Unapologetically Blaxican: A Culinary Journey of Family, Culture, and Comfort

In San Diego’s Barrio Logan, Julia Velez-Hernandez serves more than comfort food, her dishes are infused with culture and love. The culinary creations that distinguish her barebones, urban, outdoor bistro Julia Mae’s Kitchen featuring her signature Unapologetically Blaxican cuisine are a reflection of her diverse heritage. 

Julia showcases the influences of her Latina roots, her Black mother’s Arkansas upbringing, the home cooking of the grandma she was named after, and the flavors of the Mexican-American community where she grew up.  

Please don’t call her food “fusion,” she says. “It’s just dinner on a Tuesday.”

For Julia, Julia Mae’s Kitchen and its tagline of serving Unapologetically Blaxican food isn’t about blending two cultures into one. Instead, she said, it’s about being inspired by how cultures meet, overlap, and share space with pride and exuberance. 

Raised in a multicultural home, Julia never thought of her food as mixing cultures. She said it was simply the way her family cooked. Her mother’s southern fried chicken and collard greens were as much a staple in their household as her pollo asada. Growing up in a vibrant Mexican-American neighborhood in San Diego, Mexican food captured her palette at an early age.

Julia’s parents met when both were serving in the U.S. military. Her mother (a Black woman from the South) was in the Army, and her father (a Puerto Rican man raised in Gary, Indiana) was in the Navy. Her mother relocated to San Diego and stayed to raise their family. While her father’s Puerto Rican heritage grounded her as a Latina, he was largely absent; so her nearby Mexican cultural references, heritage, people, and markets have influenced her culinary explorations.

Julia’s passion for food began young. At eight, she made her first full meal with her mother’s blessing—fried chicken, potatoes, and green beans. The green beans were a little gritty, but she was filled with pride and instantly hooked on the joy of preparing a family meal.

“My mom let me try and that meant a lot to me,” Julia recalls. “Now I do the same with my son. I want him to be self-sufficient even if cooking doesn’t end up being his passion.”

Though she didn’t initially plan to go to culinary school, Julia knew she didn’t want to start from scratch working from the bottom in commercial kitchens. After working in a food program during junior high with a local church retreat center, she decided to pursue an education in the culinary arts. Her church helped fund 40% of her tuition, a significant investment in her future that left her in awe and invigorated.

While attending culinary school in Colorado, Julia met Alberto, her husband. She had gone to a salsa dancing club alone and he asked her to dance. It wasn’t long before they were conversing in Spanish about his family origins in Guanajuato, Mexico, and her mixed family heritage in San Diego. Their shared love of food quickly bonded them. 

“He’s a tough critic,” Julia admits. “But when he loves something, I know I’m doing something right.” Her carnitas are a household favorite.

In 2020, Julia was working in a kitchen at a hospital when she found out she was pregnant. There was too much uncertainty and stress for her to feel at ease, so she left and accidentally planted the seed for Julia Mae’s Kitchen. It wasn’t a great time to be out of work in food service, especially with a growing family. So she started making and selling plates of food out of her home to supplement the family income. 

Initially, she focused only on Mexican food like carnitas and carne asada. The items sold well, but Julia was inspired to do more. The food tasted authentic and attracted customers but one day she started developing recipes closer to the flavor combinations happening in her home cooking. 

In February 2023, she experimented with a new Black History Month menu. She leaned into a Blaxican style, blending Black southern foods with traditional Mexican fare.

Her first concept was a decadent and flavor-rich Bayou-style catfish taco that hit a little differently than the Baja California fried fish tacos on most menus but wasn’t so out of the ordinary. She also served up a fried chicken Po’ boy sandwich with chipotle sauce.

Then one night she was struck with the inspiration that changed the course of her cooking philosophy and helped launch her business. 

She created her standout menu item, a candied yam taco. The dish is inspired by her grandmother’s lightly sugared and warmly spiced sweet potato pie. Her version combines smoky candied yams, collard greens, queso fresco, chipotle sauce, and a healthy dose of fresh citrus. 

The item was not an instant success. Her customers wanted the familiar foods that brought them comfort. She said that she received a lot of input that she should change back to the traditional items prepared in a traditional way. Despite the financial uncertainty, Julia says something told her that she needed to pursue her Blaxican menu—and she did so with no apologies.

“When I did the Black History Month menu, it just felt right. I thought, this is it! It wasn’t that what I was doing before wasn’t great,” she said. “But I didn’t know until I knew and I knew that this is what I needed to do.”

For Julia, food is about connection. 

“We all love good food. Let’s eat and have a good time without saying, ‘This is mine’ or ‘This is yours,’” she says. People from all backgrounds flock to her food now and she loves the look on the faces of Mexicans and Black people who visit and can taste a flavor that is familiar but different. The smile as they figure out just what flavors and spices are mingling in their mouths is priceless. 

She said that she takes great pride in the fact that there is something on her menu that can appeal to anyone who loves comfort food with a twist. She is even venturing into vegan options like Cajun vegan crabcake sope and vegan carne asada (crafted with textured soy that marinates for at least 24 hours before cooking).

Another signature dish is her La Jefa taco, which is Julia’s version of an ideal Sunday family dinner. It’s a taco with pot roast, collard greens simmered with smoked turkey, and, of course, mac and cheese. The flavors both heighten and balance each other to create the perfect bite.

“It’s hearty, but it doesn’t weigh you down,” she says.

Julia’s commitment to experimenting with tradition extends to sourcing the right ingredients. She works with Tortilleria Grano de Oro, a small tortilla shop in National City. Their tortillas are handmade with love and care and they were willing to experiment with Julia when she needed a heavier tortilla that could hold her ingredients but didn’t overpower the filling. 

The company has been making tortillas the traditional way for decades but they weren’t afraid to step into new territory to develop a product that suited Julia’s cuisine.

“Traditions are great, but I needed something a little different,” she says. “I’m not making a new tradition but I am showing that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. All Mexican or all soul food. We can let them inform one another without changing them at their core. I still love a great plate of fried chicken or the perfect pollo asada.” 

In the kitchen, Julia’s approach to cooking is influenced by flavor-perfecting traditions of cultures accustomed to cooking foods “slow and low” to bring out peak taste and texture. 

She often starts prep work at 2am to get her specialties going before her kids wake up. Her kitchen is small, but it’s filled with love, intention, and a commitment to family. 

Julia said she is proud that she has never missed a parent-teacher conference or a milestone in her kids’ lives. 

“Someone might not see my small outdoor space with picnic tables and see a huge success, but I do. I’ve done it at my own pace. It’s not flashy, but it’s all mine,” she says. “I’m living the dream… but that doesn’t mean that it is easy. To me, it means I’m doing it on my own terms.”

Julia Mae's Kitchen

4414 Delta St., San Diego

Saturdays, 2–7pm

See @juliamaeskitchen for more special events and healthy cooking classes.