An afternoon stop at Los Panchos on the corner of College and Montezuma includes, but is not limited to, the following: a fat, piping hot carne asada burrito, a hangover, the company of close friends with similar hangovers and a poetry reading.

Forget the snooty-nosed, cafe mocha-sipping literary circles at coffee shops all over San Diego. If literature is your thing but lattes aren’t, thanks to the Taco Shop Poets, you can get your fix of poetry with chips and salsa, not caffeine.

The Taco Shop Poets are a group of 14 San Diego/Tijuana-based cultural guerrillas, accomplished writers, artists and educators who have been invading taco shops, cultural centers and bus stations for more than three years, bringing poetry and experimental music to people who really need to hear it, according to recent SDSU graduate and taquero Tomas Riley.

But why taco shops?

“Poetry tends to be limited to certain environments, like classrooms and coffee shops,” Riley said. “There is a better cross-section of people at taco shops.”

While taco stands are as much a part of Southern California culture as surfing and smoothies, Riley says the politics of space have a lot to do with why they hold their readings there.

“Taco shops are purely an invention of Chicano presence in the United States,” Riley said. “Now where else are people as receptive as in taco shops?”

The performance may appear spontaneous, but these bards know their business. They plan among themselves and set out to meet at a given destination after clearing it with the owner.

“We just show up, order some food, and eventually stand up and read a poem,” Riley said. “Once, we were on the corner of Market and 13th when this crackhead came up to the second microphone and started screaming into it. The poet who was on the mike was yelling out his poem, so this guy just decided to join in.”

Adrian Arancibia’s poem “Nada” comments on a child’s journey down the streets of an El Centro community: “Easing mamacita worries/When the trip is too long/Giving up nada/Nada is the contents of the backpack/It’s the dark place under train wheels/It’s eyelashes/Flickering rainbows/After tears and empty bottle nightmares.”

While most of their performances are offered free of charge, the Taco Shop Poets donate 40 percent of their earnings to a scholarship fund for La Sociedad de Joaquin, a San Diego community service brotherhood.

“I graduated from SDSU in modern literature last year,” Riley said, “and I wanted to come back and give the community something I felt it lacked, to recapture a kind of cultural space.”

The Taco Shop Poets will perform in the Experimental Theater tonight at 7:30. Tickets are $4 at the door.