Recipes & Reflections on Latino Food & Culture
Adriana Legaspi is dedicating her life to the preservation of Mexican culture and identity by promoting the importance of traditional ingredients and dishes. She runs the Gastrotour of Malinalco which offers participants hands-on cooking classes and tours of the market in Malinalco to buy organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs. What follows is the second part of our interview with Adriana Legaspi. … [Read more...]
In the U.S., it's widely believed that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day. However, Mexicans celebrate their independence on the 16th of September, the day that the criollo, Father Hidalgo, rallied the indigenous masses in the town of Dolores with "el grito"-- the shout urging them to overthrow the oppressive yoke of colonial Spanish government. The ensuing fight for independence would last ten years. … [Read more...]
Last week, Mexico celebrated its 201st year of independence. In San Miguel de Allende, the conspirators Ignacio Allende and the Aldama brothers, hasta el copete (fed up) with the abuses of the Spanish colonial government, organized a revolt. On September 16, 1810, co-conspirator Father Hidalgo, a parish priest in nearby Dolores Hidalgos rang out the rallying cry (el grito), signaling the start of the bloody battle that would rage more than 10 years. When the war ended, Mexico emerged tattered and torn. There was a staggering national identity problem in a country of criollos (creoles), peninsulares (native-born Spaniards), mestizos (mixed race) and indigenous people. The stories of my ancestors who lived through those years are forever lost in time, though I can't help but imagine what the Mexico of those ten years must have been like. The complex society that emerged--with its … [Read more...]
Gilda (La Madrina) recently returned from one of her trips to Mexico bringing for me this time a beautiful, handwoven table runner. At least that is how I will use it, as something decorative for my table. She found the colorful fabric in a shop in San Miguel de Allende that sells gently-used textiles as well as embroidered or woven articles of clothing and table linens--all handcrafted by indigenous women who embroider or weave colorful cloth as a cottage industry to provide food and medicine for their families. But, they often hock their personal belongings when they are in desperate need. I look at the vibrant cloth, smooth the ribbons of color with my hands and think about the woman who once owned it. Did she use it as a rebozo, throwing it over her shoulders on chilly mountain nights? Or wrap it around her baby to keep him close? Did she care for it lovingly? Use … [Read more...]
The summer of 1969 my best friend, Susan, and I decided to take a vacation to what was at that time a remote part of Mexico: Isla Mujeres, off the Yucatan peninsula. We had already experienced life away from home that year as college students in Houston. Working as waitresses to help defray our college expenses, we had heard about the island from other students who worked with us. So, on a shoestring budget, we embarked on our trip. Starting out in our hometown, Laredo, we set off on trains and buses, stopping in Monterrey, Mexico City and Merida. We finally made it to Puerto Juarez where we took a ferry to Isla Mujeres. We were two 19-year-olds, mesmerized as we arrived by the sight of white, powdery sand, crystalline water and the smell of the sea. We played like children along the water's edge with a kaleidoscope of fish that surrounded us. Walking along the beach one day, an old … [Read more...]
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