Friday, August 8, 2025

Geographer creates map of Mexico’s 1.6 million taco shops

The taco is central to Mexican cuisine and a taco stand, or taquería, is never far from a hungry taco lover. Just how ubiquitous the taco restaurants are has been shown by a geographer from the National Autonomous University (UNAM).

Baruch Sanginés mapped all of the taquerías in the country with data from the national statistics agency INEGI via geolocation. His Taco Universe revealed 1.6 million sites and showed the correlation between population density and taco availability, presenting a high concentration of taco shops around urban centers.

“Here in Mexico City I could almost tell you that 95% of people have a taco stand 400 meters from their home. No matter where you live, almost 400 meters away you have a stall nearby. That speaks to the popularity of the taco,” he said.

However, Sanginés added that there was a dearth of sites in Lomas de Chapultepec, an exclusive and hilly neighborhood in the northwestern borough of Miguel Hidalgo.

Two other large cities were found to be taco-rich. In Monterrey, Nuevo León, 75% of residents are a short walk from a source of tacos, while in Guadalajara, Jalisco, 66% of residents can find them within easy reach. 

The UNAM researcher's Taco Universe.
The UNAM researcher’s Taco Universe.

Sanginés said he appreciated the dish for its wide and convenient availability. “They get you out of trouble sometimes. Because of the rhythms of work in the city, we often leave the house very quickly and don’t have time to prepare ourselves something to eat, so we go to a place and eat a taco,” he said. 

The humble but beloved treat is central to Mexican cuisine. It is generally a corn tortilla — sometimes wheat — filled with meat, raw onion and cilantro, accompanied by a spicy chile sauce. 

The dish predates the Spanish conquistadors’ arrival in Mexico. One suggested etymology for the word “taco” is tlahco, the Náhuatl word meaning “half” or “in the middle,” referring to where the filling would be placed in the tortilla.

With reports from Infobae and Milenio 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
President Sheinbaum at her morning press conference or mañanera

US immigration raids and a meeting with the president of Guatemala: Thursday’s mañanera recapped

0
US immigration raids, a meeting with the president of Guatemala and a drop in inflation's inflation rate were topics of Sheinbaum's Thursday presser.
bats clustered on the ceiling

How a Tlaxcala family is learning to share their home with 2,000 live bats

0
The family members are reportedly fine with the unusual arrangement, and government agencies have lent their support for the safety of the humans and the animals.
map

Tropical storm Ivo brings heavy rain and dangerous surf to Mexico’s Pacific coast

0
The powerful storm is expected to continue dumping rain along Mexico's west coast through Friday evening, and may briefly reach hurricane force.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity