Goodbye to Tex-Mex? This kitchen reinvents its dishes at the risk of being replaced

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1 topic to highlight: Tex-Mex is in danger

Tex-Mex cuisine, one of the most beloved

in the United States, faces a crisis: reinvent itself or die.

The Big Picture

: Increased exposure to the diversity of true Mexican cuisine, coupled with long-standing criticism of many Tex-Mex dishes, has left American Tex-Mex restaurants in a tough spot.

Details

: Icons such as Mexican Manhattan Restaurant and El Mirador de San Antonio have closed after more than half a century of activity, due to issues unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Other Tex-Mex restaurants have closed or been replaced by taquerias serving regional cuisine from northern Mexico.

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The popularity of gastronomic series

—such as 

o

— has exposed US diners to new Mexican food specialties and interpretations from states other than Texas.

• Cal-Mex, a Californian version, is gaining popularity.

• Thus, experts now recommend that Tex-Mex chefs use fresher ingredients to meet public demand. 

Recount

: Tex-Mex cuisine was developed by Mexican-Americans in the late 1880s, when places like San Antonio were highly racially and ethnically segregated.

• There was virtually no access to food from Mexico due to a lack of supply chains, made even more difficult by border surveillance when the Border Patrol began operating in the early years of the 20th century.

  That forced Mexican-Americans to develop their own culinary style with whatever ingredients they could find.

• Yellow cheese, not typically used in most Mexican cuisine at the time, was cheap and became the staple of their take on dishes like enchiladas.

Gustavo Arellano, a columnist

for the Los Angeles Times, predicted the "death" of Tex-Mex food in 2012 in his book

• Now he sees it more likely to survive, but with changes: "It remains the essential form of food for the working class" Latino.

But, but, but:

José R. Ralat, taco editor for Texas Monthly magazine, told Axios Latino that he believes this cuisine is thriving after its adjustments and will continue to do so for decades to come.

• “It is reconnecting with its roots, because there is now a greater appreciation for fresher ingredients, as well as greater availability of ingredients that were previously inaccessible,” he said.

2. On the cover of children's literature

MacMillan is the latest of several major publishers

to put a spotlight on Latino stories for its children's literature offerings.

Courtesy of Hispanic Star/MacMillan

Why It Matters

: Only 6% of those who work in the publishing industry identify as Latino.

That lack of diversity is reflected in the poor diversity of the books and their characters.

• But more and more works by Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American authors are hitting the best-seller lists, especially in the young adult (known as YA) genre.

• Children's literature has also been slowly diversifying, especially in the last five years.

In 2002,

 3% of children's books had Latino protagonists, according to the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

By 2021, that figure had risen to 7%.

News Momentum

: MacMillan will launch an illustrated children's series celebrating Hispanics on September 6, working with Hispanic Star, an initiative of the group We Are All Human.

• The first books tell the stories of Celia Cruz and baseball player Roberto Clemente.

• Claudia Romo Edelman, co-author of several books in the series, hopes to publish up to 30 of the biographies with MacMillan, she told Axios Latino.

Big Picture

: Other publishing houses, big and small, have also incorporated more Latinos into their children's literature.

• Penguin Random House released a graphic novel about Cesar Chavez in February for its historical figures children's series.

• Two Hispanic mothers founded Lil' Libros in 2014 and it has grown so much that, earlier this summer, they raised more than $2 million in funding to grow their bilingual children's titles.

In his own words

: "The goal is to make clear from childhood those stories that are not told later, to have the place we deserve for the contributions we have made to the United States and that are not attributed to us," said Romo Edelman, the co-author and also founder of We Are all Human, to Axios Latino.

• With this MacMillan series, they hope that "there will be more and more Latino authors, more literature about Latino communities, more educational content to talk about those contributions."

3. Laws leave Latinos without sick leave

Hispanic and black workers

 report less access to paid sick leave, according to a July report.

Why it matters

: The pandemic has highlighted the need for paid time off to recover from illnesses and to care for family members.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

• The US is the only country in the Western Hemisphere without paid sick or paternity leave in federal law, according to an analysis by the University of California, Los Angeles.

• An emergency measure that forced companies to offer paid sick leave in the pandemic expired in 2020.

• Only 11 states and Washington DC offer paid family leave.

  And only Washington DC and 16 states offer paid sick leave.

Big picture

: Workers without paid furlough are more likely to lack health insurance and experience additional financial hardship, according to a July report by nonpartisan think tank the Urban Institute. 

By the numbers

: 58% of Hispanic adults and 67% of non-Hispanic black adults said they have access to these permits, according to the survey.

• In contrast, 72% of non-Hispanic white workers reported that they can take this type of leave.

• Only 40% of Hispanic workers said they could take time off for birth or adoption cases or to care for a sick family member, compared to 57% of non-Hispanic whites.

• Another recent analysis in San Francisco reported that Latinas get an average of two weeks less paid maternity leave than non-Hispanic whites.

Democrats pushed

 last year to make 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave a national standard, but the proposal was quickly forgotten for lack of consensus.

• Republican congressmen told Axios that they will review paid leave policies at the federal level now that the constitutional right to abortion has been judicially nullified.

4. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean

Prosecutors in Argentina are asking that Vice President

 face 12 years in prison, and that she be permanently disqualified from holding public office.

A prosecutor asks for 12 years in prison for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Aug. 23, 202200:32

• Prosecutors accused Fernández in court on Monday of leading an alleged criminal network to award public contracts through bribes between 2003 and 2015, when she was first lady and then president.

• Fernández's team has not yet presented her defense at trial, but she said Tuesday that the criminal cases against her are fabrications, and affirmed that the court is biased to the point of already having "written and signed" her possible sentence.

Lawyers are checked before entering a prison in Ecuador. Marcos PIN / AFP via Getty Images

Ecuador is carrying out its first census

 of people in prison, which began this Monday and will last until November.

• It will be used to prevent overcrowding and analyze transfers from prisons where people serving sentences for serious crimes live with minor offenders.

• Prisons in that country have suffered deadly riots, especially in the last year.

5. Farewell smile: From street music

A 

and salsa ensemble , which was created to give Venezuelan children something to do during the pandemic lockdowns, has not stopped growing. 

A children's orchestra created during the pandemic brings jazz and salsa to the streets of Caracas

July 29, 202201:57

Details

: It was started by the clarinetist and music teacher Juan Manuel Mejías with two of his students.

Soon more joined, and now 18 children are participating.

• The group practices three times a week outside a car workshop in Caracas that also gives them space to store the instruments.

• Spectators in the streets often dance to its melodies.

• Some of the ensemble members are also students of El Sistema's youth orchestras.

In her own words

: "Music gives me responsibility, discipline, perseverance, perseverance" and makes it possible "to dream of being the first trumpet in, for example, the Berlin Philharmonic," trumpeter Greisy Briceño told Noticias Telemundo.

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