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TexasTowelie

(126,257 posts) Thu Mar 4, 2021, 12:56 AM Mar 2021

New Film 'Truly Texas Mexican' Uncovers The Roots Of Authentic Mexican Cuisine

“The basic idea of the film is tacos, feminism and cultural resistance.”

Mexican food from Texas is a staple of the state’s cuisine. But it’s not Tex-Mex cuisine we’re talking about. A new documentary traces the food and the community of Mexican Texans through the people who are fighting to keep traditions of their ancestors alive. Author and chef Adán Medrano has been working on the project for three years. The resulting film is called “Truly Texas Mexican.” It’s based on a book Medrano published in 2015. He told Texas Standard that both projects seek to share knowledge of comida casera – the homecooking of Mexican families in Texas, to a wider audience.

“Tex-Mex is great. We all love the gooey cheese and the margaritas, but this other, the precursor to Tex-Mex – the Mexican- American families cooking deer, nopalitos, cactus, all of these other recipes – were not widely known,” Medrano said.

Medrano says Mexican-Americans in Texas today can trace their ancestry back to the first people who stepped onto Texas soil. Cooking methods including roasting, steaming and boiling, and the use of animals and plants that were native to the state, have been passed down through the generations.

Social consciousness and sharing are part of the story Medrano wants to tell.

“I’ve always looked at food as a way to gift somebody,” he said. “My mother did it with me, and that’s how I learned what food was. So I learned food is hospitality.”

Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/new-film-truly-texas-mexican-uncovers-the-roots-of-authentic-mexican-cuisine/

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