ASU prof’s new book explores how racial mixing is creating new food cultures across the country

From tacos to lo mein, some of the best food in America comes from immigrants. Rudy Guevarra Jr. says some of his favorite meals come from mixing of immigrant cultures. Think brisket tacos or using a tortilla to scoop up pork adobo.

Guevarra is a professor in Arizona State University’s School of Social Transformation and he’s the co-editor of the new book “Culinary Mestizaje,” a collection of essays and recipes that explores how racial mixing is creating new food cultures across the country.

Guevarra calls himself “Mexipino” — he’s of Mexican and Filipino descent. He joined The Show to discuss more, including how he grew up surrounded by different cultures in San Diego.

Full conversation

RUDY GUEVARRA JR.: I was exposed to Samoan food. Because my father was also raised in the South, I grew up on soul food as well, and there was a lot of different culinary sort of things that we were exposed to with our friends and communities. And we would eat at each other’s houses and cultural events and whatnot. And so I was also exposed to Chamorro food and others.

So it’s like for me, I think growing up in these communities that were very multiracial and the foods we had, what we shared with each other and our friend groups in many ways, really impacted me and sort of influenced what I would eventually do with my own research and writing.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, absolutely. There’s a clear line there. So tell us like a favorite dish from your childhood, something that might encompass this kind of multiculturalism for us.

GUEVARRA: Some of my favorite dishes are either Mexican or Filipino but then we sort of — so let’s say for example, so for Filipino, I really loved adobo, whether it was pork or chicken adobo, that was sort of one of the staples on heavy rotation in our household.

But then there was also Mexican food. My mom made a really amazing chile verde. We had mole, we had different other types of food. You know, tacos are really big in San Diego, and so all the different kinds of tacos that we had.

But I think one of the things that I remember growing up is that because I was in a Mexican and Filipino household, we always had a pot of rice, and we also had tortillas. So let’s say, for example, we had some pork adobo and we didn’t have any rice, we ran out of rice. I would just grab a tortilla, scoop up the meat and boom, you got a taco, it’s done.

GILGER: Super good, yeah. 

GUEVARRA: Yeah, and we just added the condiments on top, and that was it. So it was normal. It’s just what we did because, you know, we just ate the food and created these things with what we had.

And it was just sort of normalized because it wasn’t something we thought about, like, “Oh, this is a great invention.” It wasn’t. It was just part of our cultures and the blending and how it mixes, and it shows up in one of the most amazing foods ever, and that’s a taco.

GILGER: Absolutely one of the most amazing foods ever. So you’re making me hungry. But tell us, make us more hungry. So you and your coeditor here kind of traveled around the country cooking with some of the contributors to the book, gathering stories for it about various other kinds of multicultural cuisines and the histories and cultures those come from. Tell us about the experience of creating this. It sounds like fun.

GUEVARRA: No, it was an amazing experience. And a lot of the people we approached were friends and colleagues and just people we knew throughout our lives that came from places that had multicultural or the intermixing of foods together in different regions throughout the United States and even in Hawaii.

But also, a number of the folks were also mixed race. So it’s sort of like this thing of like telling a personal story that happens to sort of reflect what it means to grow up in these particular places and how food informed that identity.

GILGER: There have got to be some kind of surprising combinations, food influences that you have highlighted here. I mean, you went all over it. This is from, like you said, California, Texas, but there’s Maine in here, Atlanta, Hawaii. What were some of your favorite kinds of surprises, culinary surprises that came up?

GUEVARRA: I think one of the ones was, you know, for me was East Los Musubi — which our friend Natalie Santizo did — which is looking at this sort of this Hawaii style food, Spam musubi, but sort of mixed with a Mexican cultural intersection. And so I think that was something that was really interesting because you’re getting these particular places coming together in Los Angeles and having this experience.

And then you also go to Hawaii with our friend Rod Labrador. And he’s talking about the history of the plate lunch and sort of how these certain things come together and why. And so you get a sense, a historical context of how these foods come about.

And not just historical but also in our contemporary moment, why these things come together. And it makes sense. Once you read the stories and you understand, it makes sense. Everybody had their own story of how food and memory came together.

And I think that was really meaningful in terms of how you could see sort of what we had in common and what brings us together with an intimate experience, such as food and sharing food and combining food and sort of what those historical and contemporary moments look like in the creation of a dish.

GILGER: I wonder this because you write, you’re studying this, you’re gathering stories, you’re telling your own story here as well. But what does that mean to you? Like what has learning about this and writing about your own culture and your own foods taught you about yourself?

GUEVARRA: I mean, for me, it’s taught me that I’m not alone in this experience. And it’s a beautiful thing because when you see all these different stories — and I’m also mindful that these stories do come with a lot of luggage. You’re looking at white supremacy and racism and colonialism, enslavement and genocide and all these things that occurred historically, which brings layers of moments when people come together, whether in conflict or in cooperation.

And over time, these things have shaped certain regions of the United States to create those moments where these, now the individuals that have been combining their food have been able to then create something that’s very reflective of their experience in their city or their region, whatever it may be.

Those things all play a role in it. So it’s not like just a kumbaya moment and coming together, but it has baggage that evolves over time. And this is what is sort of the creation or the moment that people experience in a dish that has all this behind it.

And I think that’s something that I hope people can come away with is that these things occur, and they’re continuing to evolve. Who knows what food will look like in 10 years or 20 years? And I think it’s very reflective of our society as a multiracial society and what can come about when we come together in these common experiences, rather than focusing on hatred and fear and division and trying to really in many ways crush the voices of people of color and Indigenous people who contribute and have shaped American food.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to a transcription error, this story has been updated to correct the spelling of Natalie Santizo’s name.