Gustavo Arellano - Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America

N ationally syndicated columnist and bestselling author of Ask a Mexican! Gustavo Arellano presents an entertaining, tasty trip through the history and culture of Mexican food in this country, uncovering great stories and charting the cuisines tremendous popularity in el Norte. In the tradition of Bill Bufords Heat and Calvin Trillins The Tummy Trilogy , Arellanos fascinating narrative combines history, cultural criticism, personal anecdotes, and Jesus on a tortilla.

When salsa overtook ketchup as this countrys favorite condiment in the 1990s, Americas century-long love affair with Mexican food reached yet another milestone. In seemingly every decade since the 1880s, America has tried new food trends from south of the borderchili, tamales, tacos, enchiladas, tequila, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and so many moreloved them, and demanded the next great thing. As a result, Mexican food dominates American palates to the tune of billions of dollars in sales per year, from canned refried beans to frozen margaritas and ballpark nachos. Its a little-known history, one thats crept up on this country like your Mexican neighborsand left us better for it.

Now, Taco USA addresses the all-important questions: What exactly constitutes Mexican food in the United States? How did it get here? Whats authentic and whats Taco Bell, and does it matter? Whats so cosmic about a burrito? And why do Americans love Mexican food so darn much?

Tacos, alas, sold separately.

PRAISE FOR ASK A MEXICAN!

A sassy mix of Lenny Bruce rant and civil rights manual Ask a Mexican! engages in a candid public dialogue about racism witty and fearless. LOS ANGELES TIMES

Burning issues, picante answers. HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Controversial and hilarious a subversion of the stiff dialogue on race and culture. NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

If you like your humor smooth as flan or comforting as a big abrazo from your abuelita, do not read Gustavo Arellanos first book, Ask a Mexican! However, if biting satire is your cup of canela tea, Arellano is the man for you. Throughout history, literatures greatest social satirists were both criticized and embraced.

PRAISE FOR ORANGE COUNTY

Informative, moving, and wickedly funny [Arellano] has created a history and analysis that is part family memoir, part travelogue, and many parts social commentary, blasting stereotypes on all sides with lacerating verbal twists and witty irreverence. THE BOSTON GLOBE

A witty and informative memoir delivers a prescient view of the new American landscape. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

MATT OTTO

GUSTAVO ARELLANO s Ask a Mexican! column has a circulation of more than two million in thirty-eight markets (and counting). He has received the Presidents Award from the Los Angeles Press Club, an Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and a 2008 Latino Spirit Award from the California State Legislature. Arellano has appeared on the Today show, Nightline, NPRs Talk of the Nation, and The Colbert Report. For more information, visit askamexican.net.

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COPYRIGHT 2012 SIMON & SCHUSTER

Also by Gustavo Arellano

Ask a Mexican!

Orange County: A Personal History

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Copyright 2012 by Gustavo Arellano

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ISBN 978-1-4391-4861-7

ISBN 978-1-4391-5765-7 (ebook)

To all the Mexican workersbusboys and waitresses, line cooks and sous chefs, janitors and crop pickers, and so many morewho toil anonymously in our food industry, making American cuisine even more Mexican than we can ever realize.

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TACO USA

T wo hundred and thirteen miles up in space, the Earth below cerulean blue, the universe around them infinite and awesome, Jos Hernndez and Danny Olivas wanted Mexican food.

The two had come prepared. They were astronauts on STS-128, a NASA mission that flew the Discovery space shuttle to rendezvous with the International Space Station on August 30, 2009. Discovery s seven-member crew spent ten days at the research station, primarily to resupply the people already up there and to rotate members. Olivasraised in El Paso, Texaswent on a space walk to repair an ammonia tank, among other tasks; Hernndezwho picked crops in Californias Central Valley alongside family members as a childsent his thoughts to our planet en espaol. Espero la cosecha de mi sueo sirva como inspiracion a todos! he enthused via Twitter. I hope the harvest of my dream serves as inspiration to all!

On September 8, the Discovery crew undocked from the Space Station. It was morning. It was time for breakfast burritos. The rest of the crew had earlier asked Hernndez and Olivas if they might cook the meal, because Olivas was the NASA member who knew how to make them best. Of course. A video camera transmitted footage of the duo floating toward the galley of the middeck to open a shelf containing the ingredients needed to construct the cylindrical god in zero gravity: flour tortillas sealed in a vacuum pack, clumps of ready-to-eat scrambled eggs, and fat sausage patties.