Gustavo Arellano on How Mexican Food Became More American Than Apple Pie

In the cover story from our June issue, Gustavo Arellano, author of the syndicated "Ask a Mexican!" column, explains how Mexican food has long left behind the moorings of immigrant culture and fully infiltrated every level of the American food pyramid, from state dinners at the White House to your local 7-Eleven. Decades' worth of attempted restrictions by governments, academics, and other self-appointed custodians of cultural purity have only made the strain stronger and more resilient. The result, Arellano writes, is a market-driven mongrel cuisine every bit as delicious and all-American as the German classics we appropriated from Frankfurt and Hamburg.