CiNii Books - Planet taco : a global history of Mexican food

Planet Taco asks the question, "what is authentic Mexican food?" The burritos and taco shells that many people think of as Mexican were actually created in the United States, and Americanized foods have recently been carried around the world in tin cans and tourist restaurants. But the contemporary struggle between globalization and national sovereignty to determine the meaning of Mexican food is far from new. In fact, Mexican food was the product of globalization from the very beginning - the Spanish conquest - when European and Native American influences blended to forge the mestizo or mixed culture of Mexico. The historic struggle between globalization and the nation continued in the nineteenth century, as Mexicans searching for a national cuisine were torn between nostalgic "Creole" Hispanic dishes of the past and French haute cuisine, the global food of the day. Indigenous foods, by contrast, were considered strictly declasse. Yet another version of Mexican food was created in the U.S. Southwest by Mexican American cooks, including the "Chili Queens" of San Antonio and tamale vendors of Los Angeles. When Mexican American dishes were appropriated by the fast food industry and carried around the world, Mexican elites rediscovered the indigenous roots of their national cuisine among the ancient Aztecs and the Maya. Even this Nueva Cocina Mexicana was a transnational phenomenon, called "New Southwestern" by chefs in the United States. Rivalries within this present-day gourmet movement recalled the nineteenth-century struggles between Creole, Native, and French foods. Planet Taco also seeks to recover the history of people who have been ignored in the struggles to define authentic Mexican, especially those who are marginal to both nations: Indians and Mexican Americans.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction A Tale of Two Tacos
Part I Proto-Tacos
Chapter 1. Maize and the Making of Mexico
Chapter 2. Burritos in the Borderlands
Part II National Tacos
Chapter 3. From the Pastry War to Parisian Mole
Chapter 4. The Rise and Fall of the Chili Queens
Chapter 5. Inventing the Mexican American Taco
Part III Global Tacos
Chapter 6. The First Wave of Global Mexican
Chapter 7. The Blue Corn Bonanza
Conclusion The Battle of the Taco Trucks
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

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Planet taco : a global history of Mexican food

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