Backstreet to the American Dream follows entrepreneurs from vastly different backgrounds as they pursue their piece of the American Dream. Cleveland natives Matt Chernus and chef Ryan Harkins burst onto the national stage in 2010 when their heavy-metal-themed burger truck, Grill ’Em All, won the first season of Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race. Their victory propelled the business from the streets of Los Angeles into reality-TV fame, a devoted social-media following and a booming brand.
Doña Guillermina Villa followed a very different path. She immigrated from Mexico in 1977 to provide for her toddler son back home in Nayarit. In 1982, Doña Guillermina launched El Pescadito, a family-run mariscos lonchera. For decades, she has parked in the same South L.A. immigrant neighborhood, building a livelihood through persistence, family labor and deep community ties.
Placed side by side, these stories reveal more than two approaches to entrepreneurship. They expose the complicated relationship between survival and spectacle, asking how race, class, immigration, media visibility and economic opportunity can shape whose work is celebrated and whose labor is overlooked.
The film also reaches back in time with an award-winning four-minute animated journey from Ancient Mexico to South Los Angeles, tracing the cultural roots of street food across generations. Told in English, Spanish and Náhuatl and accompanied by handmade instruments, the sequence anchors today's entrepreneurs within a much richer history of food, migration, labor and cultural identity.
At its heart, Backstreet to the American Dream is about people working to build something of their own. Through the everyday act of breaking bread, the bilingual, cross-cultural documentary brings different lived experiences into conversation and challenges assumptions about Latino immigrants, pop culture and social biases.
Moving between survival and success, visibility and invisibility, the informal economy and mainstream marketplace, Backstreet asks enduring questions about the American Dream: Whose labor is valued? How do race and class shape economic opportunities? And what does the American Dream look like when success means something different to everyone chasing it?
Themes & Discussion
Economic Justice & Labor: How traditional street vendors and working-class entrepreneurs navigate the commercialization of street food as a working-class tradition transforms into a $2 billion global phenomenon.
Immigration & the American Dream: How immigrant workers pursue economic security, dignity and belonging while confronting structural barriers to opportunity.
Sociology, Race, Class & Opportunity: Contrasting entrepreneurial paths reveal how race, class, media visibility and access can shape whose businesses are celebrated and whose remain marginalized.
Cultural History & Identity: A four-minute animation traces the history of street food from Ancient Mexico to South L.A. in English, Spanish and Náhuatl, connecting contemporary street vending to Indigenous and immigrant histories.
Food, Community & Belonging: Food trucks become gathering places where class and culture intersect, revealing how food can build relationships across communities.
Media, Branding & Social Media Studies: The contrasting trajectories of Grill ’Em All and El Pescadito open a discussion about reality television, social media, cultural legitimacy and what happens when working-class food traditions become commercial trends. These platforms serve as gateways to high visibility, brand growth and economic opportunity, while shaping a path toward iconic pop-culture status.
Urban Studies & Women's Studies: Examines how gender and location shape economic opportunity, and whose labor, stories and success are seen, valued and celebrated.
Entrepreneurship & Food Studies: Examines how street food becomes a pathway to entrepreneurship, revealing how culture, class and access to opportunity shape different routes to economic success.