The Americanization of Mexican Food and Vice Versa

Immigrant food vendors inevitably had to adapt their cuisines in order to appeal to mainstream consumers. In the case of Mexican Americans, the most obvious barrier to acceptance by Anglos lay in the piquancy of chilies. The process of industrializing labor-intensive cooking techniques posed more profound dilemmas, and nonethnics, who were ignorant of the subtleties of Mexican cuisine but skilled in techniques of high-volume cooking, often reaped the initial profits from mass-marketing. Nevertheless, appeals to authenticity allowed Mexican Americans a measure of control over the popularization of their foods, thus defying simplistic notions of cultural hegemony and appropriation.