Mesilla New Mexico

La Posta in Mesilla has been serving up tacos “to eat with your fingers” since 1939. Photo by David Lansing.

I got to Old Mesilla around eleven and realized I hadn’t had dinner last night or breakfast today and I was hungry. I was still thinking about Janine and the guy with the gun but there wasn’t anything I could do about it at this point. I parked near the plaza which was empty except for a couple of kids playing up on the bandstand which had flags of the U.S. and Mexico, crossed, painted on the façade of the roof. I was thinking maybe I’d have lunch at La Posta, if it was still around. It was a good New Mexican restaurant. Not great, but good.

The last time I’d been to La Posta was about 20 years ago, when I was working for Sunset magazine, and I was writing a story about retro highway diners. I’d gotten the idea from a framed copy of a Life magazine article from July 1, 1957, hanging on the wall in La Posta. The article was titled “Roadside Inns and their Fine Foods” and included a story about La Posta as well as The Crab Broiler in Seaside, Oregon; Nepenthe in Big Sur; and the Ojai Valley Inn in Ojai. I’d been to all of them many, many years ago.

It was something to think about Life magazine writing a story about La Posta 55 years ago and how the restaurant was still here, serving up the La Posta Specialty: a starter of chile con queso and corn tortillas, guacamole, red enchiladas, tamale, rolled taco, frijoles, sopaipilla, and, for dessert, an empanada served hot with ice cream, all for just $14.25. That’s what I ordered, even though I knew I would never eat it all.

Just seeing that big platter of food made me nostaligic. I’m not sure for what. Maybe for the day when even something like a taco was just exotic enough to American tastes that the La Posta menu needed to describe what it was and how to eat it: “The taco can best be described as a Mexican sandwich. Eat tacos with your fingers!”

Yes, eat tacos with your fingers. They’re best that way.