Cultural food access stunted by economic and immigration policy

Sebastian Martinez Galindo and his three friends would get paid to do their classmates’ homework during their middle school days in Mexico.

They would sell class assignments for around 150 pesos or $8.

If he and his friends made enough money, they would go to the nearby street vendor from his middle school to get tacos, he said.

The street vendor’s setup was a tricycle with a makeshift metal bin and a grill, which distinctly smelled like lard.

He remembers they were not the greatest tacos, and his friends joked about them being made from “dog meat.”

“We were not rich, but we were rich by having each other,” he said. “Having us four together, we were all healthy and all eating, so it just would bring us together.”

Martinez Galindo, now an ASU junior studying mechanical engineering systems and the president of Phi Iota Alpha fraternity, is concerned about the price of cultural food and maintaining his culture in the United States.

Imposed tariffs will cost the average household an additional $1,100 as of Dec. 1. The costs are expected to increase to $1,400 in 2026, according to a 2025 report from the Tax Foundation.

Beyond tariffs, inflation has been a contributing factor for higher food prices, rising to 3.1%, above the 2% benchmark set aside by the Federal Reserve.

These additional costs could create an economic barrier to imported foods, potentially limiting access to cultural connections.

Adriana Samper, a consumer behavior expert and an ASU professor, said substitutions of imported foods are how people cope with a shifting environment and culture. This behavior could accelerate if prices continue to rise.

However, online international food shoppers feel the pinch the most, with services showing shoppers’ cart histories from weeks or months prior, Samper said.

“People — especially during the pandemic — started to shop online, and so the presence of increased prices or feelings that your money doesn’t stretch to the same degree is going to be almost more obvious,” she said.

Preparing food is a major way to contribute to and maintain a group’s cultural identity, Samper said.

“The opportunity might go away, because maybe it’s too expensive to do that this year,” Samper said. “Some communities could start to feel, and probably have already started to feel certain loss.”

Namely, Martinez Galindo stopped cooking his favorite dish called tlayudas, a corn-based Oaxacan dish. Previously, he would use a particular kind of purple corn; now, the market he frequents no longer stocks it because of rising prices.

Monica Villalobos, the president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the current tariff policy has influenced large companies.

The simple threat of tariffs prompted large companies to stockpile food inventory, limiting small businesses like retailers and restaurants from accessing products, Villalobos said.

Even if small businesses have access to this inventory, the threat of tariffs has also increased pricing, ultimately limiting access to cultural food.

However, it’s not just economic policy stunting cultural connection through food, she said — it’s immigration policy as well.

Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have increased 72% in the first half of 2025, according to an analysis by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

This heightened immigration enforcement affected the workforce at the restaurant, supermarket and harvesting level, Villalobos said.

“Whether you’re talking about fruits and vegetables or you’re talking about milking cows or you’re talking about cattle ranchers, they are all suffering because of the immigration policy and threat of the immigration policy,” she said. “As soon as there was that threat, there was an exodus of the workforce.”

Martinez Galindo has felt the threat of immigration enforcement in his own community as businesses he would patronize disappeared.

“(Street vendors are) scared to go out and continue their job,” he said. “A lot of the stuff we would buy from street vendors as well, they don’t go out and sell (anymore) because they’re scared.”

Villalobos said the effects of these polices do not only impact workers but consumers as well.

Martinez Galindo spoke about his fraternity brother’s restaurant, noting how the business was seeing fewer customers.

“Whenever I go out to eat at his restaurant, I’m his brother — he doesn’t charge me,” he said. “But how the business has been going right now, he would not want to charge any of us, but he has to.”

Latinos tend to spend more of their disposable income than other racial groups, but now a lot of that spending is not happening, Villalobos said.

Nevertheless, economic challenges have not completely stopped cultural connections.

“Minority groups have been through so much,” Villalobos said. “When you come to this country and you have fought to be here, there isn’t a whole lot that can break your soul.”

Villalobos connected these economic challenges for Latino groups to the COVID-19 pandemic. Latino-owned businesses pivoted, she said, turning restaurants into catering services and private label companies.

“That entrepreneurism, that aspiration, that sense of ‘can-do attitude’ is also part of the manifestation of our culture,” Villalobos said. “And so when you look at different minority groups, you see that come through in times of difficulty, or economic difficulty, like recessions or the pandemic.”

Despite limited food accessibility, the diversity of cultural foods impacted the American palate, Villalobos said, leading to acculturation.

“(Acculturation is) a reciprocal influence, where American culture is influencing minority groups and countries of origin, or people from countries of origin other than the U.S. and vice versa,” Villalobos said.

Martinez Galindo has seen acculturation manifest in his fraternity. While a majority of the members are Mexican, there are others from Peru, Pakistan, Lebanon and other countries.

This acculturation is shared through foods, some of which are not part of Martinez Galindo’s culture.

“We love cooking for them from our culture and having them cook stuff about their culture,” he said.

Despite these challenges with cultural food accessibility from rising inflation, the threat of tariffs and changing immigration policies, minority groups continue celebrating their culture and food.

“We’ve seen time and time and again during recessions (and) during the pandemic,” Villalobos said. “It takes a lot to break us, and so it doesn’t happen that easily.”

Edited by Natalia Rodriguez, Senna James, Tiya Talwar and Ellis Preston.

Reach the reporter at pspascua@asu.edu and follow @pascual_media on X.

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Paul PascualEngagement Officer

Paul Pascual is the engagement editor for The State Press, developing innovative strategies through emerging media to connect with the audience. He works concurrently with ASU Student Life as a marketing photographer. He has previously worked at FOX News Media as a broadcast coordinator and at the National Student Leadership Conference as an on-site marketing photographer. This is his fifth semester with The State Press, having previously worked as a photographer.

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Cultural food access stunted by economic and immigration policy

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