Walking into the Gold E42 tailgate at Northwest Stadium is a feast for the senses. Reggaetón and old R&B music blasts through the speakers. There's playful ribbing of opposing fans, laughter and games of cornhole and catch. Perhaps the most poignant are the smells: carnitas, costillas and chorizo on the grill.

"We like to party. Wherever the party is, you're gonna see Latinos all the time," longtime fan Jorge Antuo said matter-of-factly with a shrug. "It is what it is."

For nearly 20 years, this specific tailgate has been, as one founder put it, "the heart" of Washington football nation. From the beginning, the engine of the E42 tailgate has been made up of many Latino and Hispanic fans. They've curated a gathering that mixes cultures, welcomes all and has produced a football family.

The exact details of the creation of the E42 tailgate can vary a bit depending on the fans you ask. Georgina Garcia, a member from the start, captures the general consensus with her description that they "all either grew up together, knew each other from high school or had mutual friends."

Roxanne Johnson, another fan who can trace her E42 tailgate ritual to the mid-2000s, claims the more formal tailgate as it's known today spawned when someone forgot the grill.

"We had like 20 pounds of food to cook and nothing. That was when we were like, 'We're going to pool our resources,'" Johnson said. "So, now that's what we do. We all split the costs of everything, and we have a good time."

For most of the founding group, the fandom traces back to childhood. Many are first or second-generation Americans, with grandparents or parents who emigrated from countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and more. Their earliest memories are entangled with Washington football. Take Justo Taboada, who followed his grandma to D.C. in 1990, as an example.

"My grandma used to send Redskins gear to Bolivia, and so I was rocking gear back in my country," Taboada said. "We came here, and it was easy to be a fan."

What started as repping the Burgundy & Gold on a separate continent has become a "never-miss-a-home-game" love for Washington football. Taboada admits that, at first, bringing other friends to the E42 tailgate came with some surprises.

"People didn't know. When I brought other friends, they were shocked like, 'Wow we didn't know there were so many Hispanic Redskins fans' and I said, 'Yeah that's how we roll,' Taboada said with a laugh. "I think they just think we like soccer and not football, but when they come here and see this their minds are blown."

For many like Taboada, football became a way to learn about and settle into American culture. The sport became a favorite to watch on TV or play at recess alongside soccer.

"Even though my dad loved soccer, there was always that football background, because we lived right there in D.C. next to RFK. So that was always there and just the excitement of football," said Miguel Léon, a first-generation American whose parents are from Guatemala. "Unfortunately, we didn't have the resources to go to the games. We lived in a one-bedroom shack, four of us, but football was always on TV, we always saw it. And that's how we became fans of Washington."

Léon and his best friend Yuri "DJ Bomba" Bautista are pillars of the E42 tailgate. Bautista, who moved here from Bolivia when he was four years old, can often be found behind the grill, cheffing up carne asada.

"It's grown tremendously. Word of mouth," Bautista said of the E42 tailgate evolution. "We welcome everybody."

Along with the growth of the tailgate as a whole has come what many see as an increase in football fandom in the Latino and Hispanic communities. In the DMV, more coverage of the team in Spanish has offered a boost.

"What I've seen is that especially on the Latino networks there wasn't much coverage for the football team," Bautista said. "But I've noticed that when Moisés [Commanders' play-by-play announcer Moisés Linares who works with Juan Romero] came around, he would cover the team a lot more than it used to be, and I think that's helped a lot."

While there's a strong nucleus of Latino fans at E42, what so many first appreciated about the sport as a kid -- its ability to bring people together and to make people feel as they belong -- cuts across ethnic and cultural lines. The E42 tailgate is a true melting pot, and the ladle that blends it all is an unbendable love for the Burgundy & Gold.

"We all have our own little tents, but we're all one big family," Garcia said.