“Why Is This White Boy Trying to Teach Us How to Make Tortillas?”

LET’S CHAT ABOUT IT

I watch a lot of videos on YouTube about Mexican cooking. “Tell me something I don’t know,” right? This is old news. Thus far, I have stuck mainly to Rick’s videos on Bon Appetit and channels like Claudia Regalado and Views on the Road — Mexican people making Mexican food — when watching these recipe videos, whether for real inspiration and guidance or simply out of boredom and hunger in the middle of the night.

We have talked a lot about appropriation in class and I, a white girl, did not want to venture into inauthentic and possibly appropriated recipe videos just to keep myself entertained. However, Ralat’s book American Tacos which regards all Mexican cooking as authentic and the First We Feast video we watched in class about the legitimacy of the African-American taco convinced me to expand my boundaries a little bit.

Joshua Weissman is a very popular YouTuber who exclusively makes cooking videos. He’s hilarious and his food always looks great — so I get it. He starts the video above saying, “One of the secrets to true happiness and childlike joy is a warm, fresh, soft, handmade flour tortilla.”

Let’s be honest: he’s so right.

Anyway! That’s not what this post is about!

As Joshua begins the recipe, the first thing he says is, “So I know what you’re thinking: why is this white boy trying to teach us how to make tortillas?”

I think this statement in and of itself embodies exactly how I felt when I first started cooking Mexican food for myself. I feared coming off as disrespectful or crossing the line into appropriation so much that, for a while, I just didn’t do it. But Mexican food should be celebrated! By everyone! Respectfully, though.

I will still stick to Claudia and Rick when I really want to learn how to make Mexican food — after all, I would hope someone would turn to me rather than my non-Italian friends if they wanted to know how to make a proper macaroni and gravy meal — but I find myself a little more comfortable watching non-Mexican YouTubers prepare Mexican food than I did prior to reading American Tacos.

I’m still not sure if those videos are appropriation or not. They are respectful, recognize the dishes as Mexican cuisine and not their own cultural expertise… but it becomes sticky and tricky for a white girl who simply loves all Mexican food. Just as Joshua says in his video, I know whatever I make myself isn’t really Mexican food and doesn’t even compare to something made at the hands of Mexican people who grew up surrounded by that food.

Is that the key to refraining from cultural appropriation? Again, I have no idea…