18 tortillerías de harina: where to buy flour tortillas, Tucson's most iconic cultural marker
Flour tortillas are synonymous with Tucson. "It’s the most iconic marker of northern Mexican or Southwestern culture — it’s how you know where you’re from," said Dr. Maribel Alvarez, an associate research professor in the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology who founded the Southwest Folklife Alliance. "In some southern, southeastern parts of Mexico, asking for flour tortillas with a taco would run you out of town. It would be sacrilege."
“Flour tortillas are unique to Tucson because they are unique to Sonora, in a relationship that supersedes the border,” she said. When Spanish colonizers came to the region 500 years ago, they introduced wheat to Indigenous groups, who at the time had lacked a winter crop. The Sonoran wheat had an unusually high elasticity in its protein, making a perfectly stretchy tortilla.
Although the heritage Sonoran wheat fell out of favor with the industrialization of agriculture, home cooks and tortillerías across Tucson have been maintaining a special texture in their dough that mimics the Sonoran wheat’s unmatched stretchiness.
Our former food writer Ellice Lueders highlighted 18 amazing local tortillerías — a list we just updated! From big names like La Estrella and Alejandro's Tortilla Factory to hidden gems, this list has it all.
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An employee works on packaging and placing tortillas on a rack at Tortillas de Don Juan, 192…
