A Brief History of Asada Culture

Carne asada as sustenance goes back to the first time humans controlled fire and placed a piece of hunted meat over it, about a million years ago or so. The first microscopic traces of wood ash go back that long. Carne asada as a pastime in Mexico took off in the 1950s, specifically in the northern and northeastern regions of Sonora and Nuevo León. Spanish Jesuit colonizers settled in these regions in the 1530s. This early adoption of meat-eating, in a country that primarily consumed beans and insects for protein before the Spanish conquest, allowed Sonora and Nuevo León to develop thriving cattle industries and consistent access to the freshest and best beef in the country.