By Adelaide Jones
When the “Chili Queens” migrated from Mexico and settled in San Antonio, Texas in the late 1800s, they brought the idea of open-air food stands with them, preparing delicious meals for the entire community. The food they prepared and essentially made a name for in the U.S. is what we now know as Tex-Mex cuisine. Americans truly loved how convenient, simple, and cheap these unique, mouthwatering dishes were that the Chili Queens created. Years later, with the same appeals in mind, Glen William Bell Jr. opened up the first Taco Bell in March of 1962 in Downey, California. By 1970, there were already over 300 locations across the United States (CNBC, Why Americans Love Taco Bell). The variations of “Mexican” food that Taco Bell and similar restaurants provided drew the attention of any American who wants a quick, cheap meal that could satisfy any craving possible– take the Nacho Fries for example! American culture commodifies Mexican cuisine, warping the indigenous roles which characterize it and causing great misunderstandings in the Western view of Mexican cookery.
Since Mexican cuisine is generally marketed in America as fast, simple, and delicious, it has become a staple part of the American diet. In this exhibit, I plan to display how the convincing advertising strategies of companies like Taco Bell and Gebhart’s Seasoning allow Americans to believe they are consuming Mexican food in a way that isn’t too far off from Old Mexico. In reality, the style of preparation, the freshness of ingredients, and the amount of love that goes into each dish are starkly different between a Taco Bell kitchen and a grandmother’s kitchen in rural Mexico. This issue that I analyze in this exhibit is widely known as cultural commodification, a process that causes many important elements of a distinct culture to be lost. This phenomenon occurred when the local maize plants of Oaxaca, Mexico were transgenically contaminated to keep up with the high level of corn production in the United States (Curry, Endangered Maize). In this book excerpt, the author explains how the exploitation of maize could have disastrous effects on Indigenous Mexican communities and that a quest to conserve maize’s genetic diversity would also be a quest of Indigenous self-preservation. The versatility and accessibility of maize in Old Mexico allowed ancient Mesoamerican communities to master its cultivation to survive, making maize a key part of their culture and bloodline. It is a staple in the Mexican diet still today and is so deeply woven into Mexico’s food history, but America’s commodification of Mexican culture has caused a sacred part of their culture to begin to be lost. In this exhibit, I will also discuss the prominence of the female role in Mexican cookery and the issues that America’s commodification has caused. For example, recall the Chili Queens discussed earlier? They essentially established Tex-Mex cuisine in the U.S, but still, their collaboration and years of mastery in Mexican cuisine is commonly known as the “hidden kitchen.” In these ways, the Taco Bell-ization of Mexican food has caused the voices of so many to go almost completely unheard.
America’s commodification of Mexican gastronomy causes Americans to think of Mexican cuisine as something that makes the hustle and bustle of everyday life easier– we can grab delicious tacos in the blink of an eye for less than five dollars! However, Mexican cuisine is so much more than what meets the eye of the American consumer. After exploring this exhibit, I hope to instill a new sense of dedication in all of you. I hope you will all feel a newfound urgency to educate yourselves on different cuisines in order to make clear distinctions between culinary identities across the globe and the intricate histories that make them up.
Works Cited:
Curry, Helen Anne, and Full Profile. “Book Excerpt from Endangered Maize.” The Scientist Magazine®, 2022. https://www.the-scientist.com/reading-frames/book-excerpt-from-endangered-maize-69580?utm_campaign=TS_DAILY_NEWSLETTER_2022&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=202430913&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8dgUsEufPKUaxqW5fn8ChW_LdNJH6x7mupRX8gHsO5NKQXiu3qrq8qWbyFzvErJsJKWMIYaaWUkxgwI0NWLVlz3KoTkQ&utm_content=202430913&utm_source=hs_email.
CNBC. “Why Americans Love Taco Bell,” April 19, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eQ2Dry2R_8.
