Those areas used to be part of México too. Does our traditional food not count as Méxican anymore because the land changed ownership? Of course the cultures are not exactly the same, México is a big country, and has more than one region where food is different. Oaxacan and Yucatan foods are different. Foods that reflect the culture of what came, later, to be New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California suddenly became inauthentic?
I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but it seems that when you add ingredients that are not true to the original, then it does indeed become inauthentic (is that a word?). Beans in chili is a case in point. I like them, but it ain’t Mexican.
No it is not authentic Mexican food. How authentic are “taco shells” and cheddar cheese? Plates of who knows what covered in a generic thick sauce and topped with melted cheese, where you cannot differentiate one item from the next? Because there is rice and beans on the same plate makes it authentic?
A number of years ago I was in Houston and friends took me an “authentic” Mexican restaurant where I believe other than the administration all employees were paisanos. I ordered a combination plate, something I’ve never seen on a menu here,and was served this steaming mess of lumpy goo. I asked the waiter what each lump was supposed to be and he just laughed!
Chili con carne as made in the U.S. isn’t really Mexican, with or without beans. It may have been derived from Mexican cuisine (it’s similar to chile colorado), but the stuff we call chili seems to have originated in San Antonio, Texas in the late 19th century. Chili purists insist that real Texas-style chili contains neither beans nor tomatoes.
There are authentic regional Mexican cuisines found in the U.S. New Mexico, for example, has a whole set of dishes based on a local variety of chile (often used green), as well as their own type of sopaipilla (a type of fried bread). This local cuisine goes back to the days when New Mexico was still part of old Mexico.
Uh-oh. Like I said: dog…fight…blahblah. I’m outta this. ::backs away slowly::
Well, if you’re discussing only tacos, chimichangas, burritos and enchiladas it can be true though not always. I make pancake-like enchiladas de chorro from my native state of Sonora (http://www.zarela.com/2009/10/28/enchiladas-de-chorro/) that only have a sprinkling of cheese.
But there are many dishes that are naturally fat-free, low calorie dishes especially the seafood of Veracruz such as ensalada de palmitos (hearts of palm pureed salsa) and we make several salsa based vegetables. In fact I recently wrote about eating healthy in a Mexican restaurant,
What is “authentic?” Chop Suey was invented by a Chinese cook. Just because he did it in California shouldn’t mean anything. But if you demand location, then that makes a Big Mac served at the Beijing McDonald’s Chinese food as well. Bobby Flay is famous for his Southwestern cuisine, but he designed and developed most of the recipes in New York City. Where do you draw the line regarding ingredients? If you take it to the limits, any food that isn’t gathered and eaten in its raw state is “not authentic?” If I use “traditional ingredients” to make my mole, is it any less Mexican just because I’m whiter than a…very white thing?
I recently bought some “traditional Mexican crumbling cheese” because it looked interesting. It is very mild and indeed crumbles very well. I’ve topped salads with it, and thrown some chunks into refried beans. It seems to hold its shape and not melt much.
What is the “authentic” use for this cheese?
I would argue that if you must do such taxonomy – and I do believe there is merit to it, as food and culture are inextricably linked and I find it fascinating to get to know peoples and regions of the world through their food – that “authentic” would mean food representative of what people from that region traditionally actually eat.
Now, when you use broad brushes like “Chinese” or “Mexican” that can span a lot of cuisines, from the country of origin and beyond. So chop suey can be authentic Chinese food, but I’d tie it regionally to an example of Chinese-American cooking. I personally would call New Mexican, South Californian, Tex-Mex, etc., all “authentic” styles that represent those regions of the Americas.
So, if I were to walk into an authentic “Mexican” restaurant, and see cheddar cheese and hard taco shells, I wouldn’t really much think anything of it. Mexican food is very diverse and with a diverse range of culinary and cultural influences. Now, if I walked into a Yucatecan restaurant and saw primarily the above with burritos, chips and Rotel dip, etc., then I would certainly call it “inauthentic.”
Agreed. My point was that hard tacos are just as “authentic” as anything else. All food traditions start somewhere. If Mexicans had started serving hard corn tortillas filled with ground beef and topped with lettuce and cheese 200 years ago, we wouldn’t even be discussing whether or not it was “authentic.” 
What does “white” have to do with anything? How very strange.
We have been eating tacos dorados for centuries. What doesn’t exist here is that big frito chip you like to call a “taco shell”. Now I suppose you’d like to argue that “Doritos” are authentic Mexican?
If Frito-Lay makes them in Guadalajara, then they “authentic Mexican food.”
They may not be “traditional Mexican food,” but by any measure they are “authentic.” That’s the point you, I and a lot of other people are dancing around. Besides “Mexican” food having a universe of different styles and ingredients depending on location, it is also a constantly-evolving cuisine. My question is "What defines “Mexican food?” Is it who makes it? Is it where it is made? Is it duration of the recipe? These are all question that must be answered, and everybody is going to have a different answer.
ps. I mentioned “white” as a way of saying “not Mexican in any way.” Yet I still make a mean mole.
How about a taco salad? What would make that authentic Mexican?
If you made it.
It just wouldn’t be traditional is all.
I much prefer an authentic Mexican salad, the ensalada cesar.
I just think of Tex-Mex as really norteño Mexican cuisine. 
But I could sort of understand CBEscapee’s frustration. When I lived in Hungary, while they did have authentic examples of American fast food (and, yes, I believe that’s a valid subset of the diverse cuisine found in the US), it amazed me at how far off American food they could be. There was a 50s-American diner, with all the kitsch and music you’d expect in one (like you get in Mexican restaurants here), and then you get weird dishes authentic 50s diner dishes like…an open faced hamburger sandwich, served with knife and fork, and mashed potatoes. WTF? WTF especially since there were plenty of examples of what an American hamburger should be like in the city. Or any dish containing the name “American” meant it had corn in it. Or the long-since-defunct place that sold “traditional Chicago-style wraps.” I’m a Chicagoan and have no idea what this traditional Chicago-style wrap is. Apparently, it’s meat and mashed potatoes, rolled in a flour tortilla.
And, in the reverse, it’s interesting to see what passes as “Hungarian goulash” here. Pretty much any slop put together, it seems.
So, I could see getting a bit defensive and critical when you what you perceive to be your culinary culture mangled this way, but with Mexico and America sharing a border, I feel there’s more of continuum of what is “authentic” or “traditional” and what isn’t. A lot, probably most, of what Americans think of “authentic Mexican cuisine” is not authentic in the sense that it is cuisine that is traditional and originated south of the literal border. But a lot of it has been developed by Mexican-American communities, so I think a valid argument can be made that some of that food is an authentic extension of Mexican cuisine. Where to draw the line, I don’t know.
I am assuming that you are talking about queso fresco or panela. In Mexico this cheese is used to top antojitos such as enchiladas, sopes, garnachas, or picadas. Melting cheese like queso Chihuahua or Mennonite cheese is used for queso fundido, quesadillas, caldo de queso and other dishes but seldom on enchiladas
But Zarela, you must have forgotten that the authentic enchiladas served in many places in the USA do have melted cheese (in great abundance) all over them. What can be more authentic than an enchilada smothered in cheddar cheese?