Taco Holder at Richard Sandoval’s El Centro D.F., Facebook.
Introduction and Ingenuity
Old El Paso wants you to believe the wisdom of babes, specifically Spanish-speaking Mexican children, spurs innovation. In a 2004 commercial advertising the Tex-Mex foodstuffs manufacturer’s revolutionary product, a young boy is saddened by his father’s failed attempts at getting their crunchy tacos to remain upright. We see him go so far as to hammer nails into the family dining table, hence creating a workshop-style taco slot. His son bemoans the lack of flat-bottom shells. Eureka! The Stand ’N Stuff Taco is born. The boy is feted as a hero by the entire village framed by cacti and adobe. A voice-over declares “True Genuis. Mexican style.”
However ingenious it might be, the flat-bottom taco shell is not Mexican style. Instead, these prefabricated crunchy tacos exist somewhere between contempt and respect for their place in history. They were developed from the first tacos in the United States (not Mexico), but are considered tasteless bastardizations of their progenitors. Still, they allow for safe entry into the wider world of tacos and carry nostalgia with those who grew up eating them on taco night or Taco Bell. They’re also extremely fragile.
Appearing in the United States in the early 20th century, these hard-shell vittles were created by Mexican immigrants, embraced by Anglo Americans and reviled by Mexicans as aberrations of their traditional tacos dorados (fresh fried tacos). Continue reading
