I was driving through Connecticut recently and at a rest stop I perused the wall full of brochures for local attractions. I was surprised at all the “Trails” they had. A lot of states have “wine trails” – routes you can drive through the state that pass by a lot of local wineries where you can stop and tour the facility and do a wine tasting and (the important part) buy bottles of wine to fuel the local economy. It was so successful in New Hampshire that they came up with a Cheese Trail (because – you know – Wine and Cheese go together). And, because they definitely know their audience, a Chocolate Trail (which was a lot shorter than the other two trails).
Connecticut wanted to get into the action, so I saw brochures for the Connecticut Beer Trail and the Connecticut Pizza Trail and something I never thought of as associated with Connecticut – the Connecticut Taco Trail. Beer and Pizza I could understand (heck, they made a movie about Connecticut’s Mystic Pizza), but — Tacos?
Anyway, to further push specialized tourism they had a brochure about all the horror movie sites and places where horror novels and movies were set in Connecticut, to bring in the horror fans. I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of most of them. Most New England horror and weirdness I know of is in other states – Lizzy Borden was in Fall River, MA. The Salem Witches were in Salem, MA. The 19th century New England vampires were in Rhode Island. So was H.P. Lovecraft, and the settings for his stories were in MA, RI, NH, and VT, but not Connecticut. Betty and Barney Hill claimed to be abducted by a UFO in New Hampshire, which is also where the Exeter Incident took place (and where there’s a yearly UFO fest). Connecticut stands out as uniquely un-haunted in my mind.
Usually they’re more like a loosely strung together set of historical attractions, like the Freedom Trail in Boston, or the Texas Independence Trail in SE/S Central Texas.
The whole “ Trail” is a new one. I’ve seen several Texas BBQ trails, but they’re usually just a set of restaurants that you can hit without backtracking. And they’re all kind of dependent on who’s doing the mapping; I’ve seen some that basically surround Austin (there is more to Texas BBQ than those places, IMO), and others that go further afield.
But… usually they’re more local. Like I’d expect to see a Connecticut pizza trail, or maybe a Connecticut Grinder Trail, or even something to do with clam chowder. But tacos? That seems pretty strange.
Connecticut’s Hispanic and Latino population accounts for roughly 19.2% of the state’s total population, representing over 680,000 residents. It is the state’s largest minority group and the fastest-growing demographic, making Connecticut the 11th state in the country for its share of Latino residents.
Western Connecticut is pretty much an extended suburb of New York, so I’m sure many of those Latino’s originated through New York.