Mexican American Food

The foods of Mexican Americans belong to one of the oldest regional cuisines in the United States and are simultaneously one of the newest immigrant contributions to this multicultural nation. Native American and Hispanic influences survive in the corn tortillas and chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers) prepared in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico. Meanwhile, Mexican food displays its endless novelty wherever immigrant communities spring up; for example, exotic Oaxacan specialties appear in established barrios of Los Angeles and Chicago at the same time that familiar foods from the conventional migrant-sending regions around Guadalajara and Puebla spread to new parts of the country, such as Atlanta and New York City. Yet most people in the United States encounter Mexican food neither in isolated New Mexico towns nor in urban immigrant enclaves but rather in suburban restaurants and fast-food outlets where the cooking bears little resemblance to dishes served south of the border. Between settled tradition and immigrant adaptation, appropriation and commercialization, the experience of Mexican Americans encompasses the entire history of food in the United States.