Tex-Mex and Mexican. The terms, often used interchangeably, are used to refer to the cuisine of tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, etc. While many may argue that Tex-Mex is just an inauthentic attempt at traditional Mexican food, there is just as much tradition and culture to Tex-Mex as there is Mexican food. The stereotype that Tex-Mex is wannabe Mexican food is not only offensive to the traditions and years of cooking in Texas, but also extremely ignorant to group Texan food and history with Mexico’s.
Europeans arrived in modern-day Texas in the early 1500s, where Native Americans had lived for thousands of years. The land, along with Mexico, was part of New Spain, the Spanish colony. In 1821, Mexico separated from Spain but Texas did not become part of the United States until 1845. Since this time and continuing into the present, Texas has had its own rich culture apart from Mexico and therefore has developed its own traditions and cuisines.
The proximity between Mexico and Texas obviously has influenced similar dishes between cuisines. Tex-Mex is not based on traditional Mexican dishes but adapted from Tejano home cooking. Tejano is Spanish for Texan and refers to those that have descended from the original settlers. Therefore, it is not Texas’s version of Mexican food, but its very own cuisine derived from the traditional cooking of South Texas when Texas and Mexico were a part of the same colony.
In the late 19th century, San Antonio became a prospering railroad town known for its food in city plazas served by a group of women known as the “chili queens.” They served chili con carne — chili with meat — with bread and water and it remains to be a Tex-Mex staple.
Tex-Mex is ranch food. It consists of refried beans “as smooth as pancake batter,” chili powder, fajitas, lots of cumin, extra cheese on everything, and the use of flour tortillas in addition to corn. This shows similarities with the food on the other side of the border, in Northern Mexico, where the ranch tradition includes lots of beef, grilling, and the use of flour tortillas.
As the cuisine became more popular and spread across the United States, many people confused Tex-Mex cuisine with Mexican food. In the early 1970s, Diana Kennedy made a distinction between authentic Mexican food served in Mexico and that served north of the border in her cookbook, “Cuisines of Mexico.” This distinction, while necessary to separate the two cuisines, could have influenced the overarching idea that Tex-Mex is America’s subpar attempt to replicate Mexican cuisine, an idea far from the truth.
To aid in the distinction between Mexican and Tex-Mex, cookbook author and founder of Foodways Texas, Robb Walsh said to the Washington Post, “Why are there no French cooks or connoisseurs coming over to Louisiana to tell Creole cooks they are not making French food the right way? The real way!”
Tex-Mex is its own type of fare. Tex-Mex and Mexican dishes may have similarities but are their own separate entities. They have their own history, their own traditions, and their own flavors. When people say, “Tex-Mex is not real Mexican food,” they’re wrong on so many levels. Tex-Mex is not trying to be Mexican food. The “Tex” in Tex-Mex represents a whole other side of the border made up of ranchers, chili queens, and lots of cheese.
