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Munchies

Sharing Venezuelan Sandwiches and Culture in Red State Territory

Lafayette, Louisiana, might seem like an unlikely home for the restaurant Patacón, which serves cheese- and meat-stuffed sandwiches made of fried plantains.

This is the eighth in a series of articles featuring immigrant- and refugee-owned restaurants in enclaves located outside of major US cities.

"The patacón is from my city: Maracaibo," said Wanda Lugo, who owns Patacón, a Venezuelan restaurant in Lafayette, Louisiana.

"But you learned how to make it from Google?"

"Yes," she said, smiling.

Lafayette has a population of 126,000 but is the urban center of a region scattered with small towns and Venezuelan immigrants. Nearby Maurice Township, for example, had a population of 1,172 as of the 2010 census and nearly 10 percent of the residents were born in Venezuela. Why? Oil. Lafayette and Venezuela are both oil hubs. Lugo's husband works as an electrical engineer for Halliburton and asked for a transfer out of Venezuela a decade ago, prior to the country's descent into chaos.

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