Mexican Cuisine is Native

On the Chefs2Chefs site there was a heated debate http://forums.chef2chef.net/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=general&Number=398834&Searchpage=4&Main=398834&Words=siksikaboy&topic=&Search=true - Post398834 concerning Native American Cuisine. One contributor stated the Southwestern Cuisine, which is recognized as a legitimate cuisine is based on Mexican Cuisine. In my research and opinion I think that basically the Mexican Cuisine is Native American. The basis of Mexican food was in existence well before the arrival of the Spanish. Tortilla, tamale, taco, pazole, salsa, chocolate, cassava, tomato, corn and chilies all predate Spanish arrival. The Spanish added to the mix wheat, pork, chicken and beef as well as some spices. Basically the Spanish did not create the dish format but rather their ingredients were added to already existing cooking methods.

Most if not all the cooks in the era after Spain and Portugal conquest were Native. Spain did not arrive, as the English did, as colonizers as much as to exploiters and conquerors to return their wealth to their families and homes in Spain. Their “Hispanola” was a place to reap riches not build homes and bring families. Native cooks did not adopt Spanish food to create Mexican Cuisine but rather altered their native dishes with the new ingredients available. The most Spanish added to these dishes and cuisine was their language. 

  History of Salsa
The word "salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce. The salsas many of us think of are salsa frescas or salsa cruda, fresh sauces served as a condiment aside a Mexican meal.  These uncooked sauces might be pureed until smooth, semi-chunky, or the uniformly chopped pico de gallo.

The Chile - Tomato Combo
The making of of a sauce by combining chiles, tomatoes and other ingredients like squash seeds and even beans has been documented back to the Aztec culture..

We have Spanish-born Bernadino de Sahagun to thank for the detailed culinary history of the Aztec culture.  His extensive writings documented every food common to the culture.  This is an excerpt from Sahagun's writings about the food vendors in the large Aztec markets:

   "He sells foods, sauces, hot sauces, fried [food], olla-cooked, juices, sauces of juices, shredded [food] with chile, with squash seeds, with tomatoes, with smoke chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated sauce, he sells toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce.  (Sahagun, translated 1950 -1982).
 
Ingredients Then and Now
The paragraph above refers to many of the ingredients in our modern-day salsas.

Large tomatoes -  We believe this references is to a large red tomato similar to what we eat to day.

Ordinary tomatoes - most likely this reference is to the tomatillo or tomate verde. 

Smoked chiles - The chipotle or smoked jalapeno was a staple in the Aztec diet.

Avocado - cultivated by the Aztecs the avocado was an important source of fat and protein and was used in a sauce similar to what we call guacamole.