In Mexico, street food brings communities together

|
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
A street vendor sells elote, or grilled corn, in the main plaza in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Street food has long been a staple of Mexican communities.

Tacos sold from baskets strapped onto the backs of bikes and steaming sweet potatoes served hot off the cart make up some of the unique sights and smells of Mexico’s vibrant street food culture.

The country has gained international attention for its fine dining in recent years, landing numerous restaurants on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. And traditional Mexican cuisine – defined not only for its iconic ingredients like heirloom corn, chiles, and beans, but also for the way in which the food is grown – was added to the United Nations’ list of intangible cultural heritage.

Despite this growing international attention, it’s the informal, homemade flavors that make food stalls and street vendors a mainstay of Mexican food.

Historians point to pre-Hispanic tianguis, or traveling markets, as the root of customary street dining here. The tradition was enriched at the turn of the 20th century when Mexicans flocked to cities during industrialization, and brought with them a demand for quick, affordable food – and flavors of the pueblos they left behind.

Today, most Mexicans, regardless of economic means, can point to a favorite taco counter or grilled-corn vendor. There’s delight in dining alongside strangers amid the bustle of daily city life.

Provecho!

You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to In Mexico, street food brings communities together
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2023/0130/In-Mexico-street-food-brings-communities-together
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us