Taco Bell IS Authentic Mexican Cuisine!

Hard Shell Tacos Aren't an American Inventions

OK….Taco Bell over the years has become an abomination of Mexican cuisine. They've simply gone too far. But there will never be a day when I turn down an ice-cold Baja Blast and a couple of chalupas.

BUT HARD SHELL TACOS are authentic Mexican cuisine!

It's a battle as old as time over what a taco really is. If you’ve been to central or southern Mexico, you'll say a taco is a soft corn tortilla. If you visit northern Mexico, you'll argue that it's a soft flour tortilla. There's really no consensus, and the topic can get more heated than a soccer rivalry.

Many believe it's just a fake Mexican dish from Taco Bell. But, few people know the original hard shell taco was created in 1937 at a Mexican restaurant Mitla Café in San Bernardino, California.

Let's take it back to 1942, a year after the United States entered World War II. The previous year, America had about 1.8 million soldiers in the military, and by 1942, the number had more than doubled to over 3.9 million soldiers. What does that mean for the American workforce? Mass labor shortages. How did America begin to solve this problem? Through a program called the Bracero Program, where over 50,000 Mexicans were brought across the border as agricultural workers and more than 75,000 as railroad workers. Over the next 22 years, over 5 million Mexicans were brought to the United States to fill labor shortages.

Skipping towards the end of the war, many soldiers came back to the states without jobs and were searching for ways to make money. Enter Glen Bell - the original founder of Taco Bell. But he didn’t start off making tacos. In his autobiography "Taco Titan," he says that after serving as a marine cook, he opened up a stand making burgers and hot dogs in San Bernardino, California.

The hamburger and hotdog game wasn't very glamorous, especially considering McDonald's also opened its first location right down the street. But Glen looked around for the next biggest thing: tacos. Americans always want the newest thing, and he sought to add something new to his menu. He didn’t seek to steal the idea outright, but instead, he understood that American eaters didn’t frequent Mexican restaurants, and he might be able to bring one of his favorite foods to a new market.

Enter the Mitla Cafe - down the street from his burger stand. He would frequent this Mexican cafe and try to figure out how he could make something similar. At the time, Mexicans were gatekeeping, and he credits the owner for taking him under his wing, inviting him into the kitchen, and personally teaching him how to craft the hardshell taco.

But who would do this?

Lucia Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant who left the state of Jalisco in 1928. She came to America before the program to start a new life and make money to support her family. Unfortunately, she got caught in the middle of the Great Depression. Also, in 1937, she opened up the cafe along Route 66 simply to feed her family and community. As more Mexicans came across the border, there was a need to set up a community. San Bernardino at the time was a hub for Latin Americans in that era.

Over time, her cafe gained popularity despite Glen Bell's restaurant. They served tacos, menudo, chile relleno, and other recipes she brought from Mexico. In turn, her restaurant actually became a staple in the Latino community, hosting many political activism events over the years.

As Taco Bell grew, the average American would have no idea who the originator of the hardshell taco was. But the Mitla family doesn’t care. They don’t harbor any resentment because they never intended to be a large chain restaurant; they wanted to provide for their community. That being said, this article is just to note the fact that as much as Mexicans love to hate the idea of hardshell tacos, and "woke" Americans love to agree that it's not real Mexican food, the fact of the matter is that the classic hardshell taco that you know and love is still a Mexican invention.

And if you’re ever in Mexico city… there’s a small taco shop called Los Bernardino's That pays homage to the original recipe