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Espíritu de Michoacán en Ajijic: Festival de Pueblos Unidos (Festival of People United)

Ajijic, Jalisco is not your typical Mexican pueblito (small town). Although the town has existed for almost 500 years, early in the 20th century it began to be a destination for foreigners. Today, a good-size community of people from many places lives there. The majority are retired English-speakers from the USA and Canada, although some foreign residents come from as many as 60 different countries. Click on any photo to enlarge it for a better view. Photo courtesy Skyscrapercity.

Looking south on Calle Morelos in Ajijic. The arched ironwork sign reads Puerta del Lago, Corazón de Ajijic (Gateway to the Lake, Heart of Ajijic). Photo courtesy Panoramio.

Photographer Jesús Alejandre (and his friend el torito (the bull, danced by famed Michoacán mask maker Felipe Horta, right), with one of Jesús's large photos, on the town plaza in Ajijic, Jalisco. Photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

In mid-2013, a group of Mexicans and foreigners devoted to Michoacán met in Morelia to create the Espíritu de Michoacán (Spirit of Michoacán) foundation. The mission of the foundation is the promotion and preservation of Michoacán's arts and artesanías (crafts). The impulse to form the foundation grew out of our deep concern over the lack of tourism–both national and international–in Michoacán, which has severely limited the sales of the state's fine artesanías. Because previously tourist-driven sales have fallen drastically during the last eight years, many artisans have been forced to cease or limit their production and have sought employment in other endeavors.

Floreros (vases) from Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán. The people of the state of Michoacán, especially those who live in the regions around Lake Pátzcuaro and the Meseta Purépecha, have been skilled artisans for hundreds of years. Current conditions in Michoacán have substantially reduced the ability of the artisan population to earn a living.

Shortly after the creation of the foundation, Mexico Cooks! contacted photographer Xill Fessenden of Ajijic, who organizes an annual festival of Michoacán artisans in her adopted town. These artisans journey to Ajijic for the exhibition and sale of their wares, and the Espíritu de Michoacán foundation wanted to be part of their celebration. Ten years ago, photographer Jesús Alejandre began his photo project, titled Espíritu de Michoacán, and hoped to take his large-format photo exhibition to Ajijic in conjunction with Ms Fessenden's 2013 festival.

The photographs are designed to be exhibited outside, as public art. At night, the photos' illumination makes the pictures glow as if they were lit from inside the scenes. Photo courtesy Espíritu de Michoacán.

The photographs have been exhibited in 20 cities and towns in the state of Michoacán. Just prior to the Ajijic exhibition, the city of Morelia invited photographer Alejandre to mount 22 of the enormous photographs in the Plaza de Armas (the principal plaza) in that city. The photos measure 2.5 meters by 2.10 meters and are designed to be exhibited in outdoor, public spaces. This photograph, taken in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, in 2013, is the final photo in Jesus Alejandre's 10-year project. Photo courtesy Espíritu de Michoacán.

The excitement about this exhibit and sale was contagious. Mexico Cooks! snapped Marion de Koning, a visitor from San Diego, California, as she got close to el torito (the bull). Felipe Horta, mask maker from Tócuaro, carved and painted the mask he is wearing.

The torito spreads his cape before dancing. The typical Purépecha dance called El Torito (The Little Bull) is common throughout the Zona Lacustre (lake region) and the Meseta Purépecha (Purépecha tablelands).

Teofila Servín Barriga, an extraordinary Purépecha embroidery artist from Sanabria, Michoacán, dances El Torito for the opening ceremonies of the 2013 Festival de Pueblos Unidos in Ajijic.

Rose Calderone of La Casona Rosa, Morelia, founder and guiding light behind El Espíritu de Michoacán, narrates a video about the photographs and the mission of the foundation; the festival showed the video, created by Andrea Gudiño Sosa, on the Ajijic plaza during the festival's opening night celebrations.

The exhibition and sale in Ajijic was an enormous success for the artisans and for the Espíritu de Michoacán Foundation. This festival offered a platform for the photos to be shown for the first time outside Michoacán; the exhibit travels next to Guadalajara, Jalisco, followed by a showing in León and San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and another in Mexico City. In the future, we hope to present Jesus Alejandre's paean to the artisans of Michoacán in various cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Photo courtesy Espíritu de Michoacán.

If you or someone you know would be interested in hosting this intensely beautiful photo exhibition, please contact Mexico Cooks! to begin making the arrangements. You are welcome to view more of the photographs at the website for Espíritu de Michoacan.

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18 de January de 2014
Qué Rico! Caldo de Pollo: Chicken Soup, Mexican Style

First published about four years ago, this is by far the most popular of Mexico Cooks!' nearly 400 archived articles. Caldo de pollo is especially popular during the winter months, but anytime is the right time for a steaming, delicious bowlful. There's just something wonderful about comfort food, no matter what culture prepares it.

Seasoning ingredients for preparing the caldo (broth) for Mexican caldo de pollo (chicken soup). Clockwise from top right in the photo: unpeeled carrots, white onions, chiles serranos, garlic, fresh bay leaves, cilantro, and thyme. I also added a big sprig of fresh hierbabuena (mint)and a small sprig of fresh epazote (wormweed). If you can't find fresh epazote, leave it out. The dried variety adds no flavor to any of your recipes.

There are few meals more undeniably Mexican than delicious, home-made caldo de pollo (Mexico's marvelous take on chicken soup with fresh vegetables). During the winter, when the temperature is chilly, what better to warm us from the inside out than Mexico's traditional, rich, delicious caldo de pollo (chicken soup)? You who live in even colder countries will love it as much as we do. Nothing could be simpler to prepare. The ingredients are easy to obtain, the broth all but cooks itself, and the final preparations are a snap.

This beautiful chicken weighed approximately 5.5 pounds before cooking.

Mexico's chickens are perfectly suited to caldo de pollo. Yellow skin and pink flesh create a fragrantly savory stock. If you've traveled to Mexico and visited our markets, you may have wondered why our recently sacrificed raw chickens look so…so chicken-y, so golden and inviting. They're fed ground marigold petals along with their feed! The bright golden color of the flowers is transmitted not only to their skin and flesh, but also to the yolks of their eggs, which sit up high and bright in your breakfast skillet. Several years ago, a shall-remain-nameless neighboring country to the north imported some of its frozen chicken to our supermarkets: gray, lifeless whole chickens and lumps of breast and leg meat lay in freezer compartments waiting to be purchased. Mexican housewives looked at these icy products and recoiled. Little of it sold and I currently notice that no imported frozen chicken is available either at my neighborhood tianguis or in the supermarkets I visit from time to time.

Mexico Cooks! prefers to remove as much fat as possible from the chicken before cooking, leaving only a little to give body and flavor to the broth. The skin stays on, both for color and flavor.

In the pot: the chicken back and legs, along with the seasoning ingredients and water, ready to cook.

Caldo de Pollo (Mexican Chicken Soup)

For the broth
1 whole chicken, approximately 5-6 pounds
1 1/2 white onions, peeled
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 large carrots, peeled and cut in half
2 chiles serranos, sliced from tip to stem end
2 bay leaves
6 stems cilantro
Large sprig fresh hierbabuena (mint)
Small sprig fresh epazote (wormweed), optional. If you can't get it fresh, leave it out.
Large pinch of thyme
Sea salt to taste
Water
Stock pot

Procedure
Remove as much fat as possible from the raw chicken. Remove the bag of menudencias (heart, gizzard, liver, etc). Mexico Cooks! prefers to separate the entire breast and wings from the back and legs, using the back and legs for preparing the broth and reserving the breast and wings for later use.

Put the skin-on chicken back and legs and all seasoning ingredients except the salt into the stock pot. Add approximately 12-14 cups cold water. Bring to a boil, lower to simmer. Skim the broth once. Simmer, partially covered, for approximately 1.5 hours. Cool slightly and add sea salt to taste. Remove all vegetables, herbs, and the chicken back and legs from the pot. Chill the broth overnight and peel off any congealed fat.

Because my wife and I prefer to eat breast meat, I often shred the cooked leg and back meat to be used in other recipes. However, when I made this batch of caldo de pollo, I took large chunks of the dark meat and added them to the broth.

Ingredients for the final preparation of the caldo de pollo, to cook in the broth just before serving. Clockwise from top right: calabacitas (tender zucchini, about 3" long), peeled carrots, chicken breast, fresh green beans. Potatoes, ready to be peeled, are in the foreground.

To finish the caldo de pollo:

Ingredients
1/2 pound fresh green beans, broken in thirds
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2" lengths
4 to 6 calabacitas (tiny zucchini will do), cut into 2" lengths
2 or 3 large potatoes, cut in eighths
2 half chicken breasts, cut into three pieces each
2 chicken wings, pointed end sections removed

About an hour before mealtime, bring the broth to a simmer. Add all of the above ingredients to the broth. Simmer for half an hour, or until the chicken and vegetables are done.

During the half hour that the vegetables and chicken are cooking in the caldo de pollo, prepare a pot of traditional Mexican rice. In a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil, sauté the amount of rice you want (I usually use 1 or 2 cups of raw rice) until the rice is uniformly golden brown. Add 2 cups of tomato water for every cup of rice, bring to a boil, cover the pot and lower the heat to simmer until the rice is fluffy, about 20 minutes.

Tomato Water for Rice
3 raw Roma tomatoes
1/3 white onion, roughly chopped
1 small clove garlic, peeled
2 cups water
Salt to taste

Add all ingredients to your blender and whiz until smooth. Strain through a fine colander and use for cooking rice.

The finished product, steaming and delicious any time!

At meal time, have the following on the table: a large bunch of fresh cilantro in a glass of water; a plate of halved limones or limes, a dish of sea salt; and a cooked (not raw) or bottled table salsa of your choice. Plenty of hot-from-the-griddle corn tortillas round out your meal.

Mexico Cooks! favorite bottled salsa: Cosecha Purhépecha Salsa Casera de Chile Perón (Home-style sauce made of chile manzano, known as chile perón in Michoacán). It's made in Chilchota, Michoacán, and I keep a big stash of it in my Mexico City pantry.

To serve your caldo de pollo, add a large spoonful or two of steaming hot rice to each diner's bowl. Next, add chicken and a good amount of vegetables. Fill each bowl with hot, fragrant broth. Each person can then add a pinch of sea salt, some cilantro leaves, a squeeze or two of jugo de limón, and salsa to his or her own taste.

Makes four to six servings with a lot of rich broth left over for other uses. I strain the broth and then freeze it in gallon ziplock freezer bags.

Provecho!

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11 de January de 2014
2013 in Retrospect :: 2013, Una Mirada Hacia Atrás

In January, we took our shopping bags and some of you to the Mercado de Jamaica, one of Mexico Cooks! favorite Mexico City markets. Not only is the produce section of this wonderful market home to a huge variety of delightful signs (this one, referring to the price for tomate verde (tomatillos), means, "Lady, don't even talk about it!"), but the main part of the Mercado de Jamaica is the city's wholesale flower market. Seasonal changes in the flowers we see there include gorgeous nochebuenas (poinsettias) at Christmas, cempazúchitl (enormous marigolds) for Day of the Dead in November, and roses of every color all year long.

For the Día de La Candelaria (Candlemas Day) on February 2, the Mercado de la Merced offers a huge selection of Niños Dios (Holy Child) figures and the clothing to dress them. This particular outfit depicts El Santo Niño Doctor de los Enfermos (the Holy Child, Doctor to the Sick), with his stethoscope, his doctor's bag, and his white uniform. There are hundreds of other costumes for Him as well. Each year, February 2 marks the official ending of the Christmas season; the Baby Jesus, dressed in his new clothing, goes to church to be blessed. He is then either stored away until the following Christmas or he's placed on his own golden throne in a private home.

In March 2013, we prepared chilaquiles con huevo (chilaquiles with egg), a simple, home-style breakfast classic much eaten at Mexico Cooks!' house. Whether you want a filling breakfast or a simple comida (midday meal), these few ingredients make a tasty and popular combination.

Rajas de chile poblano con crema (strips of poblano chiles with cream) was our traditional dish for April. These large, beautiful chiles are generally not particularly spicy, but their flavor packs a terrific punch for a different kind of side dish for your table. If you haven't tried them yet, the recipe is simple and your family will love it.

May 2013 took you and Mexico Cooks! all over Mexico City. One of our favorite pastimes is giving Mexico Cooks! readers glimpses of daily life in this huge city and letting you see things that will broaden your vision of Mexico. This mariachi member is the vihuela (a stringed instrument) player along the canals of Xochimilco.

In June, dichos de la cocina (kitchen sayings) took center stage. Here in Mexico, there's a saying to fit any situation, and sayings from the kitchen are no exception. Each of them has at least two meanings, the literal and the not-so-literal. One of my favorites is Guajolote que se sale del corral, termina en mole. The turkey that gets out of the yard ends up in mole.

Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's restaurant Azul/Condesa called out to us in July–not to mention several other times during the course of 2013. This dish, buñuelos de pato rostizado con mole negro (small crunchy fried dough filled with roast duck and drizzled with black mole), is on the menu as a main course, but we often share it among three or four diners as an appetizer.

During three weeks in August, Mexico Cooks! focused on Oaxaca. These three articles were a down-memory-lane look at a wonderful trip dating to June 2011.

In September, we featured the ultimate taste of Mexican pork: these are tacos al pastor (marinated pork, grilled to order on the trompo (vertical spit). The meat is cut from the spit and knife-flicked into warm tortillas, along with a sliver of roast pineapple, for delicious tacos. This fellow, cooking on Calle Uruguay in Mexico City's Centro Histórico, loves what he does!

October found us in a most unusual place: an international dog show, right here in Mexico City. This little wire-hair terrier named Thor really captured my heart, and his picture gave everyone who saw it a big smile. Such a cheery guy!

Early November brings Noche de Muertos (Night of the Dead) to all of Mexico. This spiritual calling-home of those who have gone before is particularly lovely in the state of Michoacán. Mexico Cooks! was fortunate to be invited on a private tour of small cemeteries, accompanied by dear friends.

To close out the year, we re-visited Doña Lolita and learned a lot about the joy of making (and breaking!) piñatas. We loved visiting her and hearing her tell the traditions of her long life as a piñatera (piñata maker).

Mexico Cooks! will be on the go again in 2014. Of course YOU are always welcome to join us on a tour especially designed for your personal needs. Let us know what we can offer you!

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4 de January de 2014
Feliz Año Nuevo (Happy New Year), Mexican Style

In Mexico and other Latin American countries, women wear newly purchased yellow underwear on New Year's Eve to bring good luck and wealth in the year to come. Red underwear indicates a New Year's wish for an exciting love interest! And if you want both, wear both!

Superstition or not, many here in Mexico have the custom of ritos del Año Nuevo (New Year's rituals). Some rituals include foods, others prescribe certain clothing, and still others warrant attention for religious interest.

As the clock strikes midnight, it's common to eat twelve grapes–one at each ding, one at each dong of the bell. While eating the grapes, you make a personal wish for each grape you consume, welcoming the new year that's beginning. Mexico Cooks! finds that it's helpful to write down the twelve wishes so as not to forget one or choke in the rush to swallow the grapes before the clock finishes striking the New Year's earliest hour.

Eating a tablespoonful of cooked lentils on New Year's Eve is said to bring prosperity and fortune. You can also give raw lentils–just a handful–to family and friends with the same wish.

On a small piece of paper, write down the undesirable habits and customs you'd like to let go of in the New Year that's just beginning. Burn the paper, then follow through with the changes!

Choose three stones that symbolize health, love, and money. Put them in a place where you will see them every day.

Light candles: blue for peace, yellow for abundance, red for love, green for health, white for spirituality, and orange for intelligence.

Spill clean water on the sidewalk in front of your house as the clock rings in the New Year. Your house will be purified and all tears will be washed away.

To have money for your needs all year, have some bills in your hand or in your pocket to welcome the arrival of the New Year. Some people fold up the money and put it in their shoes!

Take your suitcase for a walk. Legend is that the farther you walk with your suitcase, the farther you'll travel. Several New Year's Eves ago, Mexico Cooks! and a few friends celebrated by walking our suitcases around the block, and we all traveled far and wide during the new year that followed.

Mexico Cooks! wishes all of you a muy Próspero Año Nuevo–and especially wishes that your red underwear brings you (or keeps you) the love of family, friends, and that special someone.

We'll see you in 2014!

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28 de December de 2013
Creche, Manger Scene, Nacimiento: The Central Focus of Christmas in Mexico

A Christmas tree may be the central focus of your home decoration during this joyous season of the Christian year. In most parts of Mexico, the Christmas tree is a fairly recent import and the primary focus of the holiday is still on the nacimiento (manger scene, creche, or nativity scene).

One of Mexico Cooks!' biggest delights every late November and early December is shopping for Christmas–not hunting for gifts, but rather for new items to place in our nacimiento (manger scene). Truth be told, we have five nacimientos–or maybe six–that come out each Christmas season, but only one of them keeps growing every year.

The tiny figures in this nacimiento are made of clay; the choza (hut) is made of wood. The shepherds and angels have distinctive faces; no two are alike. One shepherd carries firewood, another a tray of pan dulce (sweet breads), a third has a little bird in his hands. The tallest figures measure only three inches high. The Niño Dios (Baby Jesus) is not usually placed in the pesebre (manger) until the night of December 24. The Niño Dios for this nacimiento is just over an inch long and is sleeping on his stomach with his tiny knees drawn up under him, just like a real infant. This nacimiento was made about 30 years ago in Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico.

Mexican households traditionally pass the figures for their nacimientos down through the family; the figures begin to look a little tattered after traveling from great-grandparents to several subsequent generations, but no one minds. In fact, each figure holds loving family memories and is the precious repository of years of 'remember when…?''. No one cares that the Virgin Mary's gown is chipped around the hem or that St. Joseph is missing an arm; remembering how the newest baby teethed on the Virgin's dress or how a long-deceased visiting aunt's dog bit off St. Joseph's arm is cause for a family's nostalgic laughter.

Nacimiento en vivo (living nativity scene), Lake Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. In 13th century Italy, St. Francis of Assisi was inspired to re-enact the birth of Christ. The first nacimiento was presented with living creatures: the oxen, the donkey, and the Holy Family. Even today in Mexican communities, there are hundreds of living manger scenes.

Holy Family, 18th century Italy. The first nativity figures, made of clay, were created in 15th century Naples and their use spread rapidly throughout Italy and Spain. In Spain, the early figural groups were called 'Belenes' (Bethlehems).

A few weeks before Christmas, our tiny nacimiento de plomo (manger scene with lead figures, none over four inches high) comes out of yearlong storage. The wee village houses are made of cardboard and hand-painted; each has snow on its roof and a little tree in front. You might well ask what the figures in the photo represent: el Sr. San José (St. Joseph, who in Mexico always wears green and gold) leads the donkey carrying la Virgen María (the Virgin Mary) on their trek to Belén (Bethlehem). We put these figures out earliest and move them a bit closer to Bethlehem every day. This nacimiento is the one that grows each year; we have added many figures to the original few. This year we expect the total number of figures to rise to more than 150.

Click on the photo and you will see that the Holy Family has not yet arrived in Bethlehem; the choza is empty and St. Joseph's staff is just visible in the lower right-hand corner. Click to enlarge the photo to better see the figures in the nacimiento: gamboling sheep, birds of all kinds, shepherds, shepherdesses, St. Charbel, an angel, and Our Lady of Guadalupe are all ready to receive the Niño Dios (Baby Jesus). Notice the upright red figure standing in the Spanish moss: that's Satan, who is always present in a Mexican nacimiento to remind us that although the birth of Jesus offers love and the possibility of redemption, sin and evil are always present in the world.

Detail of the lead figures in our ever-growing nacimiento. To the left is a well (with doves) and a woman coming to draw water; to the right is an arriero (donkey-herder) giving his little donkey what-for. No matter how many figures are included, the central figures in any nacimiento are the Holy Family (St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and the Baby Jesus). In Mexico, those three are collectively known as el misterio (the mystery).

A very small portion of one of the largest nacimientos on display in Mexico City. It measures more than 700 square meters and includes thousands of figures. They include everything you can think of and some things that would never occur to you: a butcher shop, a running stream and a waterfall, sleeping peasants, and washerwomen. A nacimiento can include all of the important stories of the Bible, from Genesis to the Resurrection, as well as figures representing daily life–both today's life in Mexico and life at the time of Jesus's birth. Photo courtesy El Universal.

Papel roca (hand-painted paper for decorating a nacimiento), a choza (little hut), and two kinds of moss for sale in this booth at the Guadalajara tianguis navideño (Christmas market). This year, Mexico Cooks! has purchased figures of a miniature pre-Hispanic loinclothed warrior, a tiny shoemaker working at his bench, a wee man sawing firewood, and a shepherd standing under a tree while holding a lamb. The shepherd's tree looks exactly like a stalk of broccoli and makes us smile each time we look at it.

Where in Mexico can you buy figures for your nacimiento? Every city and town has a market where, for about a month between the end of November and the first week in January, a large number of vendors offer items especially for Christmas. Some larger cities, like Mexico City, Guadalajara, Morelia, and others, offer several tianguis navideños (Christmas markets) where literally thousands of figures of every size are for sale. Last year we found a tiny figure of the seated Virgin Mary, one breast partially exposed as she nurses the Niño Dios, who lies nestled in her arms. It's the only one like it that we have ever seen.

This booth at a tianguis navideño in Guadalajara offers Niños Dios in every possible size, from tiny ones measuring less than three inches long to babies the size of a two-year-old child. In Mexico City's Centro Histórico, Calle Talavera is an entire street devoted to shops specializing in clothing for your Niño Dios. The nacimiento is traditionally displayed until February 2 (Candlemas Day), when the Niño Dios is gently taken out of the pesebre in a special ceremony called the levantamiento (raising). The nacimiento is then carefully stored away until the following December.

Near Mexico City's Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, this religious goods store also advertises that it will dress the Niño Dios for your nacimiento.

Piles of gold and silver glitter cardboard stars of Bethlehem, for sale at the tianguis navideño in southern Mexico City's Mercado Mixcoac.

Some new figures for our 2013 nacimiento. More than a dozen 3" high paper maché musicians (we think they're from India) make up this little band–and they have a little dog to lead them. Size and scale don't matter: you'll find crocodiles the size of your little finger and elephants as big as a soft drink can. Both will work equally well in your nacimiento.

Giant flamingos go right along with burritas (little donkeys). Why not?

Each traditional figure in a nacimiento is symbolic of a particular value. For example, the choza (the little hut) represents humility and simplicity. Moss represents humilty–it's something that everyone steps on. The donkey represents the most humble animal in all creation, chosen to carry the pregnant Virgin Mary. The star of Bethlehem represents renewal and unending light.

Which diablito (little devil) tempts you most, the one with the money bag or the one with the booze?

How many shepherds do you want? This booth at the Guadalajara tianguis navideño has hundreds, and in sizes ranging from an inch to well over a foot tall.

It wouldn't be a Mexican nacimiento without tortillas!

This Christmas, Mexico Cooks! wishes you all the blessings of the season. Whatever your faith, we hope you enjoy this peek at the nacimiento, one of Mexico's lasting traditions.

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21 de December de 2013
Christmas Piñatas :: Piñatas Navideñas

Traditional piñatas ready for sale decorate the door to the Hernández family's tiny taller (workshop) on Av. Lázaro Cárdenas in Morelia, Michoacán.

Among unadorned, new ollas de barro (clay pots), plastic receptacles filled with engrudo (flour/water paste), and colorful, neatly stacked rounds of papel de china (tissue paper), Sra. María Dolores Hernández (affectionately known as Doña Lolita) sits on an upturned bucket. She'll celebrate her 84th birthday on December 24, and she still lights up–just like a Christmas tree–when she talks about her business and her life.

The last point of the star-shaped piñata is in Doña Lolita's hands, nearly ready to be glued into place.

"When I was a young woman, raising my family together with my husband, it was hard for us to make a good living here in Morelia. We had eight children (one has died, but six girls and a boy survive) and we struggled to make ends meet. My husband was a master mason, but I wanted to help out with the finances. I knew a woman who made piñatas, and I thought, 'I can do that.' So I started trying my hand, nearly 60 years ago."

Doña Lolita adds another layer of newspaper to this piñata in progress. "You can't put too much newspaper on the pot, because it will take too long to break," she explained. "And you can't put too little on it, either, because then the first child to hit it will break it. That's no good, either. You just have to know how much to use." Click on the photo to enlarge it and get a good look at the clay pot inside the paper maché.

"The woman who made piñatas wouldn't give away her secrets, so I had to figure everything out for myself. You should have seen me the first time I tried to make a bird's beak for a parrot-shaped piñata! A man I knew told me to make it out of chapopote (a kind of tar), so I did. It hardened all right, but later in the day the weather warmed up and that beak dripped down to here! What a mess! I finally figured out how to make the shape out of paper, but I just about broke my head thinking about it!"

Pre-cut rounds of papel de china (tissue paper) wait to be glued onto a piñata. The black plastic bag holds strips of newspaper.

Doña Lolita told me about the different grades of paper used to create different styles of decoration on the piñata, and she explained different kinds of paper-cutting techniques; she's absolutely the expert. Here, her son-in-law Fernando cuts tissue paper for fringe. His hands are so fast with the scissors it made my head spin; he can even cut without looking.

"In those days, the clay pots cost four and a half pesos for a gross–yes, for 144. In the old days, I usually sold about 7,000 piñatas every December, so you can imagine the investment I made just in clay pots. In the 1960s, I could sell a large piñata for seven pesos. Now–well, now the pots are much more expensive, so naturally the piñatas cost more, too. The large ones cost 45 pesos. This year, I'll sell about 1,000 piñatas just for the posadas. "

Piñatas in various stages of completion hang from every beam in Doña Lolita's tiny workshop.

"When my daughter Mercedes was about eight years old, she wanted to learn to make piñatas. She'd been watching me do it since she was born. So I taught her, and I've taught the whole family.  Piñatería (making piñatas) is what's kept us going." Doña Lolita smiled hugely. "My children have always been extremely hard workers. There was a girl for each part of making the piñatas. Every year, we started making piñatas in August and finished at the beginning of January.

This gigantic piñata, still unfinished, measures almost six feet in diameter from point to point.

"One time, we had so many piñatas to finish that I didn't think we could do it. So I thought, 'if we work all night long, we can finish them by tomorrow morning.' Only I couldn't figure out how to keep the children awake to work all night." She laughed. "I went to the drugstore and bought pills to stay awake. I knew I could keep myself awake, but I gave one pill to each of the children. And in just a little while, I was working and they were sleeping, their heads fell right down into their work! What! Those pills didn't work at all! The next day I went back to the drugstore and asked the pharmacist about it. 'Oh no! I thought you asked me for pills to make them sleep!' he said." Doña Lolita laughed again. "We finished all the piñatas in spite of those pills, but you had better believe me, I never tried anything that foolish again."

Doña Lolita builds piñatas with her son-in-law, Fernando Cedeño Herrera (left), her daughter Mercedes Ayala Hernández, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. A close friend, Oswaldo Gutiérrez López (background), works with the family. Her grandson Enrique, 19, says he intends to keep the family business going.

Oswaldo Gutiérrez works on this piñata in the doorway of the tiny taller. Doña Lolita has taught many people the art of creating traditional piñatas, but her family and her loyal customers say she's the best piñatera (piñata maker) in Morelia.

"People come from everywhere to buy my piñatas. I don't have to take them out to sell; I only sell them here in the taller. Because they're so beautiful and well-made, all the best people in Morelia–and lots of people from other places–come to seek me out and order piñatas for their parties. I've taught my family that our work is our pride and our heritage, and my children have all taught their children the same. That is our legacy, our family tradition."

Fill the piñata with candy like these bags of traditional colación (hard candies especially for Christmas).

But why piñatas, and why in December? During the early days of the Spanish conquest, the piñata was used as a catechetical tool. The body of the piñata represented Satan; each of the seven points symbolized the seven capital sins (pride, lust, gluttony, rage, greed, laziness, and envy). Breaking the piñata equated with the triumph of good over evil, overpowering Satan, overcoming sin, and enjoying the delights of God's creation as they pour out of the piñata. Doña Lolita's most sought-after piñatas continue the traditional style, but she also creates piñatas shaped like roosters, peacocks, half-watermelons, deer, half moons, and once, an enormous octopus!

Now, for the nine nights from December 16 through December 24, Mexico celebrates las posadas. Each evening, a re-enactment of the Christmas story brings children dressed as la Virgencita María (ready to give birth to her baby) and her husband Sr. San José (and a street filled with angels, shepherds, and other costumed children) along the road to Bethlehem, searching for a place to stay. There is no place: Bethlehem's posadas (inns) are filled. Where will the baby be born! For the re-enactment, people wait behind closed doors at certain neighborhood houses. The santos peregrinos (holy pilgrims) knock, first at one door, then another. At each house, they sing a song, begging lodging for the night. At each house, the neighbors inside turn them away in song: 'No room here! Go away! Bother someone else!' Watch a lovely slide show: Las Posadas.

Freshly toasted cacahuates (peanuts) also stuff the piñata. The wooden box holding the peanuts is actually a measure, as is the oval metal box.

After several houses turn away la Virgen, San José, and their retinue, they finally receive welcome at the last designated house. After the pilgrims sing their plea for a place to stay, the guests assembled inside sing their welcome,  "Entren santos peregrinos…" (Come in, holy pilgrims…). The doors are flung open, everyone piles into the house, and a huge party starts. Traditional foods like ponche (a hot fruit punch), buñuelos (a thin fried dough covered with either sugar or syrup), and tamales (hundreds of tamales!) pour out of the kitchen as revelers sing villancicos (Mexican Christmas carols) and celebrate the coming of the Niño Dios (the Child Jesus). Finally, all the children line up to put on a blindfold and take swings at a piñata stuffed with candy, seasonal fruits, and peanuts.

This five-pound bag of hard candies shows a blindfolded (but peeking) boy ready to break open the filled piñata. Luis Gómez, a merchant at Local 290, Mercado Independencia in Morelia, offers these and other bags of piñata candies.

Mandarinas (tangerines) are in season at Christmastime and round out the goodies in lots of piñatas.

The piñata, stuffed with all it will hold, hangs from a rope during the posada party. A parent or neighbor swings it back and forth, up and down, as each child takes a turn at breaking it open with a big stick. Watch these adorable kids whack away.

The piñata, lovely though it may be, is purely temporary. Nevertheless, happy memories of childhood posadas with family and friends last a lifetime.

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14 de December de 2013
Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe :: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en Imágenes

The actual tilma (cape-like garment made of woven agave cactus fiber) worn by San Juan Diego in December 1531. The framed tilma hangs over the main altar at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Mexico City.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTfzGNTaDYc&w=500&h=281]
Listen as this group sings La Guadalupana, one of the most popular of Mexico's many traditional songs honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. The lyrics tell the story of her aparition to Juan Diego on the hill called Tepeyac, and also emphasize the honor felt by Mexicans that she appeared here.

The annual feast of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) falls on December 12–in 2013, that's this coming Wednesday. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is Mexico's patron saint, and her image adorns churches and altars, house facades and interiors, taxis, private cars, and buses, bull rings and gambling dens, restaurants and houses of ill repute. The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, la Basílica, is a place of extraordinary vitality and celebration. On major festival days such as the anniversary of the apparition on December 12th, the atmosphere of devotion created by several million pilgrims is truly electrifying.

Statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe for sale at the many, many souvenir booths outside the Basílica. Statues range in size from two or three inches tall to life-size.

The enormous Basílica of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Mexico City is the most visited pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere. Its location, on the hill of Tepeyac, was a place of great sanctity long before the arrival of Christianity in the New World. In pre-Hispanic times, Tepeyac had been crowned with a temple dedicated to an earth and fertility goddess called Tonantzin, the Mother of the Gods. Tonantzin was a virgin goddess associated with the moon, like Our Lady of Guadalupe who usurped her shrine.

Our Lady of Guadalupe tattoo.

There's a saying in Mexico: "No todos somos católicos, pero todos somos guadalupanos." (We may not all be Catholics, but we are all devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe.)

Read the full story of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe here.

Our Lady of Guadalupe surrounded by fresh roasted peanuts, Morelia, Michoacán. November 2009.

Holy water bottles in rainbow colors of plastic, for sale at the booths just outside the Basílica.

Art casket, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Basílica.

Primitive folk art depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Statue in resin of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Pope John Paul II, who was devoted to her. This image is reproduced as calendars, statues of all sizes, and pictures to hang on the wall. More than 10 years after his death, Mexico continues to feel a deep connection to Pope John Paul II.

Portrait of Monseñor Diego Monroy, rector of the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. The painting is part of Monseñor Monroy's private collection.

In 1810, Padre Miguel Hidalgo carried this banner to lead the struggle for Mexico's independence from Spain.

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7 de December de 2013
Cuanajo, Michoacán: Cradle of Hand-Carved and Painted Furniture

The mid-autumn landscape is lovely along the road to Cuanajo, Michoacán. Sun-struck shocks of corn stand out against the patchwork of fields and mountains.

During September and October, expanses of mirasoles (wild cosmos) grace every open field.

The MIchoacán hillside near Pátzcuaro cradles Cuanajo, an entirely Purhépecha town of about 12,000 souls. The Purhépecha are the largest group of indigenous people in Michoacán. Nearly 500 years ago, when the Spaniards first traveled through this part of Mexico, the settlement lay some two kilometers south of its current location. The Purhépecha covered their yácatas (pyramids) with earth to prevent their takeover by the conquistadores and the town moved north.

The Casa de Artesanías (Artisans' Center) in Cuanajo is the home of artisan-carved wood furniture, textiles, and decorative items.

Just before this article was originally published in November 2008, Mexico Cooks! had the opportunity to talk with Emilio García Zirangua, the then-head of government in Cuanajo. Sr. García expressed deep concern about the future of centuries-old wood crafting in his town. "The Purhépecha of Cuanajo began carving wood when Don Vasco de Quiroga, the first bishop of Michoacán, brought Spanish artisans to teach us their methods in the 15th century. Now, we don't know what our future holds. So much wood has been taken from our mountains, legally and illegally, and even though the government makes promises about reforestation, we don't see the results of those promises."

Furniture factories are often just one small room.

"Cuanajo is part of the municipio (similar to a county in the United States) of Pátzcuaro. Actually, next to Pátzcuaro, we're the largest town in the municipio. We're working on gaining standing as a separate municipio because our needs here are so different from Pátzcuaro's needs. Our town is very rural, not so modern as that town."

Colorful Mexican themes decorate this queen-size hand-carved and hand-painted headboard. You'll find this one or others that are similar at Fábrica de Muebles Buenos Aires, at the corner of Guadalupe Victoria and Lázaro Cárdenas in Cuanajo.

Soft pastels decorate hand-carved larger than life size alcatraces (calla lilies) on this double bed headboard. It was also made at Fábrica de Muebles Buenos Aires.

Sr. García continued, "Not too many years ago, everyone in Cuanajo spoke Purhépecha. Today, few of the young people bother to learn the language. It's a huge loss. In that way, it seems as if our heritage is disappearing. What will be the next to go?"

One corner detail of a finely carved and painted dish cupboard from Cuanajo.

"At least we still take pride in our heritage of working with wood. Nearly everyone here knows wood carving and painting, and most of us earn our living from those things. We have an international reputation for making beautiful furniture and decorative items for the home."

This gorgeous bench from Cuanajo, hand-carved and hand-painted with images of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is for sale at the Casa de Artesanía, Morelia.

This Cuanajo chair, one of a set of four painted with images of figures from the 1810 Mexican revolution, is also for sale at the Casa de Artesanía, Morelia.

This is just one detailed scene from a Cuanajo-made table top.

Cuanajo is substantially off the beaten tourist track but well worth the time and effort to get there. If you're looking for highly detailed painted furniture or other home decoration, it's the best place in Michoacán to find what you want. Please contact Mexico Cooks! if you'd like a guided tour.

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30 de November de 2013
Flaneur Part Four: Shopping, Cooking, Eating in Mexico City and Beyond

Calabaza de Castilla on display at the Mercado Medellín, Colonia Roma, Mexico City, October 2013. A winter squash (this particular example measured 16" or more in diameter), it has the hardest shell imaginable. I suspect that it had been cut in half using a band saw; no ordinary knife could have sliced through it so beautifully.

Ah, Michoacán, how I miss your flavors! This enormous taco de carnitas from Quiroga (with a slice of brilliant yellow pickled chile perón on the side) went a long way toward being just the 'fix' I needed in early November. True confession: I ate two of them. Michoacán's carnitas (huge hunks of pork, long-cooked in boiling lard) really can't be replicated at home. Although you might find some recipes on the Internet that will try to tell you how to make a small batch, you really need to come with me to Michoacán to eat the real thing.

From the sublimely traditional taco de carnitas to the equally sublime but completely modern star menu item at Hamburguesas Richard's in Morelia. Just looking at this photo makes my mouth water: Richard's prepares hamburgers just right: this one is a double, with two freshly made beef patties, a slice of melting yellow cheese, a slice of gooey white cheese, fresh chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced grilled onions, a touch of mustard, and condiments to add at table–including chiles toreados (chiles serrano, sautéed in oil along with finely sliced white onion until the chiles' skin blisters) and meant to be eaten on the side, bite by bite till smoke comes out your ears. Add to your hamburger: mayonnaise, crema de mesa (Mexican table cream), chile Valentina (Mexico's ubiquitous bottled red salsa), more mustard, or a shot of catsup, and WOW. A side of fries (ask for them bien doradas (crispy-fried) and eat them like I do: dipped in a squeeze of chile Valentina that you've mixed into mayonnaise.

Currently in season at Mexico City's Mercado San Juan: percebes (goose barnacle). These strangely beautiful crustaceans are hugely popular in Spain and Portugal, but this was the first I'd seen them in the market. Here's a recipe, if goose barnacles are available where you shop: percebes.

Bright red maguey cactus worms. These creatures, known here in Mexico as chinicuiles, are a pre-Hispanic delicacy that's still popular today. They are the inch-and-a-half-to-two-inch long larvae of a type of butterfly that lives in the leaves, heart, and roots of the maguey cactus; typically, the larvae are in season from May until the end of October–approximately the rainy season in central Mexico. More true confessions: although chef-friends have tried to convince me of the delicious flavor of these worms, I have never eaten one; it's impossible for me to get past the…well, enough said. I have never eaten one.

More from the Mercado San Juan! These are pichones (squabs), with part of their plumage intact. Pichón is the word used for young pigeons; it's also used in its diminutive (pichoncito) to refer to someone who is (or who wants to appear) still young. "Tengo 84 años ya." "Tú? No puede ser! Sigues de pichoncito!" 'I'm 84 years old.' 'You? That can't be! You're still just barely hatched!'

A beguiling trompe l'oeil bluebird, perched on a light switch at Rosetta, the popular and elegant northern Italian restaurant in Colonia Roma.

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23 de November de 2013
Noche de Muertos (Night of the Dead) in Michoacán, 2013

Mexico Cooks!' full body bone scan, 2009.

Remember me as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you will be,
Prepare for death and follow me.
…from a tombstone

What is death? We know its first symptoms: the heart stops pumping, breath and brain activity stop. We know death's look and feel: a still, cold body from which the spirit has fled. The orphan and widow know death's sorrow, the priest knows the liturgy of the departed and the prayers to assuage the pain of those left to mourn. But in most English-speaking countries, death and the living are not friends. We the living look away from our mortality, we talk of the terminally ill in terms of 'if anything happens', not 'when she dies'. We hang the crepe, we cover the mirrors, we say the beads, and some of us fling ourselves sobbing upon the carefully disguised casket as it is lowered into the Astroturf-lined grave.

Octavio Paz, Mexico City's Nobel Laureate poet and essayist who died in 1998, is famously quoted as saying, "In New York, Paris, and London, the word death is never mentioned, because it burns the lips."

Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán panteón (cemetery), Mexico Cooks! photo. These fellows sing to la Descarnada (the fleshless woman) on November 2, 2009.

In Mexico, on the contrary, every day is a dance with death. Death is a woman who has a numerous affectionate and humorous nicknames: la Huesuda (the bony woman), la Seria (the serious woman), la Novia Fiel (the faithful bride), la Igualadora (the equalizer), la Dientona (the toothy woman), la Pelona (the bald woman), la Patrona (the boss lady), and a hundred more. She's always here, just around the next corner or right over there, behind that pillar. She waits with patience, until later today or until twelve o'clock next Thursday, or sometime next year–but when it's time, she's right there to dance away with you at her side.

November 2013 altar to La Santa Muerte (Holy Death), Sta. Ana Chapirito (near Pátzcuaro), Michoacán. Devotees of this deathly apparition say that her cult has existed since before the Spanish arrived in Mexico.

In Mexico, death is also in the midst of life. We see our dead, alive as you and me, each November, when we wait at our cemeteries for those who have gone before to come home, if only for a night. That, in a nutshell, is Noche de Muertos: the Night of the Dead.

In the lower center portion of this photograph, you can see the Quiroga, Michoacán, panteón municipal (town cemetery). Late in the afternoon of November 1, 2013, most townspeople had not yet gone to the cemetery with candles and flowers for their loved ones' graves. Click on any photograph for a larger view.

Over the course of the last 30-plus years, Mexico Cooks! has been to countless Noche de Muertos events, but none as mystical, as spiritual, or as profoundly magical as in 2013. Invited to accompany a very small group on a private tour in Michoacán, I looked forward to spending three days enjoying the company of old and new friends. I did all that, plus I came away with an extraordinarily privileged view of life and death.

A magnificent Purépecha ofrenda (in this case, a home altar) in the village of Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán. This detailed and lovely ofrenda was created to the memory of the family's maiden aunt, who died at 74. Because she had never married, even at her advanced age she was considered to be an angelito (little angel)–like an innocent child–and her spirit was called back home to the family on November 1, the day of the angelitos. Be sure to click on the photo to see the details of the altar. Fruits, breads, incense, salt, flowers, colors, and candles have particular symbolism and are necessary parts of the ofrenda.

Detail of the ofrenda casera (home altar) shown above. Several local people told Mexico Cooks! that the fruit piled on the altar tasted different from fruit from the same source that had not been used for the ofrenda. "Compramos por ejemplo plátanos y pusimos unos en el altar y otros en la cocina para comer. Ya para el día siguiente, los del altar pierden su sabor, no saben a nada," they said. 'We bought bananas, for example, and we put some on the altar and the rest in the kitchen to eat. The next day, the ones in the kitchen were fine, but the ones from the altar had no taste at all.'

Preparing a family member's ofrenda (altar) in the camposanto in the village of Arócutin, Michoacán. The camposanto–literally, holy ground–is a cemetery contained within the walls of a churchyard. The candles used in this area of Michoacán are hand made in Ihuatzio and Santa Fé de la Laguna.

Come with me along the unlit road that skirts the Lago de Pátzcuaro: Lake Pátzcuaro. It's chilly and the roadside weeds are damp with earlier rain, but for the moment the sky has cleared and filled with stars. Up the hill on the right and down the slope leading left toward the lake are tiny villages, dark but for the glow of tall candles lit one by one in the cemeteries. Tonight is November 1, the night silent souls wend their way home from Mictlán, the land beyond li
fe.

At the grave: candlelight to illuminate the soul's way, cempazúchitl (deeply orange marigolds) for their distinctive fragrance required to open the path back home, smoldering copal (frankincense) to cleanse the earth and air of any remnants of evil, covered baskets of the deceased's favorite foods. And a low painted chair, where the living can rest through the night.

Waiting through the night. This tumba (grave) refused to be photographed head-on. From an oblique angle, the tumba allowed its likeness to be made.

"Oh grave, where is thy victory? Oh death, where is thy sting?"

Noche de Muertos is not a costume party, although you may see it portrayed as such in the press. It is not a drunken brawl, although certain towns appear to welcome that sort of blast-of-banda-music reventón (big blow-out). It is not a tourist event, though strangers are certainly welcomed to these cemeteries. Noche de Muertos is a celebration of the spirit's life over the body's death, a festival of remembrance, a solemn passover. Years ago, in an interview published in the New York Times, Mexico Cooks! said, "Noche de Muertos is about mutual nostalgia. The living remember the dead, and the dead remember the taste of home."

One by one, grave by grave, golden cempazútchiles give shape to rock-bound tombs and long candles give light to what was a dark and lonely place, transforming the cemetery into a glowing garden. How could a soul resist this setting in its honor?

"Our hearts remember…" we promise the dead. Church bells toll slowly throughout the night, calling souls home with their distinctive clamor (death knell). Come…come home. Come…come home.

Watching. Prayers. No me olvido de ti, mi viejo amado. (I haven't forgotten you, my dear old man.)

Next year, come with me.

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16 de November de 2013