A local area icon whose claim to fame was introducing the fajita as a mainstay in Tex-Mex cuisine has died today at the age of 81.
Juan Antonio “Sonny” Falcon was originally from Mercedes, Texas and made his way to Austin in 1959 where he got a job in shipping and receiving at the Austin Meat Market. In 1962 Falcon married Guadalupe Guajardo and soon thereafter became the meat market manager in his wife’s parents’ East Austin neighborhood store, called Guajardo’s Cash Grocery. It was during this time Falcon experimented with an old Rio Grand Valley recipe in which he took beef skirt, cooked it until tender and served it with tortillas. The meat was cut into little strips, thus the name fajitas – fajitas being the Spanish word for little belts.
The normally tough-to-chew beef skirt was never thought of as a prime piece of meat and was usually ground up or sold as scraps, but Falcon had the realization that he could turn this scrap meat into a delicacy that he could promote at the Guajardo family store.
Falcon introduced his fajitas to the public in 1969 at a concession stand in Kyle during a weekend-long Diez y Seis celebration. The introduction wasn’t an overnight success, but he continued to to sell the newly-revived product at rodeos, fairs and other outdoor events and the popularity grew.
In more recent years, Falcon competed at the annual Fajita Fiesta in Buda for the past five years. J.R. Gonzales, Executive Director of the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce, who is also from Mercedes and who is instrumental in promoting the Fajita Fiesta, has known Falcon all his life. Their families have had a life-long relationship since the day Falcon drove Gonzales’ mother to the hospital when J.R. was born.
And in 2013, with the creation of Buda’s Fajita Fiesta, Gonzales has always recruited Falcon to participate in the annual event as a judge. “Anybody that knows fajitas, or that are a part of these cooking competitions, knows the name Sonny Falcon. He’s an icon ... I can’t eat a fajita without thinking of Sonny.”
Gonzales says Falcon will be missed and we can expect some special honors in his name at the upcoming Fajita Fiesta.
