How soy sauce became a staple in Mexican kitchens
The Chinese once were the second-largest immigrant group in Mexico and brought with them rich culinary traditions, traces of which can still be found in the country’s kitchens today
Walk up to a taco stand in Baja California, Mexico, and in the tray of condiments, you will likely find a bottle labelled “salsa de soya” – soy sauce.
Soy sauce has become so common in Mexican kitchens that most recipes for carne asada (“grilled meat”), a dish considered traditionally Mexican, call for it.
It’s likely that soy sauce came to the country in the luggage of the Chinese, who arrived on Mexican shores en masse in the 1800s, to work on irrigation and railroad projects.
There was a steady flow of Chinese immigrants to Mexico in the mid-19th century, says Robert Chao Romero, author of the 2010 book The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940. According to his research, the number of arrivals increased dramatically after 1882, the year the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the United States, which banned the immigration of male Chinese workers.