I'm Mexican-American, and watching 'Mexican week' on 'The Great British Baking Show' was a cringeworthy experience like no other

• The latest episode of "The Great British Baking Show" was just released in the US on Friday.
• This week's competition had a "Mexican" theme, and saw the bakers make pan dulce, tacos, and more.

So far, season 13 of "The Great British Baking Show" (known as "The Great British Bake-off" in the UK) has been the television equivalent of a warm hug — the perfect thing to watch as the days get shorter and the weather turns crisp.

After this season premiered on Netflix in mid-September, I found myself, as I do every season, quickly growing attached to the new crop of bakers (Janusz, Syabira, and Kevin are my favorites).

However, when I saw that the fourth episode of the season would be "Mexican" themed (a first for the series), my heart sank. "Great British Baking Show" has (rightfully) come under fire in the past for grossly simplifying and appropriating other nonwhite cultures — as with season 11's "Japanese Week" episode, which aired in 2020.

As a proud Mexican-American, I knew I'd likely be disappointed in this week's bakes. But I wasn't prepared for the amount of inane and offensive jokes about my culture that were so casually bantered about in this week's episode. Not only was I disappointed while watching the new episode — I was uncomfortable, and, at times, even angry.

The episode opens with hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas in serapes and sombreros

In their cold open, the two comedians agree that they probably shouldn't make "Mexican jokes" since "people will get upset."

"Not even Juan?" Lucas asks Fielding, to which the "Mighty Boosh" star replies, "Not even Juan."

The joke is, of course, a lazy play on words involving a very common name in Spanish-speaking countries, but the fact that the hosts were clad in costumey versions of traditional Mexican garments took things from cringe-y but harmless to uncomfortable.

It felt, as it did at many points later in the episode, that these two white British comedians were using Mexican culture as a punchline, despite the fact that the challenges were ostensibly meant to celebrate Mexican cuisine.

And things only got more cringe-y as the competition went on. At one point, Lucas even used a pair of red, white, and green maracas as a prop during one of his jokes.

The contestants (and judge Paul Hollywood) also had trouble pronouncing basic Spanish words like "pico de gallo," and a personal pet peeve of mine occurred during the technical challenge, when "taco" and "tortilla" were used almost interchangeably. (A taco is a dish involving tortillas, meats, salsas, and toppings. A tortilla is merely the vessel used in tacos and other Mexican dishes.)

Perhaps the moment that made me the most uncomfortable and angry was when Fielding asked Lucas, "Is Mexico a real place?"

Lucas replied that he thought so, and the bit was revisited later on in the episode.

I'm not the only one who had trouble getting through the episode

On social media, fans criticized the show for doing a disservice to Mexican culture, and including questionable jokes by Fielding and Lucas.

Speaking to CNN, food journalist and cookbook author Lesley Téllez said the episode was a surface-level interpretation of Mexican culture.

"I think they should have been a lot more thoughtful about it. It reduces Mexican food to stereotypes — to being this two-dimensional cuisine," Tellez said.

She also told CNN that she would have loved to have seen a Mexican chef as a guest judge, although she noted that would have broken with the format of the show.

And Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, a professor of Mexican cultural studies at Washington University in St. Louis, agreed that the episode perpetuated stereotypes of Mexican food and culture.

"The fundamental issue is that the episode and its campaign follow a script on Mexican culture that us Mexicans, from either side of the US-Mexico border, see very frequently," Sánchez Prado told NPR.

Mexico and its culture seemed to be more of a source of amusement and jokes for the hosts than anything else

I repeatedly saw my family's country being used as the butt of a joke throughout the episode. Of course Mexico is a real place. Even though clearly few of the bakers have ever visited, that doesn't make it any less legitimate.

Perhaps that was what Fielding was trying to play on, and it's ungenerous to consider his remark as anything more than an ill-advised joke. But given that Mexican culture, in particular Mexican food, is frequently reduced to stereotypes — and is often overshadowed by European cuisines, as food journalist Lesley Tellez noted to CNN — this week's episode just felt offensive to me.

Cultural appropriation isn't an issue specific to the Mexican community, and I'm sure this won't be the last time "Baking Show" absolutely butchers a country's language and food.

But still, I wish "Baking Show" would have handled things differently in this week's episode. (Which aired during Hispanic heritage month, no less!) Those of us who've been to Mexico, or grown up Mexican, know that there's far more to our gorgeous country than subpar tacos and costume-store sombreros.