Italo-Mexican War

While America thought itself safe from the fires of the Great War, its neutrality and geographical distance a barrier between itself and the European belligerents, a different war brews within…

As war ravaged Europe, and resources dwindled, the already poor state of the Italian Republic was hit hard by shortages and blockades, not ready for war and barely able (through extensive military aid from its Allies) to protect its own borders. While many Italians were filled with a patriotic spirit and quickly enlisted to defend their land against the conquests of empires, even the brave had a desire to send their loved ones to safer shores. France a hotbed of political and societal upheaval, and the Great War being fought right on their doorstep, the more appealing location for Italians to send their wives, children, and infirm was across the Atlantic, to the United States of America.

While the Americans welcomed the Italian refugees with open arms, happily accepting them into the workforce, the culture that was brought with them to the East Coast was a less enthusiastically appreciated one. France had long dominated American culture, and the Central American cultures absorbed by conquest into the States had likewise grown deep roots. While many Americans could speak French and Spanish fluently, much fewer could speak or understand Italian. As a result, the Italians quickly coalesced into their own smaller boroughs within American cities, "Little Italies" spreading across the East Coast and into the Midwest rapidly as they settled into their newfound refuge.

The Italians were mostly satisfied to keep to themselves, only expecting to stay until the war ended before returning to rebuilding their homeland, but the American Dream common to local propaganda was irresistible. The immigrants were mostly women and elderly men, and though most business opportunities were far too expensive or punishing for them to pursue (or simply barred them from pursuing), there was one proud Italian tradition that the Land of Plenty was eager to receive, and that they were more than capable of giving.

It is hotly debated among enthusiasts and the Italians themselves where, and how, the first bona fide Italian restaurant opened in the United States, with most claimants being positioned opportunistically at major ports where the refugees settled. In truth, none of this wave of refugees were the first, but their arrival in volume took the local populations of their chosen cities of shelter by storm. Soon, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, even some as far as Miami and Havana all had dozens of bustling Italian eateries, drawing loyal bases of customers to their unique cuisine. Imitators would rise up, but quickly be crushed by lovers of Italian food for their paltry efforts.

The success of the refugees in bringing their own culture to the United States and becoming entrepreneurs, some achieving vast riches almost overnight, was a sensational topic, a confirmation of the American Dream that motivated nationalistic messaging across the nation, fighting with the Great War itself for headlines as the Americans reeled from the impact. Radio shows and television sped along the rapid spread of Italian cuisine, and soon you could buy spaghetti and meatballs from street vendors as far as Los Angeles. An enterprising man on Concord Minor even attempted to bring the sensation to the faraway colonies of the Aether, his recipes coming mostly from watching television broadcasts and guessing at the ingredients, having to make several substitutions for local alternatives. His efforts were described as “unique”.

But as with all business, when one succeeds, another must fall. The culinary hegemony of the States had been built up for decades, the nation strongly favoring French and Mexican cuisines as the proper American staples. Many families having been in the business for generations were now for the first time in decades finding their tables empty. While some handled their loss of relevance with grace, others grew more desperate, eager to keep the crown in their clutches, and not wanting to be dethroned by these ragged garlic-eating peasants from the Mediterranean.

French cuisine was already suffering from the Great War, as while Franco-American relations remained strong, there was an undeniable tension between the American government and the newly formed French Commune. French influenced cuisines such as the popular Cajun of the Old South remained popular, but the traditionalists found themselves trapped between the desire to embrace their roots and the need to distance themselves from the newer, more radical image their homeland had adopted almost overnight. It was instead the Mexicans who were faced with the need to stem the Italian tide.

The first efforts came from major corporate enterprises, having large franchise holdings of several Mexican restaurants and chains. Seeking to retain their audiences, they attempted to integrate popular Italian menu items into their own cuisines with bizarre, freakish combination products. Most infamous of these were spaghetti tacos, reviled by the American people so harshly that even a promotional commercial featuring President Rockefeller Jr. himself was unable to salvage the reputation of the restaurant offering them. Others took more subtle approaches, simply integrating the Italian menus into their own, quietly allowing customers to order fettuccine or lasagna alongside their fajitas and burritos. These were received more well, though frequently Italian lovers would comment on the inferior quality.

On the local front, small family-run establishments would engage in aggressive turf wars, competing for customers through extensive marketing campaigns, purchasing large billboards and television spots, a menagerie of eccentric personalities and characters battling over the airwaves. Others were dissatisfied with simply fighting over words, and vandalism and threats became commonplace, both between restaurant owners and their loyal customers. The animosity between Mexican and Italian restaurateurs quickly became a popular stereotype, milked by comedians almost as hard as the corporations were milking the "Italian Invasion."

As the market began to settle, with Italian and Mexican cuisine’s battlelines drawn across entrenched borders in the Midwest and portions of the South, other, much larger and more powerful corporate interests began to make their forays into the latest national sensation. Grain monopolies began to invest in manufacturing mass produced pasta, and following a successful, smaller scale example from New York, a major fruit distributor purchased a family recipe from one of Chicago’s most successful Italians, with Capone Sauce rapidly becoming synonymous with marinara.

Recipes began to emerge for the public to try their hand themselves, and as the cuisine disseminated into the population, the masses and their less discerning tastes made way for the rise of American imitators, often payrolled by huge corporate interests to establish footholds in turbulent markets. By June of 1940, the city of New York had at least one Italian restaurant or food cart on every single city block, most of them Americans adopting stereotypical names and offensive accents, out to make a quick buck on the latest craze. While many Italian refugees lost their businesses to these corporate takeovers, they were able to find jobs working at the imitation places, their American operators feeling the Italians added an air of authenticity - even if they were just dishwashers and busboys.

The mass oversaturation of the market caused significant backfire on the corporate interests investing in them, and the majority of these efforts were doomed to failure within at most a few years. The American people had either settled in with their own favorite locales, or otherwise had grown to distrust Italian restaurants as dishonest scams. Clarence Hochwell of Springfield, Louisiana, in a street interview on the state of foreign cuisines, summed up the public opinion in late 1940 best; “I’d rather just have a burger.”