Pastorero

A pastorero is the taquero who works the trompo at an al pastor stand, stacking the marinated pork, tending the spit, and slicing meat and pineapple onto tortillas to order; in many taquerías it is the most skilled and best-paid position.

The role

In a taquería that sells several kinds of tacos, the work is divided by station, and the pastorero is the specialist assigned to al pastor. In a 2017 report for PBS SoCal's The Migrant Kitchen, Lesley Téllez describes the pastorero as a taquero devoted solely to al pastor and notes that at Tacos Los Guichos in Los Angeles the pastoreros earn more than the cooks on the grill. Job listings for Mexico City taquerías post separate openings for pastorero and parrillero, the cook who handles the grill.

Skills

Téllez lists the pastorero's duties: stacking the meat on the spit so it cooks evenly, trimming the ends, turning the trompo and watching that it browns without burning, adjusting the heat as the stack shrinks, and slicing thin pieces quickly with pressure matched to the meat's movement, while keeping the knife sharp, warming tortillas and dealing with customers. Some pastoreros toss chunks of pineapple through the air to land on the taco as a bit of showmanship. The newspaper Luz Noticias quoted the veteran taquero Roberto Mendieta, who has trained young cooks, as saying that the job demands decisiveness, style, a sense of seasoning and attentiveness, and a sports psychologist interviewed for the same piece compared the concentration involved to that of a martial artist.

Learning the trade

The skill is usually learned on the job. Rolando Marcelino Martinez, the pastorero profiled by Téllez, learned in Guanajuato and worked in Mexico City's Condesa before moving to Los Angeles. In a 2026 POSTA México report on Mexico City taqueros, Mauricio Luna of Tradición Chilanga said nobody teaches you to build the pastor stack, so cooks learn by watching others, while a newer cook at another stand named shaping the trompo as the hardest part of the job. Téllez notes that women rarely work as pastoreras.

Reviews

See also

• Tacos al pastor
• Trompo
• Armar el trompo
• Taquero
• Taquería roles
• Tacos Los Güichos

References

1. "Behind a $1.50 Taco, a Deep Well of Expertise". PBS SoCal (The Migrant Kitchen). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "Para hacer buenos tacos al pastor se requieren habilidades de karateca". Luz Noticias. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "Lo que nadie ve de los taqueros en CDMX: desde armar el trompo hasta atender a los clientes". POSTA México. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "Empleos de Taquero en Iztapalapa, CDMX". Indeed México. Retrieved 2026-10-10.