My love for Fresno goes beyond taco trucks and farm produce. Here’s why | Opinion
The Fresno Bee regularly covers crime, homelessness and other difficulties our city deals with on a daily basis. Those are important issues to cover, but that coverage sometimes dwarfs the more positive aspects of the state’s third-largest city.
This year, Bee reporters have embarked on an effort to “Flip the Script” about Fresno, to go beyond the usual stereotypes about the city and challenge the narratives that suggest we are no more than a collection of our negatives. This column is a look at something positive about the city that will turn 140 years old this year.
What keeps my romance with Fresno thriving after more than 35 years?
It surely must be because of the abundance and quality of taco trucks throughout the city. Just like La Elegante taco truck holding court in an industrial area near Maple and Muscat, right?
No.
If not, then it must be the fruits, vegetables and nuts with the best taste when you get them almost fresh from the field. Just like the organic cantaloupe grown near Firebaugh by Joe Del Bosque, correct?
Nope.
Well then, it must be our city’s great location where residents can motor over to the Sierras or the coast for relaxation and recreation. Like the majestic views of Half Dome at Yosemite National Park, right?
Incorrect.
Joseph F. Desmond is why I love Fresno.
I met Desmond 20 years ago when he sponsored the Wendy’s Deletree Conmigo Spelling Bee Competition, in which 150 students from Fresno County competed in spelling English and Spanish words.
The winner would get a home computer system. The problem was, after 36 rounds, there were still seven competitors. When a Parlier student messed up on “consequencia,” Desmond asked her to take her seat and promptly announced that all seven finalists would receive a home computer system.
“I remember my first spelling bee 72 or 73 years ago and I missed ‘accommodate,’” said Desmond, a former Marine who received the first Wendy’s franchise west of the Mississippi. “It’s been with me all those years. I salute you all.”
It’s people like Desmond, who died in 2007, who make Fresno a great place. Every time I go to a Wendy’s in Fresno and see his portrait on the wall, I recall his generosity.
It’s the people who define Fresno
The generosity of Desmond and others like him is why I love this city. Fresno can have taco trucks, highways that lead to natural wonders, and the best produce in the world, but its residents are the foundation.
Ever since I moved to Fresno in 1990, I have met scores of people like Desmond who stand above all others because of their humanity, their love of Fresno and their character. The people I love are resilient, honest and trusting: Is it due to the character and values our ag-based culture mold? Very likely. I’ve definitely noticed it myself.
It’s people like the late Marie Theurich, a real estate agent known for her decades-long search for a Miss Fresno County that could be crowned Miss California. Her dream went unfilled (she died in 2024), but Theurich constantly promoted the pageant and helped mold young women.
People like Jenny Rodríguez, who retired more than a decade ago from her post in the Fresno District Office of the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and continues to counsel people on immigration matters at no cost. Plus, she accepts donations of clothes and food and distributes them to needy families in rural communities.
People like Patricio Galindo, a 2018 Fresno State graduate who served as a Marine during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. As a student, he would visit dying veterans at the Fresno Veterans Hospital to make sure they had someone in their final moments under the No Veteran Dies Alone program. He also created a social work honor society that sent care packages to the military during the holidays. Galindo was named Fresno State’s top undergraduate.
People like Mónica Díaz, who was a mother of three and divorced by the time she was 16 years old. She has thrived as a tax consultant, and is a member of the Fresno Planning Commission.
And people like Angela Ray Grantham, a single mother of two who graduated from Fresno City College in 2023 after giving up on college a dozen years earlier. She overcame a past that included residential burglary and 310 days in Fresno County jail to earn her HVAC degree.
They are the people who make me love Fresno.
This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "My love for Fresno goes beyond taco trucks and farm produce. Here’s why | Opinion."