Mariachi Tacos

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha. How are you?

My name is Caitlin, and I’m calling from Laredo, Texas.

Welcome to the show. What can we help you with?

So I’m calling to ask about a word that I have learned since moving here to Laredo, a very specific Laredo word, it seems like, that is the use of the word mariachi to refer to breakfast tacos.

Food word, Martha.

Breakfast tacos. Yes.

So you moved to Laredo from where?

From Wisconsin.

Originally. And so no mariachi tacos in Wisconsin? No, for sure not. I think it was maybe the first week that I had started my job at the office and somebody stopped by to tell me that there were mariachis in the kitchen. And I was a bit confused for a second until they clarified that apparently here in Laredo, it is another word for breakfast tacos.

And what was it when you got it?

What was in the breakfast taco?

Usually it’s just, you know, eggs and something else on a tortilla, maybe egg and potato or egg and bacon, egg and ham, with or without salsa, all different kinds of variations.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

And so your question is why that word and why there?

Yes. I mean, I tried to do some of my own research, but there’s some of this kind of speculation that because a mariachi taco will wake you up like a mariachi band would, that’s where it comes from.

But I just wanted to see if you all knew or could find anything more specific.

Yeah, that’s actually close to the theory that I learned that I like best. And I learned it from Jose Rallat. He has a book published in 2020 called American Tacos. And so he has explored the American taco experience, and it’s a wonderful book.

And he talks about the mariachi tacos from Laredo, Texas. And he says it was a breakfast taco wrapped in flour tortilla, 8 to 10 inches, filled with a single item originally, and then grilled and slightly crisped.

But he says now it can have more than one filling. But he says there are a couple different theories, but the one that he likes, he learned from Professor Norma Cantu, who is now Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

And she traces the mariachi tacos to a long-gone Lareda restaurant called Las Casuelas on Market Street in Lareda.

Okay.

According to him, and I’m quoting him, quoting her, the workers in the rail yard would stop there at this restaurant for breakfast. And a story is that one rail worker said his tacos weren’t picante enough. They weren’t spicy enough.

So the cook told him that she would make him one that would have him shouting like a mariachi. You know, the grito that they do, that mariachi shout.

And so the cook laid on the hot sauce and apparently laid it on enough that the worker did yell at the spicy heat of the taco. And that was the way they were made.

And so Rallat says in his book, American Tacos, he says that the term mariachi for that kind of taco seems to be falling out of favor in Laredo. And I don’t know what you think, but he says he thinks that the word is not long for the taco world.

But you’ve learned it.

How long have you been there in Laredo?

I’ve been here about three and a half years.

And I will say I think probably the first person I heard it from is one of my coworkers who is in his late 70s, born and raised in Laredo.

And so, and definitely among my older coworkers, in particular, those who probably grew up speaking English and Spanish kind of equally.

But I’ve also noticed it, you know, you’ll see it painted on the signs of restaurants advertising their mariachi plates or at a restaurant, a specific section in the menu labeled mariachis.

Maybe kind of as a way to distinguish themselves as a true Laredo restaurant.

Right.

I don’t know.

Yeah, they’re signaling that they’re local and that they’ve got some local pride.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Right.

Yeah.

Kind of like in San Diego, fish tacos, they always, you know, you got to learn who is the real fish taco and who is not.

Right.

So that’s one thing.

There was another theory, which I don’t like as much, but I’m going to share.

But one theory is that the folded taco looks like the brim of a mariachi’s hat.

But the problem is many tacos look like that.

So why wouldn’t they all be called naviaceae?

Right.

Well, whatever the etymology, I feel a road trip coming on, don’t you, Grant?

I think we need to retrace Jose Rolat’s path in his book, American Tacos,

And try them from coast to coast, really.

That’s the only way to do it.

Right.

In the interest of research.

Yeah, in the interest of research.

You want to come with us, Caitlin, and do that?

I like that plan.

Caitlin, thank you so much for calling.

You’re welcome.

Thank you.

All right.

Take care of yourself.

All right.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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