Editing Tex-Mex (section)

==Terminology==
[[File:Tex_Mex_Time.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|Ingredients commonly used in Tex-Mex [[cuisine]]|alt=small bowls of corn, tomatoes, peppers, guacamole, and other ingredients]]
[[File:Nachos with Guacamole.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Nachos]] with [[guacamole]]]]
The word "TexMex" (unhyphenated) was first used to abbreviate the [[Texas Mexican Railway]], [[charter]]ed in southern Texas in 1875.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/news/tracing-the-history-of-tex-mex|title=Tracing the History of Tex-Mex|last=Pruitt|first=Sarah|website=HISTORY|language=en|access-date=2019-10-04}}</ref> In the 1920s, the [[hyphen]]ated form was used in American newspapers to describe Texans of Mexican ancestry.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{cite news|title=Tex-Mex|date=23 May 1922|newspaper=Mexia Evening News|location=Mexia, Texas}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' supplies the first-known uses in print of "Tex-Mex" in reference to food, from a 1963 article in ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'', and a 1966 item in the ''Great Bend'' (Kansas) ''Tribune''.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'' entry for Tex-Mex: 1963 ''N.Y. Times Mag''. 11 Aug 50/1 Star of the evening was her Texas or Tex-Mex chili. 1966 Great Bend (Kansas) Daily Tribune 19 Oct 5/4 It's too bad that it has become known as ‘chili powder’ because some homemakers may associate it only with the preparation of ‘Tex-Mex’ dishes.</ref>

However, the term was used in an article in the ''Binghamton'' (New York) ''Press''<ref>{{Cite news|last=Spallone|first=Roz|date=20 May 1960|title=Miss New York State's crown just 'old hat' to family|page=15|work=Binghamton Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/252622091/?terms=%22tex-mex%22%20taco|access-date=16 Mar 2021}}</ref> in May 1960 and a syndicated article appearing in several American newspapers on October 6, 1960, uses the Tex-Mex label to describe a series of recipes, including chili and enchiladas.<ref>{{Cite web|title=6 Oct 1960, 32 - The Record at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/490585932/?terms=%22Tex-Mex%22|access-date=2021-02-20|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}</ref>

The recipes included the suggestion of "cornmeal pancakes" in place of tortillas, which at the time were not reliably available to readers outside of the Southwest.

[[Diana Kennedy]], an influential food authority, explained the distinctions between [[Mexican cuisine]] and Americanized Mexican food in her 1972 book ''[[The Cuisines of Mexico]]''. Robb Walsh of the ''[[Houston Press]]'' said the book "was a breakthrough cookbook, one that could have been written only by a non-Mexican. It unified Mexican cooking by transcending the nation's class divisions and treating the food of the poor with the same respect as the food of the upper classes."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.houstonpress.com/2000-09-28/restaurants/mama-s-got-a-brand-new-bag|title=Mama's Got a Brand-new Bag|first=Robb|last=Walsh|date=28 September 2000|website=Houstonpress.com|access-date=14 October 2017}}</ref>

The term "Tex-Mex" also saw increasing usage in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' from the 1970s onward while the Tex-Mex label became a part of U.S. vernacular during the late 1960s, '70s, and '80s.<ref>Wheaton, D.R. & Carroll, G.R. (2017). Where did Tex-Mex Come From? The Divisive Emergence of a Social Category. ''Research in Organizational Behavior'', 37, 143 – 166.</ref> Adán Medrano, a chef who grew up in San Antonio, prefers to call the food "Texas Mexican," which he says was the indigenous cooking of South Texas long before the [[Rio Grande]] marked the border between Texas and Mexico.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/dining/texas-mexican-food.html|title=Don't Call It Tex-Mex|last=Wharton|first=Rachel|date=2019-04-22|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-04-22|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>