Essay About Mexican Food

In my original response to what I knew about Mexican food, I was able to identify food items that are of popular thought when thinking about Mexican food. I named tortillas, enchiladas, refried and black beans, rice, cheese, picante sauces, burritos, tacos, batidas and freshly made fruit juices as being the dishes that first come to mind. After reading all about the origins of Mexican food I don’t think I was too far off, but I did not consider how important the tortilla was to Mexico’s history and its people. The tortilla is a big part of some of the dishes I named yet I was unaware of just how resilient the tortilla is as a staple of Mexican cuisine. It also came to me as a surprise that chocolate, something that we associate in modern times with European countries such as Switzerland and famous brands like Godiva, actually derived from the native peoples of Mexico. It has been interesting to learn about the ways colonists were able to adopt and adapt the recipes of the people they infringed upon. For this reason I am in awe of historical records that are able to shed light on the true origins of food in general and these two foods in particular, tortillas and chocolate. Before the

People still wanted their tortillas and eventually this became a source of new capitalism. The tortilla making machines were a way for women to spend less time making tortillas and it was profitable for the people making them. I understand that food is very strongly connected to culture and that attached to food is a history, rituals, and family traditions. I am not of Mexican decent but from the readings we have done, I think it is safe to say that the tortilla is an important part of Mexican’s food culture and identity. It was a food that the Spanish tried to erase, it made it through the many trials it faced throughout Mexico’s history and remains important