Tacos in Hermosillo

Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, is a carne asada city: its taco history runs from fried tacos sold beside the railway in the 1880s through decades of carnitas to the carne asada carts that have dominated since the late 1960s, alongside giant flour-tortilla burros.

A timeline

In 2021 El Imparcial published a chronicle of Hermosillo's tacos. The earliest trace dates to 1882, when tacos dorados were sold beside the railway at what is now the corner of Luis Encinas and Juárez, so that passengers could eat while the train stopped. By 1911 tacos of fried machaca and grilled tripe, bathed in salsa borracha, had appeared. From 1940 the restaurant El Pinolillo sold sea turtle tacos, which disappeared once the turtle was protected, though carts still sold them before the 1990s. Chicken tacos were offered at Garmendia and Serdán in 1946.

In the 1950s a vendor named Rosendo opened what the chronicle calls the first carnitas stand, on calle Rosales facing the Auditorio Cívico, and carnitas ruled until the late 1960s at places such as Carnitas El Petate and the municipal market. Roasted head tacos arrived in the 1960s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the first carne asada stands opened near the old red-light district, and since then carts selling asada, later joined by the caramelo and the quesadilla, have dominated. Al pastor arrived in the 1980s but never caught on.

Carne asada

Hermosillo's taco carts draw on Sonora's ranching culture. El Imparcial, citing anthropologist Guillermo Núñez Noriega, explains that the custom of grilling fresh beef on the day of a slaughter goes back to the Jesuit-era ranches, and that migrants who moved to Hermosillo from the 1950s on kept the backyard asada alive as a link to home. The meat is seasoned with salt and cooked over coals, and served with grilled onions, green chile and flour tortillas. Larousse lists tacos caramelo among Sonora's regional dishes.

Burros and percherones

Hermosillo is also known for burritos and their oversized evening form, the burro percherón, built on the large flour tortilla Sonorans call the sobaquera. El Imparcial profiled a stand that had been making percherones for nineteen years, filled with carne asada or griddled beef and shrimp, with a whole avocado in each one, and noted the local preference for serving flour tortillas cold.

Signature tacos

• Tacos de carne asada
• tacos-caramelo
• Tacos de carnitas
• Tacos de cabeza
• Tacos dorados

Reviews

See also

• Tacos in Sonora
• Tacos de carne asada
• Tacos de carnitas
• Tacos de cabeza
• Tacos de machaca

References

1. "Tacos dorados, los primeros que se vendieron en Hermosillo". El Imparcial. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "Carne asada, una celebración de identidad". El Imparcial. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "En Sonora la tortilla de harina y la carne se convierten en “burrito” de día y “perche” de noche". El Imparcial. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "Sonora". Larousse Cocina (Diccionario enciclopédico de la Gastronomía Mexicana). Retrieved 2026-10-10.