie) It's hard, but it gets easier.

My family and friends help me.

Artwork helps me and helps me remember my dad.

Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated from Mercado, San Augustin.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And first up, twice a year, selected streets in Tucson are closed to cars and open to walkers, bikers, skaters, and more.

And it's all because of an event called Cyclovia that started way back in 1976 in Colombia, spread across the Caribbean to cities in the United States, including Tucson.

(Prabjit) It is possible to use one of our largest pieces of infrastructure, the roads, in a different way.

♪ PEACEFUL MUSIC ♪ (Marcela) When you see your city from a perspective other than the car, you see it in a completely different way (Sammuelle) Just come out here with the community, block down a couple miles of road.

You'll see us here.

By having twice a year, three miles closed off, folks can have a car-free, carefree day with their families.

(Marcela) So you begin to own the city and to be proud of it and feel that there is a space for you even though you're not in a car.

Like all of you, is where all the community gets together for bikes, any type of bikes.

You have electric, you have mountain, you have road bikes, BMX bikes, any type of bike.

Whether that's elders or little kiddos on balance bikes, come out and see different vendors and all the different local organizations that make Tucson shine.

I am from Bogota, so I saw when the Cyclovia started, which was in the 1970s.

An idea that's been happening for 50 years starting in Bogota, Colombia that has expanded across the world.

(Marcela) So really this was a way to lower the pollution in the city and bring a lot of people out to exercise It started in a small part of the city, now it's all over the city.

It takes major roads from like seven in the morning to two in the afternoon.

And there are maybe a million, two million people who participate, which I think is the same thing that Tucson wants to do.

(Prabjit) But get people out and active and seeing their city at a different speed.

This is such a nice festival in a sense that everybody can participate.

It's not singularly focused on like some big event.

Everybody's involved, that's what I like about it (Sammuelle) I came here when I was two years old.

We've been here since the second year of my whole life.

I started at one and a half.

I started walking on my bike like this.

And then around, I was like two, one second I got my foot over, I was gone from there.

(Seaman) I was born on November 2nd.

And so my mom would always give me gifts that were related to Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead I did ride it initially with my mom's ashes tied into the rib cage after my mother died in 2012 at the procession here downtown.

I feel that I'm a pseudo celebrity, you know.

When I ride it, I feel like I'm invisible almost.

The nice thing about the cow cycle is that it crosses boundaries where it has universal appeal.

(Joycee) I really don't know where my life would be without roller skating because I do think because I do think that roller skating gave me a better sense of self and a better sense of confidence in myself Life is very much like skating, right?

Like you fall and you have no other choice but to get back up and try it again.

(Prabjit) When I joined Living Streets Alliance, I was looking through the photos and I looked to the very first Cyclovia.

And there you will see on an old French road bike with some of my friends a photo of me there.

So it was very interesting.

I didn't know that I was there at the first one.

It was just part of my routine to be on a bike but definitely opened me up to seeing the streets in a different way.

Obviously Tucson is a very, you know, bicycle friendly city.

I hope it becomes like the one in Bogota where it happens every Sunday.

It takes over Grant and, you know, Broadway.

Major major streets.

So it's great now to come full circle from the very first one to now making it a reality and possibly expanding the distance of the route or as it is in Bogota on the main roads.

(Seaman) And I think that's kind of a nice moment to find in our time of polarization.

Be nice to find commonality where we all appreciate something.

We should appreciate the world that we're on.

We're here in La Estrella Bakery in Mercado San Augustin.

And while this location is relatively new, in 2026, the bakery itself is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

So now you're going to meet the parents, four siblings, even some of the grandchildren behind this family business and Tucson institution.

♪ QUICK STRINGS ♪ (Jorge) Well, I wake up at 2 in the morning.

I get here like 15 till 3:00.

I usually check the orders for the day, and I start mixing one dough after another.

And that's my full morning.

(Erica) We want to continue doing it traditional, which means everything being handmade.

(Sandra) And we do make everything from scratch.

So that's what makes us unique, I think.

And our customers know that, so that's why they've been with us for 40 years.

(Erica) We started off with the traditional pan dulce, which involves the cochitos, the conchas, the empanadas, the fino, the cuernitos, the elotitos, the birote, which is our French roll.

We have people calling it pan francés, bolillos, birote, or torcido.

And the conchas, in Tucson, we would have customers call it, they still call it, pan de huevo, egg bread.

Okay, so pan de huevo, conchita, and esponjas, sponge, because it's so soft.

(Jorge) I think my favorite is la concha.

Yeah, since I was small, that was my favorite one.

I've done it since 1993, I started mixing.

So I know it by heart now.

I could probably do it with my eyes closed, yeah.

(Isabel) Each contributes a different taste and a different piece of that culture and that tradition.

(Erica) And traditionally, it's the first place that you actually get out in the community where you actually have contact with other people and get your coffee, get your pan dulce that's your breakfast.

(Isabel) And that's where people meet and greet.

(Erica) Right, whether we talk about politics, about your neighbor, complain about your neighbor, your wife, your husband.

[ LAUGHS ] (Isabel) Venting.

(Producer): The chisme?

(Erica) The chisme, yeah, exactly... There are four siblings in the family, and it was not like we got paid for it, no.

It was a family ordeal, and so everyone contributed.

(Sandra) My oldest sister Isabel, she was mainly our tutor as far as schoolwork, responsibilities at home.

Because both my parents worked.

(Isabel) I do more of the financial stuff.

So it's my expertise.

(Erica) She's the one that takes care of money like this.

[ LAUGHS ] (Isabel) Okay, you guys went over.

(Erica) Well, she is like our second mom.

[ MACHINES WHIRRING ] (Isabel) My brother Jorge is a maestro.

He's a maestro.

So it takes years to get that technique, right?

My dad had to teach him over the phone.

(Erica) When my grandmother passed away.

(Isabel) How to do the recipes and do this and do that, but he's so intelligent.

(Erica) You know, you can touch a bread and tell you, 'Hey, it's missing this, It's missing this much salt.'

(Jorge) A lot of people think it's easy, just a mixture, but it's also the texture.

And there's a process on the mixing.

If you go too much, it's gooey.

So that's when you have to stop it, and that's when you put it on the table and they start doing it.

♪ CAREFUL STRINGS ♪ (Isabel) Sandra was able to obtain her master's in education, so she taught for many years.

(Sandra) Everything that I learned for teaching, I apply it now as a manager, because I would manage a classroom.

Now I'm managing a larger classroom.

(Erica) She handles the kids, and I'll handle the adults.

Yeah.

That's what makes Erica's role here so important because of her social charismatic nature.

She brings in a lot from the community inward, and we're able to engage because of that.

(Erica) I must say I was a little rebel during my teenage years, but I was always involved.

You know, I wanted to go to my friend's house.

My parents are very traditional, and where they went, we went.

But me being so nosy, I started to get involved and talking to some of the bakers.

If they told me, "I don't want you to be here," I would be there.

So now I'm the one that does the hands-on.

I know how to do the tortilla, I know how to bake.

(Sandra) We all have our ups and downs, but we work together and make it a good day.

(Erica) You know, like a mom, 'ay' [ LAUGHS ] We're all different.

We're all so, so different.

(Isabel) Then we all went to college.

We had our careers, and then, low and behold, we're back.

The first memory I have is my dad having a big board up here in the front, and he was painting it white.

So I had the smell of that paint.

Once he finished, then he wrote, "Open."

(Jorge) When I was ten years old, that's when my dad and my mom purchased this building.

So we would come and help out.

All the kids would just come and help out, everybody.

(Erica) My mom used to work in the morning, and my dad used to work in the afternoon.

And I knew that my dad would come out at 9 p.m.

And you could smell the bread baking at El Rio, the bakery, in the evening.

So I kind of like faked that I was asleep.

And so, I'm getting a little nostalgic.

So my dad would come and grab me and take me to bed.

So that's my memory.

♪ INTENSE MUSIC ♪ (Isabel) My dad actually migrated here first, and he was a teenager.

So he became an apprentice, and my uncle Savino taught him and others.

So now you have other bakeries like La Palma, You have the bakers from Alejandro's, You have El Triunfo bakery.

The original bakers were all taught at that bakery.

My mom, when she first started working, she had two or three sets of clothing, and she would wash her clothes every single day.

So she would alternate.

So for an entire year, she would not spend a single penny on herself.

And that's something that you see traditionally in the Mexican culture.

The woman is, she is a financial person in her house.

[ MACHINES WHIRRING ] (Sebastian) There were some difficult economic times for the bakery, the first of which started in the early 2000s with the recession, and then the great recession of 2008, 2009, and then on top of that, COVID.

So during those times, it was very challenging for the bakery, but that's where resilience came into play.

And that resilience came through with the community.

So the community really helped us get through those economic difficulties.

(Erica) We've had a lot of criticism like, "Why don't you raise your prices?"

And, you know, it's so cheap, but we have to keep it that way.

(Isabel) What about the people in our main location in 12th Avenue?

They're not going to be able to afford it.

So we keep it just standard.

(Erica) And I think for my family in general, like keeping it in Tucson, means so much to them.

So that's why we don't plan on expanding anywhere than Tucson.

(Sebastian) The physical homes that I live in, I grew up there, but I actually grew up here at the bakery.

This is my upbringing.

It's everything to me.

The kind of discipline that I grew up with is very much rooted in Mexican culture and tradition.

(Isabel) What we do as a family at home with our kids, you have to teach them the value of hard work and survival.

A whole different generation.

Like right now, the generation right now, it's not into that hands-on.

It's more of a, the heavy work is what they pull out of.

So we're used to pushing it.

Even if it's hard work, we're going to do it.

(Erica) Now as we're older, I mean, you can't, there's no monetary value to that.

It's just a work ethic and a love for what we do.

I always test them.

Like I'll put a broom and see if they actually pick it up or they're going to jump.

Like, no, I tell them, you know, this is very important.

You don't, nobody has to tell you to do something.

You have to have the initiative and also teach them how they have to be proud of what they do, no matter what it is.

(Sandra) We're representing our family and our family business because my parents worked very hard and we need to keep that going.

There's a saying, "El que tenga tienda, que la atienda."

It means if you have a store, you have to be there.

You know, if you have a business, you have to be there.

So there's always someone here.

♪ HEARTFELT STRINGS ♪ (Sebastian) We're turning 40 in October of this year and when I think of the bakery and its future, I think of, 'What are my grandparents going to say?'

'What are my grandparents going to say?'

(Isabel) It all goes back to what we value as a family, what my parents value as a family.

And, you know, they feel like, you know, God gave them this to take care of it and they feel an obligation to be here.

That's why we value it so much because it's all them.

My parents, you know, it's their work ethic, their everything that, so when we see the bakery, we see them.

Tucson recently became the backdrop for a major Spanish-language television production that brought cast and crew here from Mexico.

And our show had exclusive behind-the-scenes access to see how the show is made and explore how Tucson is attracting big productions that might once have gone to New York or Los Angeles.

(José) Estamos en el Hermoso Tucson, en un rancho que se llama Los Cerros, que es parte de uno de los escenarios principales de esta producción.

Es un rancho con unos escenarios muy bellos, con grandes extensiones de terreno.

Esta novela es un melodrama que se hizo en los años 70s, que se llamaban, "Los Hermanos Coraje" Janete Clair era la autora original y tomamos esta historia para hacer una adaptación, traerla a esta actualidad.

Tomamos Arizona como la base para la historia y sobre todo para la identidad de los personajes.

(Brandon) Se desarrolla principalmente en dos ranchos, que es el Rancho Coraje, que se encarga a la cría de los caballos y el rancho Rogelio Barrios, que es el que quiere apoderarse de nuestras tierras.

(José) Dos ranchos que son vecinos, en uno viven los tres hermanos coraje y en el otro vive Clara Barrios.

De Clara Barrios nada más que su papá, es un hombre muy ambicioso y él se quiere quedar con la tierra de los Coraje porque descubre que en ellos muchísima riqueza en el subsuelo.

(Brandon) Yo creo que la varicia trata de descomponer pues esta familia como el amor de la familia tiene que sobrevivir a todo eso no?

Es una historia llena de lucha y de pasión, pasión no solo amoroso, pasión por tierras y por eso fue tan importante venir a grabar aquí a Arizona.

¡Pausa!

(speaking in foreign language) (Monica) Si hemos encontrado esta tendencia que producciones que usualmente graban en Los Ángeles o Nueva York están buscando locaciones nuevas.

Están buscando paisajes que no se han visto tanto antes en televisión y eso es algo que tenemos nosotros.

Creo que ya hemos retratado las ciudades de todas las formas posibles, ¿no?

Por arriba, por abajo, por todos lados.

Entonces yo creo que eso es lo que estamos buscando de la manera de nosotros, estar encontrando lugares que nos permitan reflejar o darle una presencia diferente al ambiente que ya tenemos marcado en nuestras historias.

Unas botas, lo ves, le gritas, "Ayúdanos!"

(Monica) Para nosotros es muy emocionante, muy importante tener esta producción aquí porque esta telenovela que es la primera en su tipo que viene y nos puso el pie dentro de la puerta de una industria tan competitiva.

Normalmente son películas, series, comerciales y poco a poco hemos tenido más proyectos Mexicanos que nos visitan.

Yo estoy maravillado, o sea, lo que he visto de crecimiento en este estado es increíble.

¡Marca!

¡Acción!

(Actor) "Falcón!"

¡Ayúdanme, Falcón a sacar a Patricia!

¡Falcón!

(upbeat music) ¡Falcón!

(upbeat music) ¡Ayúda!

¡Ayúdanos!

¡Falcón!

(Monica) Este proyecto ha venido a traer un gran impacto económico en la economía local.

Se estima que van a ser alrededor de 5 millones de dólares.

Viajaron con todo su equipo técnico cerca de 130 personas, además obviamente de la gente local que ha conseguido trabajo en esta producción.

(Emmanuel) Tucsón nos ha dejado impresiones increíbles porque ha sido adaptarnos a nuestro clima, ha sido gozoso.

El reto es hacerlo durante las jornadas de trabajo.

Pero es rico el calorcito que aquí se tiene, la gente tan sonriente, tan amable.

- Do we need another one?

No, it was, it was good.

- It was good?

- Yes (Emmanuel) Manejamos muchos valores dentro de la historia.

Finalmente estamos contando una historia familiar.

La familia entera se va a poder sentar junta y me encanta además y me honra saber qué Juan Coraje mi personaje, eso caracteriza esa lucha, esa lucha por la familia, por eso protege tanto sus hermanos y a su amor por supuesto.

(speaking in foreign language) Bueno, aquí estamos en el detrás de cámaras de este Rancho Coraje, todas las grabaciones que se están haciendo.

Sus caballos, los mejores caballos de la zona, usted no va a encontrar mejor.

[el caballo relincha] ¡Ya voy, ya voy!

Ya me están hablando, hay nos vemos.

(Mar) Somos dos países unidos en una sola historia, no?

Al final creo que la diferencia son en los idiomas porque igual nos duele igual cuando nos enamoramos, un despecho.

- Tres... ¡Acción!

(Mar) Más allá de la historia, yo creo que también tiene que ver con todos nuestros paisanos que viven fuera de México, en este caso en Estados Unidos, las telenovelas siempre han sido un vínculo de cómo seguir sintiéndose parte de esa familia que igual dejaron atrás y el poder tener este lazo ya tan directo entre Arizona y México, pues es como sentir a tu país más cerca de cierta manera, no?

tenerlo aquí, seguir siendo parte.

- Ok chicos, re-envivas este ensayo (Brandon) Pues es como darles un pedacito de eso, no?

De que puedan empatizar más con la historia que puedan empatizar más con los hermanos, entonces ese mensaje pues mucha gente, muchos hermanos de nosotros, pues lo hicieron.

(Mar) Creo que ambos países tenemos estas culturas y también un público que no sea mexicano, que no sea latino, también poder tener un vínculo más cercano por medio de de estar en su país, ¿no?

De que al final esta historia está contándose aquí.

Entonces ojalá también podamos acercarnos más al público Americano con esta historia.

(Actor) ¡Ayudanos a sacar a Patricia!

¡Falcón!

¡Fuego!

¡Fuego!

¡Patricia!

(José) Siempre es una gran responsabilidad, disfruto mucho mi trabajo, ya llevo 35 años, me parece en esto.

[Explosión] Es una gran oportunidad siempre que me brinda la gente de entrar a su casa a ver algo que hacemos y poderse entretener con ellos.

- ¿Escuchaste?

(Brandon) Espero que la gente nos pueda recibir en casa con el amor, como lo estamos haciendo nosotros porque lo hacemos con todo el amor con toda la dedicación, con todo el respeto y que es para ellos, para que se diviertan.

- Ok, no corten chicos, hasta que ya diga.

In August 2026, Arizona Public Media and Tucson Spotlight worked with the Tucson Jewish Community Center Day Program, Taglit B'Yachad, to host a storytelling workshop and live event at the Baker Center for Public Media.

The collaboration highlighted the experiences of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

And the goal was to build stronger relationships with the IDD community and share stories in their own words.

In the workshop, participants chose to talk about a time that they were brave.

Here is Stephanie Lopez with her story.

Hi, my name is Stephanie Lopez, and I wrote a story about my dad.

It is hard to lose my dad.

We were close, and I miss him.

I feel he's still watching, and that helps.

My dad and I shared a lot of things.

We both love painting.

We danced together, and he cooked for us during the holidays.

It helps me to look at my baby pictures, and remember how he made me laugh, and talking helps me too.

It's hard, but it gets easier.

My family and friends help me.

Artwork helps me and helps me remember my dad.

(Tom) The public storytelling event was supported by the Reynolds Journalism Institute in partnership with WordSlaw.

You can find out more about this collaboration and see all the stories on our website, azpm.org, and on upcoming episodes of Arizona Illustrated.

Well, I think we've earned a few pastries now, don't you agree?

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, we'll see you again next week.

Hey, Adolfo, let me please get a couple of conchas, empanada.

You mentioned one of the chocolate covered things.