Food for Thought Lecture - Jeffrey Pilcher, University of Minnesota
"Planet Taco: The Globalization of Mexican Cuisine"
Thursday, January 24, 2008 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Mexican food has joined Chinese and Italian as one of the three most popular ethnic varieties in the United States, although many people know that the tacos and burritos they eat are no more
representative of the cuisines of Mexico than chop suey and pizza are of Chinese and Italian. Not only have the Mexican foods changed significantly in the United States, they have also spread
globally, to the chagrin of Mexicans who find Tex-Mex wherever they travel. In this talk, Jeffrey Pilcher will examine early encounters with Mexican food, including the chili “queens” of San Antonio
and the taco shops of Southern California. He will also attempt to show how the resulting stereotypes have been carried around the world.
Jeffrey M. Pilcher grew up in the Midwest and is now a professor of history at the University of Minnesota. He has been fascinated by Mexican cuisine since his first visit to New Mexico, when a
mouthful of salsa sent steam boiling out his ears. He won the Thomas McGann prize for the best book on Latin American history for ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican
Identity (1998), based on a dissertation completed at Texas Christian University in 1993. His other books include Food in World History (2006) and The Sausage Rebellion: Public
Health, Private Enterprise, and Meat in Mexico City, 1890-1917 (2006). His current research project, to eat Mexican food in as many countries as possible, provides the material for “Planet
Taco.”
