There are Mexicans who believe there's 'real Mexican food' and 'fake Mexican food.' But the idea of authenticity has driven the popularity of Mexican food among Americans for 100 years. This brought up the idea of installing American-formed ‘Mexican’ stores all around the U.S. But that does not give off a negative input necessarily. It can also provide easier access for native Mexicans in the U.S. to gather their products closer than having them imported. Now there seems to be a lack of interest from Mexicans to receive imported traditional foods from Mexico because there are now what we call ‘Mexican stores’ that make and sell products as well as if they were from Mexico itself. It has made it easier and faster for Mexicans to receive their ‘regular’ food with these stores so close by. It’s simply that American-formed 'Mexican' stores' may instead bring some Mexican Americans a feeling of authenticity or at the least a feeling of familiarity through the access to Mexican foods in American-owned stores bringing a sense of familiarity and home to people who immigrated from Mexico to the US.
The migration of how Mexicans in the U.S. obtained their authentic food became difficult when Mexicans also migrated from Mexico to the U.S. themselves. When people came to the U.S. for a new start per se, it is no doubt that their ‘regular’ food was highly missed. As a solution to their missing food, a few Mexicans either made their food completely from scratch gathering the materials and products from companies that imported food from Mexico. Their interpretation of Mexican food in the U.S. has been made to be ‘Americanized’ where different or more flavors are added that don't relate to the authentic food itself. What is most popular to import are volumes of grains, especially corn, wheat, and soy imported to the United States as well as meat (beef, pork), carbonated beverages, and various types of dairy (Mexico Food Imports, 2018). The difference between having “Mexican food” made here in the U.S. is that the products added to the food make more processed to last longer, whereas the food in Mexico is fresher.
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To begin the introduction of my research process, I conducted an over-the-phone interview with my grandmother Guadalupe Revera who is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico and now lives in California, U.S.A. The interview took place on February 16, 2019. I selected my grandmother for the reason that for many years my family from Mexico has brought over specific sweets and foods that are hard to come by in America, so it was my belief that having authentic food imported had some value to it. Yet, further curiosity got me to also wonder if the importation still continues to this very day and who to best to know of the family's tradition would be my grandmother.
Carrying on this research I discovered many topics such as the value of authentic food, what is considered to be Americanized food now, the migration of food products from the cultures of Mexico into the U.S., and even though changes are made in food production they are neither positive nor negative. This research has come to be more complex than expected. There is value in having authentic food, so the solution is to import it, but as Mexican stores rise in numbers, getting the required products have become easier, yet not all of the products taste the same. At the same time, I learned the value of authentic food comes from the expression of cultural identity. In this case, Mexicans in the U.S. bring the food of their origins with them wherever they go and cook their traditional food in a way to preserve their culture when they move to new places.
Upon the beginning of my interview with my grandmother, the topic of the discussion was how have Americans adopted a Mexican tradition, specifically food, in a U.S context. This topic then changed to how the importing of authentic and fresh products from Mexico has changed because now close enough product is available nearby. My grandmother, Guadalupe Revera, came to the United States in 1974. As of course, she missed her family, she also missed the food. Her favorite foods were pinto beans and enchiladas, in which she had to substitute some of the ingredients for what was available to her at the time in America.
Continuing the interview, I called my grandmother on a Saturday night to first talk about when she left Mexico to come to the U.S. and while she was here how soon did she start ordering foods to be imported from Mexico to the U.S.
I asked, “ So grandma, after leaving Mexico when did you start having certain products and goods imported from Mexico to the United States?”
She said, “Well I started ordering by ingredients for foods in the ‘80s when I was working at a low-end Mexican store. My job at the Mexican store was also to order stuff from Mexico to their too. It’s not like I imported the products myself, they had to go through a company and finally be brought to a store after ordering what I wanted.”
“Did you know a lot of other Mexicans from where you lived in the 80s that also ordered to have foods and sweets imported from Mexico?”
“A few at first, now there is barely any because of how close you can get the foods now.”
“What are the traditions around making food?”, I asked.
“There was the tradition of making tortillas by hand”, she replied, “and now it has become different in a way we're only small towns do it by hand and bigger cities do it by machine in Mexico. As for it being Americanized in the US, making tortillas by hand here is used for the aesthetic rather than having it done with a value tradition.”
“How do you obtain your tortillas?”
“Well Mija, I buy them at the store down the street oh, of course. It's much easier that way.”
I replied, “Are you not worried that the practice of having authentic food imported is not as valued?”
“Not really. Just because it is easier this way doesn't mean it's bad. I just how I used to get the cheese but Mexico and put it here and cookies and chili for authenticity, now they sell them fresh at the Mexican store across town. It makes it easier and I don't have to wait long.”
“Then would you say these products from Mexico now made here are in a way the same? Like, do they taste the same?”
“ In a way, they do taste the same.”
“What do you mean “in a way do they taste the same”? Like, do some of the foods or products taste “White” or not as authentic as they will in Mexico?”
“Some of the products like cakes taste different. The cakes that would be made in the Mexican stores would be too sweet. Like people would add too much sugar and end up not being authentic. These cakes that would be made in Mexico for special occasions like weddings or birthdays taste super good, but at these Mexican stores like the ones down the street would include too much sugar into the cake having it to lose its authenticity. Even the tortillas now taste a bit different. Getting them here at the stores you can tell the ingredients include something that preserves the tortillas to make them last longer, but when I was in Mexico my brother and I would make dinner and would get the tortillas from across the street because they were made that day and for that day only. They were fresh.”
“Grandma, are their values behind getting the food straight from Mexico?”
“Getting the food from Mexico as I can almost guarantee that it would taste good and regular. There's not so much I value getting food imported here, it was that my being here in the United States made me miss the food back home which is why I got certain products imported here. At the time I came to the United States there were just not enough options for me to make traditional foods, so this was the solution I sought out.”
“So Grandma, just to wrap things up, I was wondering if you’re upset that products are nowhere in America instead of Mexico, so getting them would be different as well as the condition of the product. From what you said about getting your products here now, is there a guarantee for their authenticity?”
“No. It just makes it easier for Mexicans here like myself to get what they need to still feel like they are eating from home. We are great cooks, so we will make it by with what we have. This is just easier and faster for us.”
From here, my grandmother moved on from the topic of missing food from Mexico to missing family. After discussing how important it was for my grandmother to outsource her first in the beginning seemed that overall Mexicans have a deep value to what their traditional foods imply. Things have been made easier for her not to go through so much trouble to obtain her foods, but the concept still stands of going through all this work means obtaining authentic fresh ingredients for the purpose of carrying the creation of traditional food alive. Importing food meant something. It meant ordering food from home and knowing that once it arrives to you, it will taste as though you never left home.
In conclusion, the importance of this research essay is to show the social and cultural adaptation to carrying Mexican traditions while living in America. Initially that all together, it is a tradition of the Mexican people to value their food with a sense of home and identity. Food plays an important part in Identity, it helps to understand how Mexicans label themselves and see their own identities as being. Food is such an important factor in Mexicans' lives that the culture comes alive through the food. Here in America, It is what reminds them of home and brings them peace of mind. They are content with the idea that wherever these people go they can bring part of their home with them (Felix & Saldana, 2011).
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