Tens of thousands of Mexican-style restaurants dot the American landscape with common imagery, menu items, alcoholic drinks, and atmosphere. Have you ever stopped to think about the harm that cartoonish stereotypes about Mexican culture can cause when these are massified and perpetuated by restaurants geared toward non-heritage consumers? Dr. Paloma Martinez-Cruz delves into this issue while also uncovering the anti-Mexican sentiments that non-heritage-owned Mexican restaurants perpetuate. Paloma Martinez-Cruz is an interdisciplinary, decolonial scholar in the field of Latinx cultural studies at The Ohio State University. Her work interrogates the consequences of colonization and patriarchal orderings across expressive cultures of the Americas. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Other Bombs (2023); Trust the Circle: The Resistance and Resilience of Rubén Castilla Herrera (2024 Latino Book Award winner), Food Fight! Millennial Mestizaje Meets the Culinary Marketplace; Women and Knowledge in Mesoamerica: From East L.A. to Anahuac; and the editor of A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post-Democratic Society by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Saúl García-López. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx