LEGAL AND ILLEGAL FOOD INGREDIENTS ON LOS CAMINOS REAL

By

Richard G. Santos

South Texas has always had plenty of edible mammals, fowl, reptiles, fowl, freshwater
food, herbs, vegetables and fruit. The only major change noted in the last 150 years has
been the end of the Little Ice Age when the bison, bears and heaven knows what else,
moved north to cooler climate. At the same time, as the region began to warm, other
mammals, reptiles, fowl, uncultivated corn, plants, weeds and mesquite from warmer
climates moved into South Texas. Moreover, items were introduced intentionally and
unintentionally by both Native Americans and Spanish explorers and settlers.
The last 150 years since the end of the Little Ice Age has also seen non-native edibles
introduced as commercialization of South Texas brought farming, ranching and
settlements that became towns and cities. Also playing an important role in regard to the
cuisine of Spanish Colonial Texas are the ethnic groups (Spanish, Portuguese, Basque
and Native Americans of South Texas) whose cultural cuisine had to adapt to the land
locked hostile environment. A great deal of borrowing, adopting and mixing occurred as
can be seen in the cuisine of the area today.
Legal and illegal trading with French Louisiana can be dated to 1716 when Luis
Jucherau de Saint Denis unexpectedly arrived at the Presidio (fortress) and Franciscan
mission at San Juan Bautista on the banks of the Rio Grande south of present Eagle Pass,
Texas. He had answered a call for help from the Franciscan missionaries who knew the
French in 1714 had established an outpost still known as Natchitoches. Because trade
was controlled by the Spanish Viceregal government located at Mexico City, St. Denis
was immediately placed under house arrest. He was dispatched to Mexico City and soon
released and allowed to return to San Juan Bautista (at present Guerrero, Coahuila).
Shortly thereafter he married a daughter of Captain Diego Ramon and served as a scout
leading Spaniards to the land of the Caddo Indians on the Texas-Louisiana border. The
Spaniards established the first Franciscan missions in Texas and the settlement of
Nacogdoches and Bexar followed thereafter.
Unknowingly, St. Denis and Captain Ramon thus initiated the legal and illegal
trade between Texas and its neighbor to the east. French Louisiana was sold to the U.S.
in 1803 and the Port of New Orleans suddenly took a more meaningful role in the
introduction and trading of goods. Here it should be noted that U. S. citizens whether
called frontiersmen, traders, run-a-ways from the law, or just plain restless, had been
trading and settling in Spanish Texas and New Mexico since the late 1700’s. New
Orleans and the goods from Latin America, Caribbean and Europe were using the
Mississippi River for distribution not only to the U. S. Midwest, but also the Spanish
North American Frontier.
El Camino Real de los Tejas from (San Antonio de) Bexar to Nacogdoches to
Natchitoches to New Orleans was the legal and illegal trading route for Texas. Likewise,
the Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis, Missouri to New Mexico was used for the same
purpose. National Park Service historian Susan Calafate Boyle in her excellent and very
scholarly work Los Capitalistas has documented the merchandise entering Mexican (pre
1848) and U. S. territorial New Mexico (post 1848). The mordida (bribe) system worked
well in Spanish and Mexican Texas and New Mexico as all types of merchandise was
being traded for local consumption and usage as well as being traded further south into
the provinces (later states) of northern Mexico. Los Caminos Real de Adentro for New
Mexico and de los Tejas for Texas thus paved the way for which almost two centuries
later would become the NAFTA trade. However, it should also be honestly noted that the
mordida and illegal cross-border trading has likewise continued.
As documented by Boyle, among the edible and cuisine related items being
imported to New Mexico via St. Louis and surely Texas via Nacogdoches are cooking
oil, olive oil, lemon extract, boxes of fresh water, rice, sugar, chocolate, cocoa, three
grades of coffee (regular, medium and fine), caramel, cinnamon, cayenne peppers,
powdered (ground) peppers, confectionary items (i.e. candy), “esencia de yerba buena”
(essence of mint), figs, syrup, beans, coffee grinders, corn grinders, mustard, nutmeg,
wafers, raisins, pepper shakers, salt shakers, soda, tea, bacon and vinegar. Merchants
Manuel Delgado and Jose Felipe Chavez also imported a great variety of household,
kitchen, personal, farming and ranching items and tools. A variety of cooking utensils,
silverware and china of different quality from “common to fine” are of particular interest.
Bear in mind that many of the items were being exported from New Mexico to
Chihuahua and Durango and surely some items were then exported further south. For a
complete understanding of what Los Manitos were importing from New Orleans and the
U.S. via St. Louis, we strongly recommend you read Los Capitalistas by Susan Boyle.
There is no reason to believe the Tejanos were any different. They were known to
export cattle, horses, goats and leather good to Louisiana. Postmaster General Erasmo
Seguin of Spanish and later Mexican Texas is known to have imported a Phaeton
Carriage for himself and a violin for his son Juan N. Seguin from New Orleans. Like a
governor of Texas who was removed for heading, aiding and abetting illegal trading with
Louisiana, the Tejano population was known for ignoring the trading regulations of far
away Madrid and Mexico City.
Sanctioned items from Europe, Africa, Caribbean and interior provinces were sent
to the Spanish North American frontier via the annual “jamiacas” (country trade fairs).
Originally, the country fair signaled the distribution and availability of goods gathered at
the Island of Jamaica then imported to the North America via the legal port of entry at
Veracruz and the not-so-legal port of Santiesteban del Panuco at Tampico. It is most
interesting to note that some rural communities in South Texas still hold commonly
church sponsored “jamaicas” or community farmers’ markets and/or country fairs. In
Northeast Mexico and South Texas during the Spanish and Mexican periods the fairs
would include rebosos (shawls) from San Juan del Rio, serapes from Saltillo, quilts and
blankets from the towns of the lower Rio Grande (south of Laredo), wine from Coahuila,
wheat from Nuevo Leon, and cooking ingredients including spices and herbs not
available locally. A number of edicts were issued by both the Spanish and Mexican
governors of Texas prohibiting the sale and distribution of alcoholic liquor (agua
ardiente (fire water/whiskey) as well as playing card (naipes). The edicts and
proclamations would not have been issued if the prohibited items were not being
smuggled by traveling merchants. Those specific documents are on file at the Bexar
County Archives at San Antonio of which I was the first archivist under County Clerk
Jimmy Knight. They are also found at the Bexar Archives at UT Austin.
The legal migration to Texas of U.S. citizens from Louisiana and the Trans
Mississippi southern states beginning in 1820, as well as the German, Polish and Czech
immigrants of the 1840’s and 1850’s would further impact the cuisine of the Tejanos.
That will be dealt with later as we look into the dishes, ingredients and results of the
cultural mixing, borrowing, adapting and adopting that occurred in the 19th Century. In
closing we again ask for your recipes along with who, when, where and memories of
home cooking in South Texas. Email me at richardgsantos@yahoo.com.

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Zavala County Sentinel………… 24-25, 2010