Mexico City's taqueria scene is usually described through taqueros at the trompo. The kitchens behind them, and often the businesses themselves, have long been run by women whose names never made it onto the sign.
The work that comes first
Before a single taco is served, someone nixtamalized corn, ground masa, pressed tortillas, simmered guisados, made three salsas, and prepped onions and cilantro by the kilo. In the traditional division of labor in Mexican food businesses, that work has overwhelmingly been done by women, frequently starting before dawn.
Fondas and guisado stands
Whole taco categories exist because of women-run operations. Tacos de guisado stands, with their trays of chicharron in salsa verde, picadillo, and rajas con crema, grew out of home cooking scaled up to a folding table. Tacos de canasta routes were often built by families where the cooking happened in a home kitchen run by mothers and grandmothers.
Ownership without recognition
Many long-running taquerias were founded by married couples where the woman handled recipes, purchasing, and the books while the man worked the visible front-of-house position. When journalists arrived, they interviewed the person at the grill.
A shift underway
Over the last two decades more women have taken the trompo, opened businesses under their own names, and been recognized in Mexican food media. Masa-focused projects, in particular, have brought tortilleras and nixtamal specialists the credit that had been treated as invisible support work.
What to notice next time
Ask who makes the salsas. Ask who makes the tortillas. At the best places, the answer is a person who has been doing it for thirty years and is not standing at the front.
Our history of the tortilla and taco style guide go deeper on the craft involved.
