Want to be muy autentìco for Cinco de Mayo?
Serve extremely thin corn tortillas, historically signaling the most elite of the upper crust, and bypass the Corona beer in favor of Negro Modelo or Tecatethe brews that Mexicans think you should be drinking anyway.
“They say, ‘Why do Americans buy Corona or Carta Blanca?’ — beers associated with the working class — instead of buying the better-quality beers,” says Colorado College professor Mario Montaño, a cultural anthropologist whose studies focus on food and society.
He watches with interest as tortillerias bloom throughout Colorado and the Southwest, evidence that in less than 20 years, tortillas have become so assimilated into U.S. cuisine that sales are surpassed only by white bread.
“What I find interesting is that the tortillerias are making so many flour tortillas,” Montaño said.
“That means they’re catering to immigrant groups from northern Mexico.”
Flour tortillas are a relatively recent addition. When Moctezuma served a banquet to Cortez and his entourage of conquistadors, the tortillas were corn. The tortillas served to the leaders would have been thin as tissue, and perhaps dyed red with extract from a cochineal insect.
“The thinner the tortilla, the higher your class, and greater your prestige,” Montaño explained.
Rancho Liborio, Avanza and other Mexican-oriented supermarkets thrive in Denver and Colorado Springs. They offer fresh tortillas made daily on-premises or bought from nearby tortillerias, but also stock mass-produced tortillas. Why buy commercial tortillas when the fresh ones taste so much better?
“The first-generation immigrant Latinos and Mexicans are very aware of how the tortilla tastes, and maybe what’s happening is that the second and third generations are less aware of that,” Montaño speculates.
“Or they’re buying the commercial tortillas for the convenience. They last a lot longer on the shelf. That’s because they have a lot of chemicals. The other tortillas are made very simply.”
