TEX-MEX COOKING: ORIGIN AND HISTORY

Origin of the Name: The phrase “Tex-Mex” first originated from a nickname referring to the Texas Mexican Railway which was published in a newspaper as “Tex. Mex.” It is unknown how this term began being used in a food format.
History: Even though the cuisine that we now call “Tex-Mex” originated hundreds of years ago (when American’s started moving farther South West into states such as Texas, New Mexico, California, etc. and mixing their different cultures and foods) the first printed proof of the word Tex-Mex was in a cookbook dated sometime in the 1940’s.
It was some 30 years later when Tex-Mex was finally popularized in non-Mexican towns and cities. The East Coast and other areas with less of a Mexican population were introduced to a completely different yet tasty cuisine. Because it was a combination of several cultures Tex-Mex was more appealing to those who had never had Mexican cuisine, which invited them to discover other cultures and experience different ways of life.
Definition: Tex-Mex is a fresh new trend that appeals to millions of young people and those that are young at heart. The food combinations are truly invigorating to the mind and senses! Add a little chili powder, BBQ flavor, and some ranch dressing and you have a master piece unlike no other.
Quotes: "Tex-Mex food might be described as native foreign food, contradictory though that term may seem, it is native, for it does not exist elsewhere; it was born on this soil. But it is foreign in that its inspiration came from an alien cuisine; that it has never merged into the mainstream of American cooking and remains alive almost solely in the region where it originated..."
---Eating in America, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow: New York] 1976 (p. 281)
"Tex-Mex. A combination of the words "Texan" and "Mexican," first printed in 1945, that refers to an adaptation of Mexican dishes by Texas cooks. It is difficult to be precise as to what distinguishes Tex-Mex from true Mexican food, except to say that the variety of the latter is wider and more regional, whereas throughout the state and, now, throughout the entire United States."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 325)
Sources: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmexican.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex-Mex