Syndicated columnist and newspaper editor Gustavo Arellano’s new book, “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,” the first comprehensive, written history of Mexican food in the U.S., hits shelves April 10.
El Tecolote was able to review “Taco USA” and had a chance to speak with the author.
Arellano, who authors the nationally syndicated “¡Ask A Mexican!” column and works as the editor at the OC Weekly, was in San Francisco for one day on business. Before catching his return flight, he sat down at his favorite Mission taqueria (El Castillito) to wolf down a burrito and talk about his upcoming book—an earnest exploration into America’s historic and ongoing gastronomic fascination with Mexican food.
“Too often when it comes to the history of Mexicans in the United States, our contributions either never make it in the history books—which is usually what happens—or if they are, they are so distorted that you don’t know fact from fiction,” he said.
Arellano’s culinary journey begins on a “cosmic” scale, with Mexican-American astronauts José Hernandez and Danny Olivas dining on burritos in outer space during a 2009 space mission.
“It’s my intent to let people know that these are great stories. Not so much just because they are Mexican, they are just great stories and they deserved to be chronicled,” he said. “And you have them here too in San Francisco.”
Indeed, there are notable stories about Mexican food in San Francisco, including the first day Febronio Ontiveros started selling burritos out of his El Faro grocery store in 1961.
“Taco USA” also delves into the obscure, nearly forgotten stories of the early marketing of Mexican food by non-Mexicans like Glen Bell of Taco Bell and Steve Ells of Chipotle. For instance, he interviewed the owner of the San Bernardino taqueria where Bell stole the idea for the hard-shelled tacos that made the self-professed “taco titan” famous.
Like some sort of journalistic taco, Arellano has stuffed his book with informative details, and sluiced it with sharp, caustic wit that will be easily recognized by readers of his “¡Ask A Mexican!” column. It’s educational, yet always engaging and entertaining.
Arellano admits he started out as a “Mexican food purist,” but said that while writing the book he had to come to terms with the age-old debate—in any ethnic cuisine—on what is “authentic.” He says that now he finds the authenticity game “silly.”
He used a comment by a fan on Facebook, who wrote that they hoped Arellano’s book would “decolonize the taco,” as an example of the culinary purism he now rejects.
“It makes no sense,” he said. “If you really want to play that game, then any Mexican dish involving beef, cheese, rice, lamb and all that other stuff that we love is not authentic because the Spaniards brought them over.”
Whether it’s Korean tacos from Los Angeles, Tex-Mex or tater-tot breakfast burritos from South Dakota, Arellano said that ultimately all these styles are still Mexican food.
“Just like there is different kinds of Mexicans, there’s different kinds of Mexican food,” he said, adding that there is still a matter of taste involved.
“Not all Mexican food is created equal so, Taco Bell—I consider it Mexican food, but I don’t like it. I’m not going to eat it, nor am I going to recommend it, but it is still Mexican food. It absolutely is.”
So far, “Taco USA” has garnered positive pre-release reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and Booklist. Arellano said he’s proud of his work and hopes that people enjoy it as much as he enjoyed researching and writing it.
His only regret is that it took so long for this history to be assembled into a comprehensive narrative.
“It’s a good thing that I get to tell this story for the first time, but it’s a tragedy that these stories have been around for decades and no one ever really bothered to try to find them,” he said. “How many other stories have disappeared because no one even bothered to ask?”