Traditional Mexican Food & Veganism
by Sofia Contreras
Mexican food is one of the most recognized cuisines in the world. It holds variety, simplicity, and overall just delicious. With a Mexican dish, it's never a dull moment for your taste buds. It's a fiesta in every bite! But can its warm and delicious taste hold when introduced to veganism? Could Mexican food options hold in taste to traditional dishes? Can vegan Mexican food be considered traditional?
We took a look at Tijuana, Baja California - border town to San Diego, CA, to answer our questions. Known for its cost friendly (to Americans), delicious, and diverse food options, the city has it all. From tasty cuts of meat on the grill to fresh hand-tossed salads, Tijuana is a growing hub. Thanks to the growing demand for plant-based options, restaurants alike have been on the rise.
SmallsVeggie, located in the Telefonica Gastro Park, is one of many plant-based restaurants in the city of Tijuana. It offers popular dishes in an all vegan menu. Ricardo Martinez is the owner and mind behind every plant-based dish. He decided to combine his passion for the culinary arts and veganism, when he saw a need for more dietary food options. Being a vegetarian himself, he felt the options in Tijuana alone were incredibly limited. “Ten years ago, there weren’t many options for us, let alone vegan” expressed Martinez. The SmallsVeggie not only offers vegan iterations of tacos, but of burgers and hot dogs as well. He felt that limiting his menu to Mexican food only was far too limiting. “I wouldn’t consider it traditional [Mexican Food] but more Mexican-American. Meaning Mexican food for Americans,” explained Martinez. When questioned about the type of clientele he served, the answer made sense. The majority of his clients were 80%-90% tourists. With the border so close a good portion of Tijuana tourism comes from the States. Their clientele is also primarily in the age range of 30-55 years old. SmallsVeggies did not consider their food traditional, in the sense of their menu options. But served traditional dishes, like tacos, within their dietary constraints of course, and considered those traditional. We were surprised to learn that vegan tacos were not only welcomed by Tijuanenses but embraced as well. Martinez is delighted to share his flavorful plant-based tacos with the world and share it with the community. SmallsVeggies continues to operate in the city of Tijuana, Telefonica Gastro Park.
We took a look at another plant-based restaurant in the city, to help us gather more insight. Mazon Vegano is a food truck stationed in the El Punto Foodtrucks, Tijuana. They claim to serve traditional vegan Mexican food. Vanessa Lato is the owner and is in charge of the weekly menu. Every week the truck offers a different menu filled with all plant-based dishes. Soups, tacos, flautas, choco flans, chiles rellenos, cakes, soy-eggs, are all prepared with the warmth of a home-style plate. Lato was also kind enough to take us along her journey of becoming a full pledged plant-based operation. “I started 4 years ago when I got tired of not knowing where to eat out,” Lato explained. Similar to Martinez’s beginning story, Lato was a strict vegan in the city of Tijuana with limited options when eating out. When she decided to open a vegan kitchen, she never imagined that it would become so important for the community. “I had people that became regulars, that would tell me how they felt like [Mazon Vegano was] one of the only restaurants they could come to without having to exclude themselves” Lato explained. Its common for people of the plant-based community to be excluded from most menus offered in this day in age. And yet, the options for vegans and vegetarians alike are significantly more than they were 10 years ago. This goes on to show how the increase of demand has created opportunities for Tijuanenses. “I struggled to eat out or enjoy myself with my non-vegan friends,” Lato observed, “I would miss out on eating tacos or my mom’s sopes or flautas.” Sopes and flautas are traditional Mexican dishes commonly prepared with dairy and meat. Mazon Vegano likes to set itself apart by providing flavorful home-style dishes to its community members. It serves classic Mexican dishes with all-plant based ingredients. “The biggest misconception [about veganism] is that you compromise flavor. It is not true at all,” Lato laughed as she recalled. The truck closes down everyday at 12pm. Their success has allowed them to shorten their hours whilst serving traditional Mexican vegan food.
As evidenced by SmallsVeggies and Lato’s restaurant’s success, establishments like these are essential to the veganism movement in the city of Tijuana. It creates community and opportunities for everyone who seeks an all-plant based meal. It creates inclusion. Both establishment owners seeked to create a good dining experience. Something that for most vegans it had been taken away, as their options remain scarce. In the city of Tijuana the movement continues to grow at a slow and steady pace. It was reassuring to see that Mexican traditions are included. Tijuanenses and tourists alike are welcoming and embracing veganism, propelling their success. And yes, vegan food in the city of Tijuana can be considered traditional and can be as flavorful as a juicy taquito!
Process Book
The Problem
Growing up in a border town like Tijuana (border to San Diego), the vigorous presence of Mexican culture and Hispanics altogether were my everyday reality. Moving to Chico, CA, where it’s demographic is predominantly Caucasian, I quickly realized the extent of my people’s roots. I soon began to actively showcase my pride of coming from such a rich and vibrant culture. I am from the city of Tijuana. I am proud. I see a need to spread love and lessen the misconceptions of such a fruitful city.
With the Vegan movement at hand, a fairly popularized concept in the US, Tijuana has not fallen behind. Vegan food options are available and restaurants alike thrive catering to Tijuanenses and Americans alike. PROJ seeks to shine light on a beautiful movement. The clash between traditional Mexican food with a vegan take is definitely one worth writing about.
A Solution
PROJ- The Last Project Magazine is a solution lead project. It aims to entice Southern Californian’s to extend their curiosity across borders. With a focus on Tijuana’s thriving gastronomy, veganism in the city is the magazine’s main topic. The veganism movement is becoming more accessible and acceptable in the American community. By shining light on the many options of Mexican vegan food Tijuana provides, tourism can increase. Targeting such niche audience, that of San Diegans who enjoy vegan food, the city of Tijuana can proudly demonstrate its rich culture. PROJ aims to deconstruct negative and harmful narratives of such rich and vibrant border town.
Audience
My target audience is primarily residents of the city of San Diego. It’s aimed to be a local magazine that discusses the emergence of veganism with traditional Mexican dishes. This magazine is dedicated to shine light to the growing and thriving Mexican vegan food in Tijuana.
Research Methods
The methods of reaseach utilized are categorized as primary and secondary data. My primary data consistend of interviews conducted by me to vegan restaurant owners who recided in Tijuana, in order to collect credible and honest infomation. An example of the early quesitonairee questions is shown in Figure 01. Chico State’s Anthropology professor, Dr. Nitzky was kind enough to review my questions. This ensured each question answered my research prompt.The aim was to discover the extent of veganism in the Mexican Traditional gastronomy. Are these new age dishes considered traditional Mexican food?
The secondary set of data consisted of research collected from online articles. These served to support the claims my interviewees felt to be true. By doing so, I am able to provide an American (almost tourist) perspective of veganism in Tijuana.
Findings
Good food comes in all shapes, colors, and sizes. And even if its vegan, as long as its good, people will come for it and eat it. After talking with the restaurant owners, I was heartening to hear Vanessa and Ricardo talk about their love for the culinary arts. Their love for culture, exploration and innovation. Their respect for creation has led them to a career surrounding an innovative take on veganism.
I found that its not just the young (and hip) people are the ones eating these foods. I was under the impression that food of this kind fell under a younger bracket, specially in the city of Tijuana. I have observed that American trends usually take a little longer to take effect in Tijuana. I had assume the same on veganism. To add on, the pride that Mexicans hold over their traditional dishes and tacos alike is a strong one. I had assume that accepting a vegan take on traditional dishes were going to be greeted with rejection and possible (slight) retaliation.
Turns out, it was it was not true at all. Vegan food was welcomed by Tijuanenses and San Diegans alike. It seemed that traditional dishes, the vegan take, were the most popular among customers. It offered Mexicans the chance to enjoy the some of Mexico’s beauty without compromising their beliefs. Hurray veganism!.
Concept Development
The zine came to take shape after the interviews with vegan restaurant owners took place. Before executing its pages, PROJ’s main concept laid elsewhere. It’s previous concept was of Mexican talavera tiles centered around a compilation of interviewee information. When none of this came about, I shifted my focus to a couple interviews and simplified my design.
To simplify my design, I eliminated the intricate talavera designs and replaced them with flat illustrations of food/vegetables. I decided to give life to some of these vegetables to increase visual interest, the avocado and onion for example. I also created a mascot of a woman wearing traditional Mexican clothing. This allowed me to focus on one model. I utilized repetition to allude the repetitiveness used by Mexican artists. Reducing my color palette, was also a conscious choice. Reducing your options, ignites your creativity.
My choice of font compilation is of Bely Display- for titles and such, and Avenir Light- for common text. Bely Display was the perfect font that held enough simplicity to encompass the complexity of traditional Mexican aesthetic. It held enough weight that would not drown itself with the vibrant colors around it, nor with the imagery.
Challenges
Completing this project was a challenge of itself. So I came to find out pregnancy brain is a real thing. And sitting down to tackle such an intimidating project like this, was one of the biggest challenges I had to face. It was summoning the courage to face my failure and disappointment.
But the challenges that followed were less personal and more technical. The challenge that derailed my work process the most was of completing interviews. As mentioned before, I had to narrow down my whole interviewee approach due to unforeseen circumstances. Because of the pandemic the festival that would host and promote the veganism movement was cancelled. I found out after I tailored my entire project and questions towards it. This was my main and only source of primary research. After that, I had to change my approach and focus altogether.
The second unforeseen challenge was that of contacting the vegan restaurant owners. As explained in Figure 02, the were many attempts to contact and engage with a four restaurant owners. Some were successful, some were not. It really brought me into a state of Impostor Syndrome. After I gathered my information, everything sort of fell into place. The illustrations, the layout, the color scheme all came together.
The biggest challenge was getting over myself. Truly. It was getting my ass up and just doing the work.
Learnings
This project has let me learn more about my city of birth and its relation to food. Veganism in the city of Tijuana continues to be a new concept. Even as someone who is part of the moment, these places that served as a community to many were new to me. I learned that it’s more broad and embraced than I had anticipated. It warmed my heart (and tummy after visiting both locations). I also loved interviewing these two entrepreneurs and learning about their individual journey. Both subjects had a similar journey about establishing a restaurant, but conducted things differently.
I did not expect to learn in depth of the importance of conducting and arranging my interview questions properly. Thanks to the help of Professor Nitzky, head of Anthropology at Chico State, my questions were properly tailored. This helped ensure I was extracting the right information from my subjects.
I learned the importance of believing in one’s abilities. Whether that being creative or management, I further strengthened and learned through resilience. In my short 22 years of life, this has been the hardest chapter. I learned to simply keep going. It was learning small technical skills on the Adobe Suite to conduct interviews when I did not want to talk to anyone (I loved it once I was there, but getting my ass there was!), that I felt I was learning the most.
I am proud to create fun and vibrant page layouts and to exercise design. I have learned and exercised a new life skill, the resilience of a mother.