1A Essay Changes for Spring 2023

Essay 2:

Compare and contrast how Jim Crow is perceived through the eyes of David Pilgrim in his Jim Crow Museum video, Spike Lee in his 4 Little Girls documentary, Ava DuVernay in her Netflix documentary 13th, and Donald Glover in his video "This Is America."

Compare and contrast Jim Crow 1.0 and Jim Crow 2.0 as seen through the eyes of Malcolm X and Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino. Show the Jim Crow Museum.

Essay 4: Compare the Racist Cult of Get Out and White Heat. Notice the ghoul factor in Mike Jeffries and the characters from Get Out. Of course, you will need to delete White Hot from 1C choices.

Posted at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Authenticity Lecture #7

Are Social Justice Warriors Overdoing Their Mission to Defend Authenticity?

As we have studied, there are many motivations for cultural appropriation. There are respectful homages, disrespectful rip-offs, and everything in-between. Some cases aren’t so clear cut. Take, for example, the case of two white ladies who went to Mexico to learn how to make street food, returned to Portland, were accused of being thieves, and were forced to shut down.

Their rise and fall is described in the article “Kooks Serves Pop-Up Breakfast Burritos with Handmade Tortillas Out of a Food Cart on Cesar Chavez.”

We find that Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connelly left Portland for Puerto Nuevo, fell in love with the handmade tortillas, “peeked” at the methods used when the locals wouldn’t unload their secrets, returned to Portland and experimented with what knowledge they had, and they served breakfast burritos partly inspired by Puerto Nuevo and party inspired by the “SoCal burrito.”

In many ways, their synthesis of ingredients and methods make them poster children for Gustavo Arellano. They were innovating and, yes, stealing in Arellano’s “Darwinian” sense, and were making some of the most “decadent” mouth-watering breakfast burritos in Portland, compelling people to stand in long lines.

But if you’ll notice, the article has an “Update: Koos has closed” caption on it.

What happened?

According to Caroline Moreno who wrote “Portland Burrito Cart Closes After Owners Are Accused of Cultural Appropriation,” the publicity surrounding Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connelly grew and grew until enough people were offended by the fact that Wilgus and Connelly admitted to stealing the tortilla recipe and methods.

Many objected to the fact that Wilgus and Connelly didn’t show any remorse or desire to compensate the Mexican women whose recipes the two Anglo women stole before returning to Portland to strike it rich.

The narrative rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. As you can imagine in the age of social media where cancel culture is rampant, social justice warriors went on the rampage and forced the closure of Kooks.

While a moral principle was enforced, the Mexican women are not a penny richer, the people of Portland are being deprived of what were the best burritos available, and fewer Americans can now taste a part of authentic Mexican delicacy. Is all this worth it to enforce a moral principle? There is probably no clear right or wrong answer. I’ll let you decide. But based on what we’ve read from Gustavo Arellano, we can infer that he defends Wilgus and Connelly.

But don’t take my word for it. Here is Gustavo Arellano reiterating many of the ideas we’ve covered as he discusses the closure of Kooks on the KCRW Good Food podcast.

Arellano observes that Portland’s social justice warriors went overboard and that a lot of their extreme behavior is more of a response to the political climate than the women’s behavior. Further, Arellano agrees with Good Food host Evan Kleinman that there is an “authenticity fallacy” that makes a lot of white people reduce Mexican food to a narrow, fallacious definition of authenticity.

Mango Tacos.jpg

Attitude Counts

In Gustavo Arellano’s article “The Problem Isn’t Rick Bayless Cooking Mexican Food--It’s That He’s a Thin-Skinned Diva,” Arellano defends Rick Bayless for cooking Mexican food, but he excoriates Bayless for painting himself as a White Messiah who is America’s Mexican food champion. It is Bayless’ arrogance and condescension that piques Arellano, not Bayless’ cultural appropriation.

Race and Privilege

The controversy surrounding Rick Bayless and the aforementioned Portland women who made breakfast burritos of the now closed Kooks has steered the debate about authentic Mexican food to the subjects of race and privilege. Tim Carman weighs in with his article “Should White Chefs Sell Burritos?” We read that racial shaming in Portland is a powerful political and economical tool and that social justice warriors have even made a list of white Portland restaurants owners whose businesses should be avoided and a list of similar restaurants of people of color who should be visited instead. As Carman writes: “Someone in the City of Roses has even created a Google doc, listing the white-owned restaurants that have appropriated cuisines outside their own culture. For each entry, the document suggests alternative restaurants owned by people of color.”

Social Justice Warriors Impose Totalitarianism on the Food World

Both Tim Carman and Gustavo Arellano agree that this scrutiny of restaurants in which social justice warriors dictate what is authentic by matching a person’s race with the cuisine is extremist, limits the freedoms of what people do in the kitchen, including their culinary creativity, puts people in racial boxes, fails to recognize that there are fusion cuisines that defy categorization, and in general push a totalitarian mentality on the food world.

In other words, there is a totalitarian streak in the Cult of Authenticity movement. In an argumentative paper, this would be one of the grounds or reasons for defending Arellano’s claim that the Cult of Authenticity is bogus.

Throw a Wrench into the Argument

But there are arguments against Gustavo Arellano and Tim Carman. In a critical thinking class we have to look at both sides. We have to always throw a wrench into the argument. Here is one:

In rejecting the social justice warriors’ rejection of cultural appropriation, are there abuses that cannot be ignored? Indeed, some abuses can be identified.

The “White-Washing” of Ethnic Cuisine

In the Katie Donovan article “Culinary Appropriation,” she contends that Rick Bayless and other prominent white chefs appoint themselves as translators of ethnic cuisine for a white consumer base in the interests of making money. By translating ethnic cuisine, these white chefs are appropriating the cuisine for their profits, misrepresenting the original foods and thereby diluting their authenticity, and egotistically claiming culinary greatness when the credit should be given to those who remain in obscurity. As Donovan writes:

“Bayless has had several transgressions against the Mexican culture through his response to critics. However, his description of ‘translating’ certain traditional Mexican ingredients for his Midwestern clients is borderline offensive. He is personally contributing to the white washing of the Mexican culinary culture in highlighting terms that would be more appealing to non-Mexican consumers. In order to market Mexican cuisine to a different audience, it seems as though Rick Bayless puts profits above respect for culture in his restaurants.”

“White-Washing” or “Innovation”?

Gustavo Arellano would agree with some of the above, especially the egotism of self-appointed Food Messiahs for ethnic cuisine. But Gustavo Arellano doesn’t think ethnic foods get “white washed” so much as innovated, and that this innovation keeps Mexican food relevant and dynamic whereas Italian and German food are stagnant and losing relevance in the American dining scene.

Language and Semantics

One of the most mind-boggling areas of argumentation is language or semantics: How we use language and the very words we choose to deliver our argument. If we use “white-washing” we will surely be more likely to be strongly opposed to cultural appropriation; if we use “innovation,” we will surely be more likely to defend, along with Gustavo Arellano, cultural appropriation.

Again, Not all Cultural Appropriation is the Same

A white chef “translating,” stealing, appropriating (or whatever word you want to use) from an ethnic community and profiteering from it is a very specific kind of cultural appropriation. But on a broader level, all food preparations borrow methods and ingredients from all over the world so that the evolution of food is built on a large degree of cultural appropriation. This point is made in the Matt Gross article “The Cultural Appropriation of Food.” Gross observes that pizza, ramen, Cajun-style Gumbo, and an endless list of foods come from trans-migration, innovation, improvisation, and, yes, cultural appropriation. That in fact is the history of food. As Gross writes:

“Ancient history: Cultural appropriation has given us the best food in the world. Pizza, for example, is unthinkable without tomatoes, which originated in the New World and so came to Italy as a result of Christopher Columbus’s voyages. Ramen did not become a big deal in Japan until the postwar American transitional authority brought tons and tons of wheat to the islands. Chili peppers, as this awesome story from Vincent Bevins at The Awl beautifully explained, originate in Latin America, so whenever a Thai curry or Sichuan hotpot sets your mouth aflame, you have the Spanish and especially the Portuguese to thank for bringing that fruit around the world. Oranges probably came from Southeast Asia. Wheat from southeastern Turkey. Apples from Kazakhstan. Last week, some Facebook friends and I determined that Cajun-style gumbo may be the most international food in the world, all of its essential ingredients having originated in farflung corners of the world.”

Your Nuanced View of Cultural Appropriation & Culinary Authenticity Will Influence Your Argument

As you consider the many definitions of cultural appropriation and culinary authenticity, you must also consider that the more complex and nuanced your definitions of these terms are the more sophisticated and impressive your essay will be.

Gustavo Arellano.jpg

Introduction

We have been looking at Gustavo Arellano’s claim that when it comes to Mexican food the Cult of Authenticity is a bad thing rife with fallacies and misconceptions. Let us, again, take a look at Arellano’s arguments before we examine counterarguments that challenge Arellano’s claim.

Review of Gustavo Arellano’s Arguments Against the Cult of Authenticity

(Pro Tip: The following arguments would make an excellent body paragraph outline for Essay 4)

In spite of some phony white chefs who wrongly anoint themselves as ambassadors of Mexican food, mainstreaming Mexican food is on balance a good because it exposes more people to the greatness of Mexican food and encourages cultural respect and cultural celebration of Mexican contributions.
Much of the purity cult behind the notion of authenticity is from whites on the Left and Right who don’t understand Mexican food or the Mexican people.
Letting social justice warriors dictate what is authentic can lead to food totalitarianism and absurdly narrow, reductionist definitions of authenticity.
The lines are blurred between innovation, cross-cultural synergy, and cultural appropriation, which has occurred since the beginning of time and is an inevitable part of how food evolves into amazing dishes.
It’s absurd to reject Tex-Mex or Cal-Mex food when we consider that these fusions are about embracing the greatness of Mexican cuisine and that no food is good or bad per se; rather, how a chef executes the dish determines whether it’s good or not. It’s all about execution. A bad taco could put you in a bad mood for a week. An exceptional taco could “change your life” and inject your brain’s amygdala with euphoric endorphins.

Counterarguments that challenge Gustavo Arellano’s claim that we should reject the Cult of Authenticity

Plagiarism Argument: When we steal intellectual or creative property, there should be consequences. We call this type of stealing plagiarism. Students who commit plagiarism get into big trouble. Shouldn’t cooks who steal creatively and in effect commit culinary plagiarism be subject to some kind of penalties? Should not these chefs who engage in stealing or cultural appropriation at the very least be required to ascribe credit to their sources? Should not these chefs who commit acts of culinary plagiarism at least be required to give a portion of their profits to the areas they stole from?
Moral Argument: Cultural appropriation, the kind where privileged people go to a small town in the United States, Mexico or Latin America and then steal recipes and cooking methods, offends our common sense of morality, fairness, honesty, and justice. When Gustavo Arellano says, “Everybody steals,” and that’s just the “Darwinian” way in the hyper-competitive restaurant industry, could we not accuse Arellano of using a “two rights make a wrong fallacy”? This fallacy is commonly referred to as argumentum ad populum or appeal to the majority fallacy. In other words, just because the majority engage in immoral behavior doesn't make that behavior right.
Quality Control or “Wannabes” Argument: Sure, Gustavo Arellano points out all these great examples of cultural appropriation, but those examples don’t diminish the exponential growth of phony Mexican restaurants that serve the most crass, disgusting, abominable “Mexican food” imaginable. Violating the Cult of Authenticity comes with a steep price: A bunch of wannabes steal some recipes and think they know how to make Mexican food when in fact what they are serving is an insult to Mexican food and to Mexican culture.
Grandmother argument: A student told me he had some very mediocre Molcajete at an expensive Mexican restaurant. He told me, “When I visit my grandmother in Guatemala, she makes me Molcajete that blows all the other ones away. I can’t get excited paying premium dollar for a bunch of sad food that goes under the name of ‘Mexican food.’” What this student is saying essentially is that the tradition, experience, and love his grandmother puts in her homemade Molcajete cannot be compared to the vastly inferior substitutes. Grandmother’s cooking, in other words, is an argument for authenticity.

Tex-Mex Tacos.jpg

Pro Writing Tip for Essay 4: Consider Legit Food Innovation Principle Vs. Flagrant Thievery Principle

Hello Everyone,

As I pore over Gustavo Arellano’s claim that the rigid orthodoxy of food authenticity should be shattered in favor of more flexible food guidelines, I am struck by something that I believe will help you with your argumentative essay.

I am struck by the fact that Arellano uses not one but two arguments to support his claim, and these arguments do not dovetail conveniently to support his claim. To the contrary, his two arguments are divergent: They split and move in opposite directions and as such these diverging arguments weaken his overall claim.

Legit Food Innovation Principle Vs. Flagrant Thievery Principle

What are these two arguments?

The first argument, the one I agree with, is what I’ll call the Legit Food Innovation Principle. This principle states that we have food traditions based on our family, culture, and region, and natural forces cause us to make innovations. For example, we move and in moving we make natural adaptations and innovations based on the original recipe. Or our love and respect of the tacos compels us to be “taco artists” who experiment and make variations to put a spin on old classic style recipes.

I’ll give you two examples.

First, let us say a woman from Chihuahua, Mexico, moves to El Paso, Texas. In Chihuahua, she made tacos with cotija cheese, but in El Paso she can mostly access cheddar cheese, so she goes with the cheddar. Let us say the peppers and other ingredients that grow in her El Paso backyard are different from the plants that grow in her Chihuahua backyard, so she uses the ingredients that are local to her.

These innovations and adaptations, Arellano claims, are legit and totally support his claim that we should challenge food authenticity, which would dictate that we must rigidly adhere to the original recipe.

Here is a second example. Head chef of Guerrilla Tacos in downtown Los Angeles is Pico Rivera native Wes Avila. Mr. Avila is also featured in Netflix’s The Taco Chronicles. Wes Avila celebrates the diversity of tacos, he celebrates the various regions of tacos, and in doing so he is what I’d call a Taco Story-Teller, a craftsman, and an artist who looks at the corn tortilla as a “blank slate” on which to make his artistic creations. His Guerrilla Tacos menu is a testament to this fact. I would consider his approach to tacos part of the Legit Innovation Argument.

However, we must now arrive at another one of Arellano’s arguments, one that I disagree with. I call this the Flagrant Thievery Principle. Regarding the stealing of recipes, Arellano says “everyone does it” and it’s a smart money-making technique in the cutthroat restaurant business.

Here I must depart with Arellano for several reasons.

First the argument that “everyone does it” is a logical fallacy and any critical thinking instructor worth his salt will tell you that two wrongs never make a right. If everyone is stealing computer equipment at your workplace, that doesn’t mean it’s right for you to do the same. Our integrity demands that we never succumb to the “everyone does it” fallacy.

My second disagreement with Arellano is that I find it morally bankrupt for privileged predatory philistines to go down to Mexico, sneak around, steal recipes, and then repackage those recipes for their own profit. Many of my students have pointed out that such behavior smacks of systemic racism and exploitation. I personally wouldn’t want that bad mojo over my restaurant or my conscience.

My third disagreement with the Flagrant Thievery Principle is that Taco Bell got rich stealing from Mitla Cafe, and so according to Arellano, it must be good Sorry, but getting rich is not a moral defense of anything. Making an abomination of real Mexican food and contributing to the depersonalization of food culture through fast-food service is not a moral defense of food theft. My wife told me that Taco Bell and Jack in the Box exist, not for quality food, but because people get stoned and get the munchies. While she may be making an oversimplification, she may be on to something. In any event, making cheap soulless food for profit is hardly a defense of food theft and cultural appropriation.

Conclusion

I agree with Arellano’s Legit Food Innovation Principle, but I vehemently reject his Flagrant Thievery Principle. The latter argument tailspins out of control, careens off the road, and splashes into the Pacific Ocean where it belongs.

I want to thank my students who visited me during my Zoom office hours and asked me thoughtful questions, which made me pore over Arellano’s claim with more granular rigor and intensity.

I hope this discussion was helpful to you all.

Best to Everyone,

Jeff McMahon

Gustavo Arellano Is 75% Right

Gustavo Arellano has made many compelling, insightful points in his essay “Let White People Appropriate Mexican Food,” but do I agree with him? I’d say he’s 75% right.

He’s right that stealing or appropriating food is a reality in the Darwinian restaurant industry where creating buzz and mouth-watering dishes is a cut-throat business. He’s right that stealing and innovating food makes Mexican food relevant, vibrant, current, and popular. He’s right that stealing Mexican food in a way promotes it and helps scale it to the point that it’s the fastest-growing food globally.

However, Arellano has two glaring weaknesses in his argument. For one, he conveniently doesn’t address the sad fact that stealing food too often ruins the food. American bland tastebuds want bland foods, so too often restaurateurs cater to those bland tastebuds by Americanizing Mexican, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Korean, and other foods so that in America we get inferior, insipid versions of the original. Arellano’s argument would have been more credible had he addressed this issue.

Another weakness in Arellano’s argument is his avoidance of white rebranding of ethnic food. Take the Netflix series High on the Hog, for example, which teaches us that during slavery and the African Diaspora many African dishes were carried to America and then rebranded “Southern Cuisine,” which is a euphemism for white cuisine. Such rebranding is a moral abomination. Arellano should have addressed this type of appropriation to give his essay more credibility.

So on balance, Arellano makes some great points about how cultural appropriation can be a form of cultural appreciation that champions Mexican cooking. But he should have shown the unsavory underbelly of cultural appropriation: watered-down bland dishes like Taco Bell and white people rebranding ethnic cuisine as “white food.” Both of those scenarios are unacceptable.

Gustavo Arellano.jpg

To stimulate ideas for your essay, in a paragraph, present your reaction to the following counterarguments that challenge Gustavo Arellano’s defense of cultural appropriation.

Plagiarism Argument: When we steal intellectual or creative property, there should be consequences. We call this type of stealing plagiarism. Students who commit plagiarism get into big trouble. Shouldn’t cooks who steal creatively and in effect commit plagiarism be subject to some kind of penalties? Should not these chefs who engage in stealing or cultural appropriation at the very least be required to ascribe credit to their sources? Should not these chefs who commit acts of culinary plagiarism at least be required to give a portion of their profits to the areas they stole from?
Moral Argument: Cultural appropriation, the kind where privileged people go to a small town in the United States, Mexico or Latin America and steal recipes and cooking methods, offends our common sense of morality, fairness, honesty, and justice. When Gustavo Arellano says, “Everybody steals,” and that’s just the “Darwinian” way in the hyper-competitive restaurant industry, could we not accuse Arellano of using a “two rights make a wrong fallacy”? This fallacy is commonly referred to as argumentum ad populum or appeal to the majority fallacy.
Quality Control or “Wannabes” Argument: Sure, Gustavo Arellano points out all these great examples of cultural appropriation, but those examples don’t diminish the exponential growth of phony Mexican restaurants that serve the most crass, disgusting, abominable “Mexican food” imaginable. Violating the Cult of Authenticity comes with a steep price: A bunch of wannabes steal some recipes and think they know how to make Mexican food when in fact what they are serving is an insult to Mexican food and Mexican culture.
Grandmother argument: A student told me he had some very mediocre Molcajete at an expensive Mexican restaurant. He told me, “When I visit my grandmother in Guatemala, she makes me Molcajete that blows all the other ones away. I can’t get excited paying premium dollar for a bunch of sad food that goes under the name of ‘Mexican food.’” What this student is saying essentially is that the tradition, experience, and love his grandmother puts in her homemade Molcajete cannot be compared to the vastly inferior substitutes. Grandmother’s cooking, in other words, is an argument for authenticity.

Posted at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Authenticity Lecture #6

Sample Theses That Refute and Defend Gustavo Arellano’s Argument

Refutation

Gustavo Arellano is a prestigious, beloved Los Angeles culture writer. Unfortunately, his argument that attempts to ease the collective white conscience to steal Mexican food is a sad, unconvincing affair. His argument is crippled with egregious moral, legal, and logical fallacies. He knows all too well that American history is rife with white people exploiting Mexicans’ hard work and ingenuity. To defend whites because “everyone steals” is a childish remark that fails basic moral teachings, specifically the infantile notion that two wrongs make a right. Second, if Arellano wants us to take him seriously, he must give us a more narrow definition of cultural appropriation. There is no moral equivalence between an El Salvadorean husband respectfully learning the finer points of making Jahuacatas from his wife who hails from Michoacan and the white El Torito manager who hires a Mexican worker, steals the worker’s recipes over a period of two months, and then unceremoniously fires the worker. A third most regrettable error on Arellano’s part is how he conveniently ignores the atrocious fact that the majority of white stealing of Mexican food is done in the cynical service of making money by white-washing and in effect destroying delicious food to make it palatable for philistines, tourists, and other types of phony people who fancy deluding themselves into “going out and getting some ethnic food.” The bad scenarios described above are more than just bad; they are abominations of the tastebuds and the soul, and for Arellano to omit these abominations from his argument is a form of intellectual dishonesty for which I cannot forgive.

Defense

I feel bad for the above writer who has morally excoriated Gustavo Arellano for his supposed moral failings. This writer’s spiritual purity and moral self-righteousness have blinded him from the gustatory pleasures that result from Arellano’s “free-stealing” philosophy. By “free-stealing,” I refer to a degree of healthy chaos that exists in the food industry. Recipes are flying from one town to another; variations are infinite based on quirks, available food, cross-cultural pollination, and a synthesis of cooking techniques from the many cultures that inevitably converge in great cosmopolitan cities such as Los Angeles. Moreover, the relevance of Mexican cooking makes it the most popular, fastest-growing cuisine in the world. Contrary to the above passage which attempts to put a big stink on Gustavo Arellano and which would have us believe that Mexican food is pure, sacrosanct, and unchanging, real Mexican food is constantly evolving through ruthless stealing, borrowing, mutations, and respectful homages to its sacred origins. Thank God, Gustavo Arellano acknowledges the vibrancy of Mexican cooking and its complicated, sometimes morally questionable origins, for finally, a food writer has exposed the truth about the wonders of Mexican food. The above writer, on the other hand, gets a medal for moral self-righteousness but loses points for being a boring, propaganda writer for the Cult of Authenticity.

Your Essay Assignment:

Do you agree or disagree with Arellano's defense of cultural appropriation?

Summary of the Essay's Main Arguments

We are all rapacious creatures whose drive for success makes us to some degree cutthroat and ruthless. The more ruthlessly we steal a recipe the more we affirm the greatness of that recipe. Mediocre food isn't stolen. Only great food is. The theft of Mexican recipes is a tribute to its greatness.
"Stealing" is actually the natural human inclination for cross-cultural pollination. Such pollination enriches culture and in many cases actually changes culture for the better.
To treat Mexicans as helpless victims whose delicacies are being stolen is to patronize them and to "rob them of human agency" (free will). In fact, Mexicans have been "stealing," or rather cross-pollinating, for thousands of years. Their history is rife with taking foods from other cultures such as Spain, France, and the Middle East, and making these foods their own.
From the Netflix series Ugly Delicious, "Tacos" episode, we find that respectful inspiration from the original dish is an acceptable form of cultural appropriation.

Some Caveats, Stipulations, or Conditions We Can Use from Ugly Delicious, "Tacos":

Taking shortcuts is an abomination and degrades the original version of the food such as tortillas.
Offering stereotypes of Mexican food is an abomination and shows ignorance of the depth of ingredients and creativity from the treasures of Mexican cooking. Don't play "Jingle Bells" on the piano when you should be playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Making tourist food or white-washing food to make it bland for mass appeal will make you money but it is an abomination of authentic Mexican food.
Taking agua fresca and rebranding it as "spa water" is a form of racial plagiarism so egregious that I doubt Gustavo Arellano would defend such an act of shamelessness and arrogance.

What are the two opposing sides of this argument?

The Great Debate: Innovation Vs. Tradition:

On one side, Gustavo Arellano’s side, is the argument that great food evolves through stealing and that stealing is a sign of the food’s greatness. Another side of food greatness is constant evolution and constant innovation. People are open to experimenting with foods and not tied to traditions and absolutes. Mexican food, moreover, is not a monolith. There is diversity based on regions and innovations, so there is no such thing as One Kind of Mexican Food, no One Burrito, No One Taco, etc.

On the other side, the Cult of Authenticity, is the belief that food should be unchanged. Food is iconic and rooted in tradition and attempts at changing the food is equivalent to “blasphemy.” Also, when the food is taken and changed it accounts to the loathsome act of cultural appropriation. Which side are you on?

Use the Toulmin Argument Model with a Counterargument-Rebuttal Section

From a design and structure standpoint, you are learning to write an argumentative essay in the tradition of the Toulmin Model, named after philosopher Stephen Toulmin. In the Toulmin Model, you address your opponents’ views in a counterargument-rebuttal section.

Sentence Fragments

Sentence fragments are incomplete thoughts presented as dependent clauses or phrases.

A dependent clause or a phrase is never a complete sentence.

Types of dependent clauses:

Whenever I drive up windy mountains,

Because I have craved pizza for 14 months,

Unless you add coffee to your chocolate cake recipe,

,which is currently enjoying a resurgence.

Phrases

Enamored by the music of Tupac Shakur,

Craving pesto linguine with olive-oil based clam sauce,

Flexing his muscles with a braggadocio never seen in modern times,

Lying under the bridge and eating garlic pepper pretzels with a dollop of cream cheese and a jug of chilled apple cider,

To understand the notion of Universal Basic Income and all of its related factors for social change in this disruptive age,

Running into crowded restaurants with garlic and whiskey fuming out of his sweaty pores while brandishing a golden scepter,

Examples

I won't entertain your requests for more money and gifts. Until you show at least a modicum of responsibility at school and with your friends.

I won't consider buying the new BMW sports coupe. Unless of course my uncle gives me that inheritance he keeps talking about whenever he gets a bit tipsy.

I can't imagine ever going to Chuck E. Cheese. Which makes me feel like I'm emotionally arrested.

I am considering the purchase of a new wardrobe. That is, if I'm picked for that job interview at Nordstrom.

Human morals have vanished. To the point at which it was decided that market values would triumph.

No subject

Marie Antoinette spent huge sums of money on herself and her favorites. And helped to bring on the French Revolution.

No complete verb

The aluminum boat sitting on its trailer.

Beginning with a subordinating word

We returned to the drugstore. Where we waited for our buddies.

A sentence fragment is part of a sentence that is written as if it were a complete sentence. Reading your draft out loud, backwards, sentence by sentence, will help you spot sentence fragments.

Sentence Fragment Exercises

After each sentence, write C for complete or F for fragment sentence. If the sentence is a fragment, correct it so that it is a complete sentence.

One. While hovering over the complexity of a formidable math problem and wondering if he had time to solve the problem before his girlfriend called him to complain about the horrible birthday present he bought her.

Two. In spite of the boyfriend’s growing discontent for his girlfriend, a churlish woman prone to tantrums and grand bouts of petulance.

Three. My BMW 5 series, a serious entry into the luxury car market.

Four. Overcome with nausea from eating ten bowls of angel hair pasta slathered in pine nut garlic pesto.

Five. Winding quickly but safely up the treacherous Palos Verdes hills in the shrouded mist of a lazy June morning, I realized that my BMW gave me feelings of completeness and fulfillment.

Six. To attempt to grasp the profound ignorance of those who deny the compelling truths of science in favor of their pseudo-intellectual ideas about “dangerous” vaccines and the “myths” of global warming.

Seven. The girlfriend whom I lavished with exotic gifts from afar.

Eight. When my cravings for pesto pizza, babaganoush, and triple chocolate cake overcome me during my bouts of acute anxiety.

Nine. Inclined to stop watching sports in the face of my girlfriend’s insistence that I pay more attention to her, I am throwing away my TV.

Ten. At the dance club where I espy my girlfriend flirting with a stranger by the soda machine festooned with party balloons and tinsel.

Eleven. The BMW speeding ahead of me and winding into the misty hills.

Twelve. Before you convert to the religion of veganism in order to impress your vegan girlfriend.

Thirteen. Summoning all my strength to resist the giant chocolate fudge cake sweating on the plate before me.

Identify the Fragments Below

I drank the chalky Soylent meal-replacement drink. Expecting to feel full and satisfied. Only to find that I was still ravenously hungry afterwards. Trying to sate my hunger pangs. I went to HomeTown Buffet. Where I ate several platters of braised oxtail and barbecued short ribs smothered in a honey vinegar sauce. Which reminded me of a sauce where I used to buy groceries from. When I was a kid.

Feeling bloated after my HomeTown Buffet indulgence. I exited the restaurant. After which I hailed an Uber and asked the driver for a night club recommendation. So I could dance off all my calories. The driver recommended a place, Anxiety Wires. I had never heard of it. Though, it was crowded inside. I felt eager to dance and confident about “my swag.” Although, I was still feeling bloated. Wondering if my intestines were on the verge of exploding.

Sweating under the night club’s outdoor canopy. I smelled the cloying gasses of a nearby vape. A serpentine woman was holding the vape. A gold contraption emitting rose-water vapors into my direction. Contemplating my gluttony. I was suddenly feeling low confidence. Though I pushed myself to introduce myself to the vape-smoking stranger with the serpentine features. Her eyes locked on mine.

I decided to play it cool. Instead of overwhelming her with a loud, brash manner. Which she might interpret as neediness on my part.

Keeping a portable fan in my cargo pocket for emergencies. When I feel like I’m overheating. I took the fan out of my pocket, turned it on, and directed it toward the serpentine stranger. Making it so the vapors were blowing back in her face.

“Doesn’t smell so good, does it?” I said. With a sarcastic grin.

She cackled, then said, “Thank you for blowing the vapors in my face. Now I can both enjoy inhaling them and breathing them in. For double the pleasure. You are quite a find. Come home with me and I’ll introduce you to my mother Gertrude and her pitbull Jackson. I’m sure they’ll welcome you into our home. Considering what a well-fed handsome man you are.”

“Thank you for the compliment,” I said. “I would love to meet your mother Gertrude and your mother’s pitbull Jackson. Only one problem. My breath smells like a rotting dead dragon. Right after eating spicy ribs. Which reminds me? Do you have any breath mints?”

“I don’t believe in carrying breath mints. On account of the rose-water vape. That cleanses my palate. Making my breath rosy fresh.”

“Wow. Your constant good breath counteracts my intractable bad breath. Making us a match in heaven.”

“I agree. Totally. You really need to meet my mother. Because she’ll bless us and make our marriage official. Since we really need her blessing. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Now let me smell your breath. So I can identify the hot sauce.”

“Why must you do that?”

“So I can use the same hot sauce on our wedding cake, silly. To celebrate the first night we met. Capisce?”

“Capisce.”

She approached me. Affording me a view of her long, tired face. Covered in scales. Reptilian. Evocative of something primitive. Something precious and indelible from my childhood lost long ago. I wanted to run from her, but I could not. Some mysterious force drew me to her, and we inched closer and closer toward one another. Succumbing to a power neither of us could fathom.

Comma Splice Review

Identify the Comma Splices Below:

It’s not a question of will there be chaos or will there be destruction, it’s a question of how much?

MySpace was disruptive in its time, however, it’s a dated platform and to simply mention it is to make people laugh with a certain derision surely it’s a platform that has seen its time, another example is the meal replacement Soylent, its creator made a drink that says, “You’re too busy to eat,” so drinking this pancake batter-like concoction gives tech people street. I may laugh at its stupidity, instead I should admire it since the product has made millions for its creator. It’s proven to be somewhat disruptive.

To be sure, though, Facebook redefines the word disruptive, it has rapidly accrued over 3 billion users and will soon have half the planet plugged into its site, that is the apotheosis of a greedy person’s fantasy, imagine controlling half the planet on a platform that mines private information and targets ads toward specific personality profiles.

One of the scary disruptions of Facebook is that billions of people have lost their personal agency, what that means that people have unknowingly been manipulated by Facebook’s puppeteers to the point that many Facebook users suffer from social media addiction, moreover, these same users prefer the fake life they curate on social media to the real life they once had, in fact, their previous real life is just a puff of smoke that has faded into the distance, many people no longer even know what it means to be “real” anymore, having lost their agency, having succumbed to their Facebook addiction, they have become zombies waiting for their next rush of social media-fueled dopamine, what a sad state of affairs.

What is Cultural Appropriation?

According to the Origin of Everything “What Is Cultural Appropriation?” video, there are many definitions of cultural appropriation, and we cannot use cultural appropriation as an argument about any debate concerning authenticity unless we are clear with our terms.

There are egregious, ambiguous, and benign forms and examples of cultural appropriation, so we cannot lump them all together as cancel culture (group shaming someone or an organization for committing some unforgivable sin or other) would have us do.

Egregious or Really Bad Forms and Examples of Cultural Appropriation

Elvis Presley imitating soul music while he gets rich and the African Americans he stole from remain on the margins.
A white guy putting on black face and putting on a negative stereotype minstrel show under the name “Jim Crow.”
Hollywood showing a pattern of hiring white actors over ethnic actors to play ethnic roles.
Anytime the dominant culture steals something from marginalized culture for entertainment and profiteering purposes and obscures the original meaning, sacredness, and context of the thing that was stolen.
Rachel Dolezal (shown below), a white woman, using a tanning bed and hair extensions to pass as black, lying about her racial identity, and using her identity as a “black woman” to be an authority on race, and even get a job at the NAACP, and edging out real African American women for the job. In putting on her charade, she became the consummate “wannabe.”

Rachel Dolezal.jpg

Controversial examples of cultural appropriation

Some actions are more controversial. For example, can a white writer assume the identity of an ethnic person in creating a narrator or character for a novel?

Jeanine Cummins.jpg

Such a controversy has become huge in recent times with the best-selling novel American Dirt, by Anglo writer Jeanine Cummins (shown above). Some argue that a writer of any race should have artistic license to create any character they need to fulfill their artistic vision. Others accuse Jeanine Cummins of cultural appropriation and as a guilty party of this act, Cummins, as a white woman, cannot create an authentic experience about a Mexican mother who goes across the United States border with her son, and in fact is exploiting human suffering to make a buck. We read that some have accused, as cited in The Guardian article “Publishers defend American Dirt as claims of cultural appropriation grow,” of Cummins making “overly ripe stereotypes” from “the white gaze” and others say that the novel, cultural appropriation or not, is just bad writing, sensationalistic and formulaic, a cheap thriller.

Defending Cultural Appropriation

New York Times Student Editorial Contest Winner seventeen-year-old Maggie Strauss defends cultural appropriation in her essay “‘Cultural Appropriation’ Is Critical to Human Progress.”

Strauss makes the point that not all cultural appropriation is alike. How we judge instances of cultural appropriation should be partly based on intention or motive. She concedes that many fashions take from different cultures, and sometimes this influence is done in good taste, but other times it is based on shallow stereotypes. As she writes:

“These fashion statements were clearly not designed to offend or degrade the cultures that influenced them. However, that is not to say that everyone who draws inspiration from different cultures is doing it with the right intentions. Issues arise when imitation is based on a shallow and offensive stereotype, which is just blatant racism.”

Syncretism

Strauss argues that cultural appropriation from a broad definition is inevitable and part of natural human progress. This broad definition of cultural exchange is called syncretism. As she writes: “From a historical perspective, the term that is typically used to describe the adoption of certain practices from one culture to the next is syncretism. Without syncretism, human progress would be next to impossible.”

We can’t put ourselves in boxes

An Irish person shouldn’t be forced to wear only Irish clothes, eat Irish food, and drink Irish beer. Such a boxing in is absurd and contrary to human nature. We are creatures who freely engage in cultural exchange. For cancel culture to lump all cultural exchange as some horrific sin of cultural appropriation is extremist and disconnected from reality.

But what about when white women go to Mexico, take recipes from the Mexican streets, and return to America to create a successful Mexican food eatery?

We will address this question in our next post.

Tex-Mex Tacos.jpg

Introduction

In this post we will cover the following:

We will look at the controversy surrounding Tex-Mex.
We will pause for a moment and review some of Gustavo Arellano's arguments against the Cult of Authenticity in the context of Mexican food.
Let us remind ourselves that in the context of Mexican food, the Cult of Authenticity says two main things: People have to come from the region the Mexican food is produced to be legit; people who don't come from the region and cook the same food are stealing the food and using innovations that compromise the purity and authenticity of the food.

Tex-Mex: You Either Hate It or Love It

We can’t argue about the Cult of Authenticity in the context of Mexican food without addressing the controversy of Tex-Mex, which is a very polarizing subject. Some people love chile con carne, fajitas, and chile con queso while others scoff at these “Americanized” versions of Mexican food.

My personal take is that if someone makes any food category well and irresistible, I’ll eat it. I don’t care about labels. Throughout my travels, including Russia, Africa, Italy, France, England, Mexico, Canada, and Spain, I have eaten disgusting, mediocre, and amazing versions of the same food categories, so I’m sure there are abhorrent versions of Tex-Mex and unbelievably amazing versions.

Gustavo Arellano.jpg

Gustavo Arellano Defends Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex

In the article “Gustavo Arellano: Has the Tide Turned Against Tex-Mex Food?” by Katharine Shilcutt, Arellano is quoted as defending both Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex, foods with deep origins in the cultural exchange of Americans and Mexicans.

The Problem Isn’t Tex-Mex; the Problem Is Phony Self-Appointed Experts of Mexican Cuisine

The problem, ironically enough, is that white chef Rick Bayless, who has taken the mantle of Mexican Food Messiah, has wrongly condemned Tex-Mex while aggrandizing himself as the Purity Expert on Mexican Food. Arellano accused Bayless and Diana Kennedy for stealing Mexican food and calling it their own: to “have raided Mexico's various states and towns to cobble together an American version of what "authentic" Mexican food should be.” To add insult to injury, Arellano observes that Bayless only takes his dishes from three regions of Mexico and ignores a huge swatch of other regions, so Bayless disqualifies from being able to call himself a true ambassador of Mexican cuisine.

Arellano Observes Causes of Resentment of Tex-Mex

In the article, we further read that the quality of the delicious Tex-Mex food isn’t the issue; it’s resentment over cultural appropriation, and this resentment, according to Arellano, is largely shared by “Mexican elites.” We read: "With the Mexican elite, they have just hated the fact that Americans love Mexican food and despise the fact that when Americans cook Mexican food they cook Tex-Mex. It's a psychic wound," he explained. "Not only did the gabachos steal half of our territory, now they're stealing our food."

Mainstreaming Ethnic Cuisine Is Not a Bad Thing; We Do It All the Time

Arellano further observes that we mainstream ethnic cuisines all the time, and there is an upside: cultural acceptance, cultural respect, and cultural celebration. As we read: “On the other hand, says Arellano, Mexicans often aren't very fond of Tex-Mex either -- especially Mexicans in other parts of North America. Although other ethnicities' cuisines have been mainstreamed by Americans over the years (Italian and Chinese, most notably), Arellano notes that Mexicans -- by far -- hold the most contempt for the Americanized version of their food. Arellano calls it a "socio-psychological issue.’"

This is probably a good time to stop and review Gustavo Arellano’s main arguments against the Cult of Authenticity.

Review of Gustavo Arellano’s Arguments Against the Cult of Authenticity

(Pro Tip: The following arguments would make an excellent body paragraph outline for Essay 4)

In spite of some phony white chefs who wrongly anoint themselves as ambassadors of Mexican food, mainstreaming Mexican food is on balance a good because it exposes more people to the greatness of Mexican food and encourages cultural respect and cultural celebration of Mexican contributions.
Much of the purity cult behind the notion of authenticity is from whites on the Left and Right who don’t understand Mexican food or the Mexican people.
Letting social justice warriors dictate what is authentic can lead to food totalitarianism and absurdly narrow, reductionist definitions of authenticity.
The lines are blurred between innovation, cross-cultural synergy, and cultural appropriation, which has occurred since the beginning of time and is an inevitable part of how food evolves into amazing dishes.
It’s absurd to reject Tex-Mex or Cal-Mex food when we consider that these fusions are about embracing the greatness of Mexican cuisine and that no food is good or bad per se; rather, how a chef executes the dish determines whether it’s good or not. It’s all about execution. A bad taco could put you in a bad mood for a week. An exceptional taco could “change your life” and inject your brain’s amygdala with euphoric endorphins.

If we have any questions about the authenticity of Tex-Mex, this Eater YouTube video titled “How the World’s Most Authentic Tex-Mex Is Made” should quell those doubts:

How the World's Most Authentic Tex-Mex is Made — Cooking in America

Gustavo Arellano.jpg

Introduction

I’ve been reading journalist Gustavo Arellano’s articles for almost two decades now. He is always truthful, gut-punching, surprising, edgy, funny, smart, and relevant. When I think about his writing, it occurs to me that Arellano often incorporates many of the 8 Rules for Elevating Your Argumentative Thesis.

As we prepare for our essay, let us do a study of them:

Rule #1: Write a claim that means something to you on both an intellectual and visceral level.

If your claim is perfunctory or listless or weak or just plain boring, it is going to show up in your writing. You have to find an angle that you care about both intellectually and viscerally (from the gut). It is impossible to fabricate authentic passion for your topic, that is, unless you are a person of remarkable talent and acting skills. If that is true, you are the exception, not the rule.

Rule #2: Write a claim that is debatable.

If your claim is debatable, then you have the opportunity to test it against opposing views. This testing of your claim forces you to do an intellectual deep dive, which by necessity elevates the sophistication of your writing rigor. In contrast, a thesis that is too obvious and factual will be boring because you will be lecturing down to your reader something that is self-evident. For example, writing a claim or thesis that patience is necessary for a healthy marriage is, while true, so obvious that to read through such an essay would be a slog through a compositional snoozefest.

Rule #3 Write a claim that is modified through the use of conditions or caveats.

A caveat is a condition you place on a proposition. For example, if you are arguing for fighting Covid-19 through contact tracing, you might argue for contact tracing with some caveats in your thesis such as this:

“Provided we have measures to protect privacy and invasive government snooping, contact tracing is essential for fighting Covid-19.”

You are arguing for contact tracing if certain conditions are met. By placing conditions in your thesis, you are elevating your writing’s sophistication.

Rule #4: Gain credibility for your claim by using a concession clause.

In Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky’s From Inquiry to Academic Writing, Third Edition, we read that “Part of the strategy of developing a main claim supported with good reasons is to offer a concession, an acknowledgment that readers may not agree with every point the writer is making. A concession is a writer’s way of saying, ‘Okay, I can see that there may be another way of looking at the issue or another way to interpret the evidence used to support the argument I am making.’”

Some examples of concessions that we place before the thesis:

“While it is true that . . .”

“While I agree with X that Y, it is also important to consider.”

“Yes, some studies have convincingly shown that __________; however, a closer look reveals that _________________”

Rule #5: Be sure that important terms in your claim are clear and explicitly defined to your reader.

Never assume your reader understands terms you might be putting in your essay. If you are using terms like “Cult of Authenticity,” “cultural appropriation,” or “hegemony” in your thesis, you will want to be sure to define those terms in your introduction; otherwise, you will alienate your reader.

Rule #6: Be okay with having a working or tentative thesis at first and then making your thesis more definitive as you progress deeper and deeper into the topic.

Good writing is about the process of discovery, the surprise of discovery, and the writer throwing away preconceptions in his or her passion for finding the truth. Therefore, at the start of the journey, the thesis is going to be “iffy” or tentative; as you clarify your thoughts on the topic, your thesis will become more crsytalized. For example, I grew up hearing people stigmatize Tex-Mex as phony food, but it wasn’t until I did a deep dive on this topic for my English 1C Critical Thinking class that I learned that Tex-Mex has a deep history in the land of Mexico and Texas and that there are amazing chefs who have made Tex-Mex and exquisite art form.

Rule #7: Use the Three Means of Persuasion to make your argumentative thesis more effective.

According to Aristotle, there are Three Means of Persuasion that a speaker or writer can use to persuade his audience:

The appeal of reason and logic: logos

The appeal of emotions: pathos

The appeal of authority: ethos

Logos, the use of logic in your argument: Smoking will compromise your immune system and make you more at risk for cancer; therefore, logic, or logos, dictates that you should quit smoking.

Pathos, the use of emotion in your argument: If you die of cancer, you will be abandoning your family when they need you most; therefore an emotional appeal, or pathos, dictates that you quit smoking.

Ethos, the use of credible sources in your argument: The surgeon general has warned you of the hazards of smoking; therefore the credibility of an authority or expert dictates that you quit smoking. If the writer lacks authority or credibility, he is often well served to draw upon the authority of someone else to support his argument.

You would want to use logos, pathos, and ethos all together if you were trying to persuade someone to quit smoking. To neglect one would be to compromise your argument.

Rule #8: Having mapping components following your thesis gives you and your reader a clear roadmap of where your essay is going.

A thesis should always have a clear direction that shows you and the reader the direction of the essay or the organizational plan. For example, if we argue that it is morally wrong to watch professional football. Here is an argumentative thesis with mapping components:

"While I am a lifelong football fan who has enjoyed the suspense of close games over the years, I am convinced after reading Steve Almond’s anti-football manifesto that I can no longer patronize the game I once loved because it is morally and intellectually bankrupt evidenced by its bloodthirsty violence, misogyny-fueled domestic abuse, parasitic taxpayer trickery, exploitation of the underclass, high risk of permanent brain trauma, and narcissism-inducing toxic masculinity."

Notice the essay's direction is indicated by the claim's mapping components:

bloodthirsty violence
misogyny-fueled domestic abuse
parasitic taxpayer trickery
exploitation of the underclass
high risk of permanent brain trauma
narcissism-inducing toxic masculinity

Many of these points are elaborated on hin Ashan R. Hampton's video "Write a Good Thesis Statement":

Write a Good Thesis Statement

Posted at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Authenticity Lecture #4: Not All Cultural Appropriation Is Alike

Highlights from Gustavo Arellano’s Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America

YouTube Video: “Mexican People Try Taco Bell for the First Time”

The Cosmic Burrito

According to food writer and Los Angeles Times culture critic Gustavo Arellano, Mexican food has been assimilated and celebrated in the United States for 125 years. Tacos and burritos are America’s comfort food.

The celebration of Mexican food in America has caused a worldwide appetite for Mexican food, from Dubai to Australia, which has its own Taco Bell, called Taco Bill’s, which specializes in fish tacos.

Arellano observes that for over 100 years, many Americans who are anti-Mexican in their prejudices are unaware of the contradiction between their racism and their undying love of Mexican food. They compartmentalize, loving the food yet inexplicably disliking the people who make it, turning Mexicans into negative stereotypes while having a relentless desire for Mexican food.

Tortillas are the preferred food of NASA astronauts, so there is now the “Cosmic Burrito” and variations of Mexican food pop up all over America, including the muchaco, a taco made with ground beef and pita bread at the Taco Bueno restaurant chain.

Hot Cocoa Comes from Mexico

Arellano observes that traditional desserts made with cocoa and vanilla to make chocolate and vanilla desserts, including hot cocoa, come from 1700s Mexico when the Virgin Mary statues in the cathedrals had offerings of various chocolate and vanilla desserts. This vanilla was cultivated to perfection and copied by the Europeans in Pico de Orizaba, a vanilla region in Veracruz, which is in eastern Mexico.

As early as the 1500s, Spanish conquerors fell in love with Mexican foods made with corn or maize, which were made into various forms of masa cornmeal.

The Spaniards become obsessed with tortillas and tamales, the latter being a convenience food perfect for traveling with.

The Spanish invader Cortes demanded Mexican food in his court, and according to Arellano, this is the first documented case of cultural appropriation.

Moreover, the Spaniards introduced the Mexicans to wheat flour, which brought flour tortillas to the Mexican diet.

This is our first known case of fusion.

Chile Con Carne (soon to become Chili)

Arrellano observes that the first chili made with hot peppers and meat was around 1870 in the San Antonio region, not Texas, but pre-Texas: Tejas.

Chile became so popular that by the 1880s, you could already find it advertised in Hawaii and Washington D.C.

The world doesn’t understand how good Mexican food is. They take it for granted. This is one of Arellano’s main points.

Now Chile Con Carne is just “Chili.”

Tamalero

Tamales started to spread throughout America in the 1890s and were sold by European, Indian, and Arab immigrants who were often called “Mexicans.” These immigrants who sold the tamales on the streets were called Tamaleros, AKA “The Hot Tamale Man.”

They became part of American popular culture and folklore.

World Domination of the Taco in the 1950s

As big as tamales and chili were for about 70 years, they would be replaced by the world-dominating taco starting in the 1950s.

Arellano contributes this growth to a place in Orange County called Irvine, the birth of Taco Bell, founded by Glen Bell.

We now have many tacos including:

The soft-shell taco
The taco dorado (hard shell)
The taquito (flautas)

Tacos have exploded all over the world, including Sweden, Japan, and South Africa.

Birthplace of the American Taco and the Gateway Drug Argument

While Glen Bell popularized the taco, the birthplace of the American taco comes from downtown Los Angeles on Olvera Street, a tiny taco stand called Cielito Lindo, circa 1931.

The second place is in San Bernardino, the Mitla Cafe, established in 1937. The restaurant served hard-shell tacos packed with beef and shredded cheese: taco dorado con carne molida.

Glen Bell noticed the popularity of Mexican food among the white consumer base in the San Bernardino area, and he copied Mitla Cafe when he started various taco ventures before settling on Taco Bell.

The owners of Mitla Cafe and Gustavo Arellano defend Taco Bell with its phony “Mexican food” because it’s the “gateway drug” to real Mexican food.

We can call this the Gateway Drug Argument for your essay.

Challenges to Authenticity

In his book, Taco USA, Arellano tackles some challenges to the idea of authenticity in Mexican food:

Since the 1980s, many white chefs have become Mexican food “experts,” writing cookbooks, opening Mexican restaurants, and having TV shows featuring Mexican food.
There was a type of food from New Mexico called “Southwestern Cuisine,” which could often be pretentious “gourmet” dishes with some loose connection to Mexican food. Other times, the food is very good, featuring local ingredients like hatch chilies. The enduring food from Southwestern Cuisine is the breakfast burrito. The craze started to die in the 1990s.
Tex-Mex, a fusion that since the 1930s features fajitas and chili has been criticized as being inauthentic, “the lowest common denominator of Mexican food.” However, the actual term Tex-Mex wasn’t coined until the 1960s.

The Great Burrito Rivalry

Gustavo Arellano adores the legendary Manuel’s Special at Manuel’s El Tepeyac Cafe in Boyle Heights.

He compares the burrito to an encounter with God. The burrito is 5 pounds and filled with grilled chicken, carne asada, machaca, beans, rice, guacamole, and sour cream.

The rival to Los Angeles for burritos is San Francisco, the Mission District, a place called “El Faro,” the Lighthouse. These are called Mission Style burritos.

“Tracing the delicious history of San Francisco’s mission style burrito”

“Why are Restaurant Burritos Better Than Homemade?”

Holy Grail Mexican Food Destinations

Arellano says his favorite burrito is the chile relleno burrito at Lucy’s Drive-In on Pico Blvd and La Brea in Los Angeles.
His favorite tamales are at Pasquale’s Tamales, a trailer in Helena, Arkansa, owned by a third-generation Sicilian family.
His favorite lamb chicharrones are Angelina’s in Espanola, New Mexico.
He loves the Taco Acorazado (Battleship) at Alebrije’s Grill in Santa Ana, CA. He says the tortillas alone are a miracle.

Not All Cultural Appropriation Is Alike: To Agree Or Not to Agree with Gustavo Arellano

The college students in my critical thinking class and I live in Los Angeles where some of the best food in the world is in our very backyards. I don’t want my students or me to take this for granted. I want us to do a deep dive into the Los Angeles food world, particularly Mexican food, the most popular cuisine in the world. So for our final essay assignment, we read Gustavo Arellano’s article “Let White People Appropriate Mexican Food--Mexicans Do It to Ourselves All the Time” and we write an essay that supports or refutes Arellano’s defense of cultural appropriation.

Arellano defends cultural appropriation by explaining three things. One, that since the beginning of time restaurant owners have copied their competition; two, social justice warriors aren’t helping anyone when they patronize Mexicans by painting them as helpless victims when in fact Mexicans steal in the food industry just like everyone else; and three, what some might call appropriation or stealing can be in fact the healthy human impulse for cross-cultural pollination, evidenced by the fact that many of Mexico’s most famous regional dishes incorporate the food and ingredients from Spain, France, and the Middle East.

Arellano’s argument forces us to question the very idea of authenticity. What is authenticity? In the context of Mexican food, authenticity is the traditions of regional Mexican cooking that bring labor-intensive cooking techniques, geographical richness, and time-tested rituals to produce some of the best food in the world. But authenticity is more than food. It is family and culture. I urge you to watch The Taco Chronicles on Netflix. When you see families in different parts of Mexico making carnitas, canasta, asada, pastor, barbacoa, guisado, suadero, cochinita, cabrito, birria, and pescado, you will find that the geography and family traditions make these dishes authentic. But just as importantly, these foods are so good that they are a miracle from God. Look at the love the community lavishes on the local taquero, the man selling tacos on the street corner. He is bringing love to the city, and he is appreciated for it. Look at the entire communities gathering together to make these authentic dishes and you will see that food is rooted in family and culture. What is most beautiful about this notion of authenticity is the expression of love for others by bringing them the food of the gods. There is a reason in Mexico why the taco is called madre.

When we watch The Taco Chronicles, the sense of community combined with the making of the best food in the world wins our hearts and our stomachs. Any notion of violating this authenticity rightfully angers us and we are disinclined to agree with Arellano’s support of cultural appropriation. However, if you read Arellano’s book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, you will get more context for Arellano’s defense of cultural appropriation. Arellano would never want us to violate the authentic regional traditions of Mexican cooking. Instead, he is arguing that the splendor of regional Mexican cooking spread to America by bringing food that is both desirable and affordable and that some, not all, of the magic of authentic Mexican cuisine became accessible to the American masses. Moreover, this Mexican food changed American culture for the better. Full-flavored Mexican food replaced the tasteless pablum of “American” food. Americans speak with their money and they spend so much money on Mexican food that they have made a statement that they want Mexican food in their culture.

Is Gustavo Arellano defending all forms of cultural appropriation? Clearly not. If you read his articles and watch the Netflix series Ugly Delicious, “Tacos,” you will see that Arellano has contempt for “soulless” Mexican food, “Mexican” food chains that bastardize good-tasting Mexican food, food chains that disconnect the food they sell from the workers and from the Mexican culture; you will also see that Arellano has a healthy contempt for white-washed tourist food--phony overpriced Mexican food that has no spice and has been altered to appeal to the most infantile tastebuds. These counterfeit “Mexican” restaurants aren’t serving Mexican food at all. Rather, they are shamelessly serving overpriced tasteless codswallop. They are an abomination of Mexican food and the very idea of cross-cultural pollination.

However, there are defensible iterations of cultural appropriation. Stealing recipes from Mexico and elsewhere and bringing affordable street food to America doesn’t hurt anyone and in fact brings the nectar of the gods to more people for affordable prices. Recipes are stolen all the time. Just don’t take aqua fresca and call it “spa water” on your Tiktok channel, as Gracie Norton did, which is a form of racial plagiarism.

Some will argue that if some white ladies from Portland go to Mexico and steal taco recipes from grandmothers in Mexico City, those grandmothers are entitled to a cut of the action. But in reality, millions of recipes are stolen every day in the restaurant industry and any kind of compensation through accurate and detailed accounting is an impossibility.

Another defense of Gustavo Arellano’s claim that cultural appropriation is a good thing can be found in Netflix’s Chef’s Table Pizza series. Specifically, there are two chefs, Chris Bianco and Ann Kim, who break the rules of tradition to show that there is a place for creativity and improvisation in making superior pizza that violates notions of tradition and authenticity. In fact, Italian pizza experts have visited Chris Bianco’s Pizzeria Bianco in Pheonix, Arizona, and have proclaimed that his pizza is superior to the traditional pizzas of Italy. In the case of Ann Kim, she puts kimchi on her pizza and serves Korean mung bean pancakes and her restaurant Pizzeria Lola is so famous that to meet demand, she opened three other restaurants: Hello Pizza, Young Joni, and Sook & Mimi. Incidentally, her most recent restaurant Sook & Mimi features handmade tortillas made in the tradition of Mexico.

When we see successful restauranters such as Chris Bianco and Ann Kim make delicious food that is based on both authenticity and creativity, we see that making authentic food, or not, is not an either/or proposition. It is possible to do both. Again, this notion of combining authenticity with cultural cross-pollination supports Arellano’s defense of cultural appropriation.

Clearly, not all forms of cultural appropriation are alike. Some types are an abomination. Others are a celebration. The purpose of this assignment is to use our critical thinking skills to distinguish the good from the bad and to find nuance, shades of gray, and complexity.

Just as the best tacos have a complexity of flavors, the best essays have a complexity of ideas.

Posted at 07:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Authenticity Lecture #3

“Let White People Appropriate Mexican Food--Mexicans Do It to Ourselves All the Time” by Gustavo Arellano

My thoughts on cultural appropriation of food changed forever in the research for my 2012 book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. One of my personal highlights was discovering the restaurant that Glenn Bell of Taco Bell infamy had cited in his autobiography as being the source of "inspiration" for him deciding to get into the taco business. How did he get inspired? He'd eat tacos at the restaurant every night, then go across the street to his hot dog stand to try and re-create them.

Bell freely admitted to the story, but never revealed the name of the restaurant. I did: Mitla Cafe in San Bernardino, which is the oldest continuously operating Mexican restaurant in the Inland Empire. I was excited to interview the owner, Irene Montaño, who confirmed Bell's story. I was upset for the Montaños, and when I asked Montaño how she felt that Bell had ripped off her family's recipes to create a multibillion-dollar empire, I expected bitterness, anger, maybe even plans for a lawsuit in an attempt to get at least some of the billions of dollars that Taco Bell has earned over the past 50-plus years.

Instead, Montaño responded with grace: "Good for him!" She pointed out that Mitla had never suffered a drop in business because of Taco Bell, that her restaurant had been in business longer than his and "our tacos were better."

It's an anecdote I always keep in mind whenever stories of cultural appropriation of food by white people get the Left riled up and rock the food world. The latest skirmish is going on in Portland, where two women decided to open up what Willamette Week called "a concept that fits twee Portland": a breakfast burrito pop-up located within a hipster taco cart. The grand sin the gabachas committed, according to the haters, was the admission that they quizzed women in Baja California about how to make the perfect flour tortilla.

For their enthusiasm, the women have received all sorts of shade and have closed down their pop-up. To which I say: laughable. The gabachas knew exactly what they were doing, so didn't they stand by it? Real gumption there, pendejas.

But also laughable is the idea that white people aren't supposed to—pick your word—rip off or appropriate or get "inspired" by Mexican food, that comida mexicana is a sacrosanct tradition only Mexicans and the white girls we marry can participate in. That cultural appropriation is a one-way street where the evil gabacha steals from the poor, pathetic Mexicans yet again.

As we say in Mexico: No se hagan.

What these culture warriors who proclaim to defend Mexicans don't realize is that we're talking about the food industry, one of the most rapacious businesses ever created. It's the human condition at its most Darwinian, where everyone rips everyone off. The only limit to an entrepreneur's chicanery isn't resources, race or class status, but how fast can you rip someone off, how smart you can be to spot trends years before anyone else, and how much money you can make before you have to rip off another idea again.

And no one rips off food like Mexicans.

The Mexican restaurant world is a delicious defense of cultural appropriation—that's what the culinary manifestation of mestizaje is, ain't it? The Spaniards didn't know how to make corn tortillas in the North, so they decided to make them from flour. Mexicans didn't care much for Spanish dessert breads, so we ripped off most pan dulces from the French (not to mention waltzes and mariachi). We didn't care much for wine, so we embraced the beers that German, Czech and Polish immigrants brought to Mexico. And what is al pastor if not Mexicans taking shawarma from the Lebanese, adding pork and making it something as quintessentially Mexican as a corrupt PRI?

Don't cry for ripped-off Mexican chefs—they're too busy ripping each other off. Another anecdote I remember from Taco USA: one of the lieutenants of El Torito founder Larry Cano telling me Larry would pay them to work at a restaurant for a month, learn the recipes, then come back to the mothership so they could replicate it. It ain't just chains, though: In the past year, I've seen dozens of restaurants and loncheras across Southern California offer the Zacatecan specialty birria de res, a dish that was almost exclusively limited to quinceañeras and weddings just three years ago. What changed? The popularity of Burritos La Palma, the Santa Ana lonchera-turned-restaurant. Paisa entrepreneurs quickly learned that Burritos La Palma was getting a chingo of publicity and customers, so they decided to make birria de res on their own to try and steal away customers even though nearly none of them are from Zacatecas.

Shameless? Absolutely.

And that's what cultural appropriation in the food world boils down to: It's smart business, and that's why Mexicans do it, too. That's why a lot of high-end Mexican restaurants not owned by Sinaloans serve aguachile now, because Carlos Salgado of Taco Maria made it popular. That's why working-class Mexicans open marisco palaces even if they're not from the coast—because Sinaloans made Mexican seafood a lucrative scene. That's why nearly every lonchera in Santa Ana serves picaditas, a Veracruzan specialty, even though most owners are from Cuernavaca. That's why a taqueria will sell hamburgers and french fries—because they know the pocho kids of its core clients want to eat that instead of tacos. And that's why bacon-wrapped hot dogs are so popular in Southern California—because SoCal Mexican street-cart vendors ripped off Mexicans in Tijuana, who ripped off Mexicans in Tucson, who ripped off Mexicans in Sonora.

To suggest—as SJWs always do—that Mexicans and other minority entrepreneurs can't possibly engage in cultural appropriation because they're people of color, and that we're always the victims, is ignorant and patronizing and robs us of agency. We're no one's victims, and who says we can't beat the wasichu at their game? And who says Mexicans are somehow left in the poorhouse by white people getting rich off Mexican food? Go ask the Montaños of Mitla how they're doing. Last year, they reopened a long-shuttered banquet hall, and the next generation is introducing new meals and craft beers.

They cried about Bell's appropriation of their tacos all the way to the history books.

This story originally appeared in OC Weekly.

Your Essay Assignment:

Do you agree or disagree with Arellano's defense of cultural appropriation?

Summary of the Essay's Main Arguments

We are all rapacious creatures whose drive for success makes us to some degree cutthroat and ruthless. The more ruthlessly we steal a recipe the more we affirm the greatness of that recipe. Mediocre food isn't stolen. Only great food is. The theft of Mexican recipes is a tribute to its greatness.
"Stealing" is actually the natural human inclination for cross-cultural pollination. Such pollination enriches culture and in many cases actually changes culture for the better.
To treat Mexicans as helpless victims whose delicacies are being stolen is to patronize them and to "rob them of human agency" (free will). In fact, Mexicans have been "stealing," or rather cross-pollinating, for thousands of years. Their history is rife with taking foods from other cultures such as Spain, France, and the Middle East, and making these foods their own.
From the Netflix series Ugly Delicious, "Tacos" episode, we find that respectful inspiration from the original dish is an acceptable form of cultural appropriation.

Some Caveats, Stipulations, or Conditions We Can Use from Ugly Delicious, "Tacos":

Taking shortcuts is an abomination and degrades the original version of the food such as tortillas.
Offering stereotypes of Mexican food is an abomination and shows ignorance of the depth of ingredients and creativity from the treasures of Mexican cooking. Don't play "Jingle Bells" on the piano when you should be playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Making tourist food or white-washing food to make it bland for mass appeal will make you money but it is an abomination of authentic Mexican food.
Taking agua fresca and rebranding it as "spa water" is a form of racial plagiarism so egregious that I doubt Gustavo Arellano would defend such an act of shamelessness and arrogance.