Tacos, tamales, tlacoyos, tlayudas... for some, they are examples of the 'T Diet,' a popular joke used to describe the consumption of snacks often blamed for health issues, and for many, even the cause of the country's obesity situation. But beyond this, we discover that these representatives of street food hold a series of meanings that go far beyond what makes us gain weight or not.
Imagine Mexico City, or large urban centers like Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, etc., without a single taco stand, without a single street stall selling tamales or tortas. While some see this scenario as the ideal of a 'civilized' city, free from street stalls and therefore free from informal commerce, clandestinity, and sanitary problems, there are other voices who recognize not only the complexity of the role of street foods in an urban context, but also their importance in the cultural identity of a country, a region, or even a city.
Street foods in Mexico, contrary to what one might think, are not a recent invention. Chronicler of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo was amazed not only by the variety of fresh products sold in the Tlatelolco market, but also by the ready-to-eat dishes. For a long time, from colonial times to the dawn of the twentieth century, eating street food was associated with the lowest socioeconomic levels, although in practice all social strata succumbed to Mexican snacks. Who can forget Tintán's famous song 'Los agachados,' which recites, almost in a precursor rhythm of Mexican hip-hop, the whole repertoire of what was eaten in public spaces at that time? Let us remember that in many places it was customary to eat almost squatting near the ground, since griddles and snack stoves used to be placed at floor level.
Today we witness that food which was originally and essentially street food, such as the famous snacks, as varied as the regions in our country, is not only part of the culinary offerings of public spaces, but is also taken up and reinterpreted by great chefs not only in Mexico but around the world. Thus, eating a taco is no longer a sign of belonging to a popular social class: today, eating a taco can mean, for example, the status of being able to access one of the trendiest restaurants in Copenhagen, run by a disciple of the world's best chef, which is, precisely, a taquería.
And when it comes to tacos, it seems that Mexicans have almost ingrained in their DNA that just as one must have a trusted doctor, one must have a trusted taquero. The trusted taquero is essential, because even if we are not certain about their hygienic handling of food, we know that this taquero is trustworthy, the one who never makes us sick. Around all this, there is also a whole mythology of Mexican identity depending on the 'resilience' of our stomachs. Thus, Moctezuma's revenge is one of the most influential myths, involving not only food but also the marking of boundaries between 'us' and the outsider.
Street foods offer a whole identity and cultural marking, as well as being the cradle of gastronomic expressions that are taken up by 'high' cuisine. The challenge today is to make these foods coexist with better-planned urban environments, guaranteeing minimum safety standards for diners. And even so, as many people have told me in my research: 'a taco is a taco,' and no taco tastes better than when you 'kick the dog and bite the taco.'
— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.