El Chico Margarita Glass with Souvenir Garter, about 1980
notes: label: Description
content: In the 1980s Tex-Mex themed restaurants expanded in the U.S. To cater to customers, restaurateurs created themed menus and drinks. Promotional materials helped popularize the frozen margarita, making it even more common in the U.S. than traditional cocktails like the martini.
label: Description
content: After migrating with her family from Mexico to Texas in the 1890s, Adelaida Cuellar began selling her handmade tamales at her county fair. In 1928, she opened a neighborhood restaurant, which her family expanded in the 1950s into the El Chico Tex-Mex restaurant chain. From the 1960s to the ‘80s, El Chico was also one of many companies marketing its own brands of canned and frozen foods to be distributed through grocery stores. By the 1990s, the Cuellars owned more than 100 El Chico restaurants.
label: Description
content: The Cuellars were among the early entrepreneurs who helped transform Tex-Mex food into the most popular and widespread form of Mexican American cuisine. Hundreds of Tex-Mex-style restaurants opened across the United States, competing with other regional variations such as Cal-Mex, Sonoran Mex, and New Mex–Mex. Tex-Mex imitators thrived in small restaurants and fast-food chain outlets such as Taco Bell. Central American restaurants also added familiar Tex-Mex dishes and drinks to their menus.
topic: label: Subject
content: Beverages
label: Subject
content: Food Culture
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Food Technology
label: Exhibition
content: Food: Transforming the American Table
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: gift of Carmen Summers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2011.0157.04
label: catalog number
content: 2011.0157.04
label: accession number
content: 2011.0157
objectType: label: Object Name
content: garter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: lace; thread; elastic; ribbon (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in x 2 3/4 in; 3.175 cm x 11.43 cm x 6.985 cm