CUISINE AND RECIPES OF THE CAMINO REAL DE LOS TEJAS WANTED

By

Richard G. Santos

I used to tell my students at Our Lady of the Lake University, Trinity University, School
of Aero Space Medicine and Southwest Community College that “Mexicans do not know how to
make Mexican food”. That is, that once a U. S. citizen goes beyond the border area, the tourist
will discover that the dishes called “Mexican food” in the U.S. are not prepared or served in
Mexico. Yes, they do serve and prepare dishes that have the same name but they are not the
same. Moreover, it is practically impossible to find flour tortillas once you travel south of
Saltillo, Coahuila. Why? Simple. What is called “Mexican Food” in the U. S. is actually the
cuisine of the Tejanos, Manitos (New Mexico and Colorado) and Paisanos (Arizona). There is
no denying Mexican, German, Polish, and Anglo influence in the preparation of selected dishes.
But, the basic and traditional cuisine dates from the Spanish Colonial Period. For south Texas
that means the cuisine of Northeast Mexico (Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Tamaulipas) blended
with the cuisine of the region’s Native American cultures.
I also joke about the fact that we can take a Spanish Sephardic Jewish flour tortilla, wrap
it around a Polish sausage and call it “Mexican Food” even though it is not. The same applies to
pinto beans with pieces of pork also called “Mexican Food” .Yet in Spain today the dish is called
“frijoles judios”. This requires an understanding of the Spanish, Portuguese and Basque
Sephardic Jews who colonized what is now Coahuila (1575), Nuevo Leon (1580) and South
Texas (1680’s). The earliest European colonists were (1) practicing Jews, (2) Crypto (secret)
Jews, (3) converses (called new Christians) and (4) Old Christians influenced by the Sephardim
who were the ruling class. Those who upheld the prohibition of pork and did not eat it were
reported to the Inquisition. To avoid being detected, reported, tortured, exiled or burned at the
stake, the Crypto Jews and New Christians ate pork. Hence beans with pork in Spain (pinto,
green, black, etc.) were, and still are, called frijoles judios (Jewish beans).
The Sephardic based European culture of Northeast Mexico and South Texas coexisted
and intermarried, as well as borrowed and adapted selected dishes and ingredients from the
Native American cultures of the area. However, not everything in the Native American cuisine
was adopted. For instance, the Spaniards observed that the natives ate an animal completely
without wasting anything. It was noted they ate an animal de barba a cola (from beard to tail)
and that gave birth to the dish called barbacoa. The most common form today is barbacoa de
cabeza (cow or goat head) that includes cheeks, eyes, brain and tongue. The Spanish colonial
settlers of South Texas preferred barbacoa de espinazo (cow shoulder blade of vertebrae). Until
the 1980’s there were three retailers in San Antonio known to this writer where both types of
barbacoa could be purchased. Needless to say, the barbacoa de espinazo was the most
expensive.
Another dish which differs from the European cuisine and Native American is cabrito
(kid/milk fed baby goat). Nuevo Leon founder Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva brought ganado
menor (goats, sheep and lamb) in 1581-82 when he and his men entered Nuevo Leon. In 1623,
Alonso de Leon brought a flock of ganado menor to Monterrey from Huichapan, present
Mexican state of Hidalgo. The Native Americans who guarded and took care of the goats soon
made it a part of their cuisine. But there was a difference which still exists today. That is, that the
Sephardim prepared and still prepare cabrito al pastor (roasted). The Native American version is
cabrito en sangre/fritada (stewed in its own blood). It is against Jewish Dietary Laws to eat an
animal in its own blood and this dish, as well as morcilla (blood sausage) and sangritas (fresh
cow/goat blood stew with spices) are two more examples of Sephardic taboos that are acceptable
Native American dishes.
It is important to note that Don Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva in his autobiography,
written while a prisoner of the Inquisition, noted it was difficult to transport Nuevo Leon grown
wheat to the markets at the Port of Tampico and cities of Zacatecas and Mexico City. The reason
given was traversing the Sierra Madre and hostile Indians who frequently attacked the ox driven
caravans. His nephew, Luis Rodriguez de Matos (aka Luis de Carvajal, the younger) wrote in his
Memoirs that once in Nuevo Leon he got hungry and made tortillas de flor de trigo. The earliest
mention of flour tortillas in Northeast Mexico can thus be dated to circa 1581-1582. Both
documents are on file at the Ramo de la Inquisicion at the Archivo General de la Nacion de
Mexico. The descendants of the founding families of the 1580 Nuevo Reyno de Leon carried
their cuisine (including flour tortillas) into Coahuila, Tamaulipas and South Texas.
The Tejano of the Spanish Colonial Period and Camino Real (1680’s to 1824) were a
cattle, and mobile horseback culture. Although they had home gardens and small farms in the
communal ejidos (small planting grounds assigned to city residents), they did not develop an
agricultural industry. This was due primarily to marauding Native Americans who frequently
raided the ranchos taking whatever they needed for their own survival. Swiss botanist Jean Louis
Berlandier did not understand this during his visit to Texas and Northeast Mexico in 1828
through 1834. Therefore he erroneously and most insultingly described the residents of San
Antonio and Laredo as lazy and non-productive for not developing an agricultural industry.
Being a mobile, horseback culture, the vaqueros Tejanos carried a small supply of
important ingredients in their saddle backs and relied on the plentiful food to be found then and
now in South Texas. Carne seca (jerky) could be eaten as such or mixed with eggs of a great
variety of fowl found in the area. This is now called machacado or machaca (ground jerky).
Chilepiquin also called chile del monte was and is still used in spicing any dish. The Tejanos also
had native squash, melons, pumpkins uncultivated wild corn and mesquite which is edible by
humans and cattle. The Native Americans ate the mesquite off the tree or ground it into a gruel
for a soup like stew and also made a dough called mesquitamal used in making tamales and
tortillas.
A small amount of flour in the saddle bags could also be used for making flour tortillas or
pan de campo (cowboy or ranch bread). It is interesting to note that the Sephardic Jews of the
area did not use yeast in baking bread or flour tortillas. Therefore, there was no word in the
Spanish dialect of Texas to identify baking powder when introduced by Anglo immigrants to
Texas. The new and unknown baking power was adopted by the Tejanos and its name borrowed
as espauda/espaura (“it’s powder”).
Another well known Spanish Colonial and vaquero Tejano dish are fajitas (skirt steak).
Until the late 1960’s fajitas were either throw away or an inexpensive cut of meat. The skirt steak
strips served as a plate or taco was commercialized in the 1980’s and thus became an expensive
delicacy in both restaurants and fast food businesses. I can attest to the fact that in the 1990’s I
could not find fajitas in a grocery store or restaurant in central Indiana. That is no longer true as
they followed the fast food route of nachos, chile con carne and pinto bean burritos (an alternate
form of tacos) into mainstream U.S. cuisine.
There are dozens of Sephardic and Native American dishes from the Spanish Colonial
Period still being prepared and served at home and to a lesser degree commercially. This
includes the commercialized nopalitos, migas, chilaquiles, enchiladas (layered flat or rolled),
tamales, tortillas, capirotada, albondigas, buñuelo and pan de semita. Also includes are
empanadas, empanaditas (also called turcos) and innards such as menudo, sesos, tripas, liver,
and mountain oysters (bull genitals). In the dessert category are the sweets such as tuna (prickly
pear), mustang grape wine and jellies, and candy of pumpkin or yam. It is these home recipes
and personal memories of who, what, when and where Tejano dishes were prepared that we are
interested in. Please send me those recipes at richardgsantos@yahoo.com. Include who prepare
the item(s), recipe (listing ingredients and amounts), location (town) and when.
Later we will deal with dishes derived from Anglo, German, Polish and Mexican
influence. That is, please exclude all pasta items including fideo (vermicelli), steak tampiqueño,
flautas, entomatadas, flan, seafood dishes, wieners (with eggs/beans/potatoes, etc), cold cuts and
anything with mole or piloncillo that we did not have in Spanish Colonial Texas. For the time
being, send me your recipes and memories of home cooked meals at richardgsantos@yahoo.com
or drop off your cookbooks and recipes at the Zavala County Sentinel office where I can pick
them up. Muchisimas gracias y provecho (enjoy).

End ………………………. End ………………… end …………………. End …………. End

Zavala County Sentinel ……….. 17-18 February 2010

Photo caption: Pan de Campo con Espauda