Taco USA: What’s So Cosmic About a Burrito?

LET’S CHAT ABOUT IT

Americans as a whole are inherently xenophobic. This generalization has remained an unfortunate yet accurate stereotype since the nation’s beginnings and becomes more prominent each time a wave of immigration hits. Even the most liberal, accepting citizens of the land of the free fall victim to a subconscious, omnipresent fear of the other from time to time. In Taco USA, Gustavo Arellano touches upon America’s xenophobic tendencies as it relates to (and always has related to) Mexican people and Mexican food. Arellano tells a story about the meal he shared with conservative, immigration-opposed Tom Tancredo, who “may not like Mexicans, but … sure loves his Mexican food” (7). Tancredo’s xenophobia — perhaps a euphemism for his intrinsic racism — fails to penetrate his taste buds no matter how heavily it weights on his feelings towards foreign people. It is this type of attitude that allows cultural appropriation to proceed and go unnoticed in popular culture. Mexican food is trendy, especially inauthentic Mexican food — every influencer with a modest following stayed at and promoted the Taco Bell Hotel this summer. Arellano asks readers to recognize this phenomenon, to resist the way in which “Mexican food has entranced Americans even while Mexicans have perplexed Americans” (7). Mexican food is not ours, no matter how much we love it. However, this does not mean that it cannot be enjoyed, it just must be understood; Americans must abandon their deep-seated xenophobia and be willing to know the culture as well as we know the taste of guacamole. The issue of cultural appropriation stands precisely with Tancredo’s and those with similar ideologies’ cognitive dissonance when it comes to Mexican toleration — or, often, lack thereof.

Bibliography:

Arellano, Gustavo. Taco USA. Scribner, 2012.