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Fajitas and the Failure of Refrigerated Meatpacking in Mexico: Consumer Culture and Porfirian Capitalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Jeffrey M. Pilcher
Jeffrey M. Pilcher*
Affiliation:
The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina
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Extract

Tourists who visit a Mexican market to observe a butcher at work will readily notice the difference between the material cultures of meat in Mexico and the United States. Instead of thick, neatly cut steaks, wrapped in clear plastic, they will find butterflied strips of meat, corresponding to no known part of a cow, sawed with ragged edges but remarkable thinness, and hung on hooks and rods. Thick slabs called suadero might be steak except for the checkerboards carved across the front, and seemingly random chunks of retazo complete the baroque display of craftsmanship. Although of little use in making Anglo-American roasts or steaks, these cuts are ideal for such delicacies as carne asada (grilled meat) and mole de olla (chili pepper stew). Indeed, fajitas—skirt steak pounded thin and marinated, then seared quickly on a hot fire, and served with salsa and fresh tortillas— are nothing more than a Tex-Mex version of the standard method of cooking and eating beef in Mexico. Moreover, the differences between U.S. supermarket meat counters and Mexican artisanal market displays extend beyond national culinary preferences to reflect the historical growth of industrial supply chains. Indeed, meat provides a case study demonstrating the significance of consumer culture in shaping the development of Mexican capitalism during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 60 , Issue 3: Special Issue on Material Culture , January 2004 , pp. 411 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2004

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53 A further irony emerges from the specific history of the dish in south Texas, where poor Mexican Americans found an appetizing way of cooking the tough diaphragm muscle of the cow because it was the only meat they could buy. When fajitas finally caught on among mainstream consumers in the 1980s, the price of skirt steak rose to the point that the original cooks could no longer afford it. See Montaño, Mario, “Appropriation and Counterhegemony in South Texas: Food Slurs, Offal Meats, and Blood,” in Tuleja, Tad, (ed.), Usable Pasts: Traditions and Group Expressions in North America (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997), pp. 50–67.Google Scholar