This Stockton taco truck is a mobile memorial to teen girl killed by gun violence

Fields of yellow daisy flowers wrap around a blue taco truck parked in a lot on the corner of Auto Avenue and Waterloo Road in Stockton.

Yellow letters on the truck read, “Briana’s Taco Shop,” with the truck serving as a memory of 18-year-old Briana Ballesteros, who was fatally shot in September 2017 while sitting in a vehicle in the city.

The teenage girl had just entered adulthood and graduated from Cesar Chavez High School when she took a bullet meant for her boyfriend.

Yolanda Inzunza, mother of Ballesteros, said the night that she lost her first born child, she was at home making enchiladas – a dish Ballesteros loved. Her daughter had asked to use her car so she could take her boyfriend home just around the corner from where they lived.

“I told her, ‘OK, hija, but don’t be late,’” Inzunza said in Spanish. “She said, ‘No, mami, I won’t be late.’”

Five minutes later, she got a call that her daughter had been shot.

Inzunza grabbed her younger daughter and went to see what happened, but when she arrived, she wasn’t able to see Ballesteros.

About three minutes after Ballesteros was taken to the hospital, Inzunza was told that her daughter had died.

After losing her daughter and waiting seven years for the killers to receive their punishment, Inzunza decided that she had to do something to keep her daughter's memory alive.

Something 'very beautiful'

Inzunza and her sister decided that opening a taco truck would be the perfect way because of her daughter's love for asada burritos.

“We picked this because my daughter was a fanatic of burritos,” Inzunza said. “She (her daughter) would always tell me, ‘Mami, bring me a burrito.’ She hardly ate anything but burritos.”

While the road to starting a business has not been easy and some days clientele is limited, Inzunza takes peace in feeling as though her daughter is still with her.

“For me, it’s something very beautiful … it’s like I feel like she’s here with me,” Inzunza said about having the food truck.

The mother never had plans to open the truck in close proximity to where her daughter was shot, but she said the location just happened to be available.

Aidee Ramirez, a close family friend and neighbor, said she felt that the truck is unique in a city filled with countless food trucks.

“I don’t think they’ve ever seen a truck that means someone's life,” Ramirez said.

The food served at the truck resembles dishes from Sinaloa, Mexico, as well as items that remind Inzunza of her daughter.

Customers can order tacos with potatoes, tortas, enchiladas, mulitas, sopes, or quesadillas.

‘They took half of my heart’: Grieving mom wants justice for slain daughter

Justice for Briana

For almost a year after the slaying, Inzunza did not have answers or a motive as to why her daughter was taken from her.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, who investigated the case, said there was not a motive or suspect information about the shooting.

In May 2018, Inzunza was desperate for answers and pleaded with the public to help bring justice for her daughter. She wanted the person or people responsible to tell her why they killed her daughter.

It wasn’t until June 2018 that Jesus Martinez, 20; Salvador Vega, 28; Jose Daniel Maya, 18; and 20-year-old Adrian Jesus Henry were charged in the fatal shooting of Ballesteros.

The four defendants were also charged with the death of Ballesteros’ boyfriend, Daniel Ibarra, who was killed on Oct. 21, 2017.

Earlier this year, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office announced Martinez, now 26, and Vega, now 34, were found guilty of Ballesteros’ death, as well as multiple other homicides from 2017.

The other two defendants who were previously charged in connection with the shooting pleaded prior to a trial.

“I am truly grateful with God, with the people who helped me, the detectives, the sheriff’s," Inzunza said about the guilty verdict. "I know my daughter is not coming back, but justice was done.”

The strength to move forward

Inzunza said she doesn’t know how she managed surviving her daughter's death, continuing to work, being a mother to her youngest daughter and still following the case.

“It was hard … it’s hard going to court looking at those people (the shooters) … remembering everything … because my daughter had just turned 18-years-old,” Inzunza said.

For a moment she recalled how close she and her daughter were, the way they always ate together, and how loving she was .

A message Inzunza wanted to share with mothers who have lost their children is: “Don’t lose faith, only God gives us the strength to move forward and get everything we have to get out for justice for our kids. Don’t stop moving forward, life has to continue.”

The truck is open to the public six days a week.

This article originally appeared on The Record: This Stockton taco truck is a mobile memorial to teen girl killed by gun violence