Schucks, Que Padre!

We´ve been going back and forth between Rio Hondo (just outside of the city proper) and San Luis, where our host sister, Mariana, goes to an amazing 12-student Montessori school. They do small planting, have an amazing herb garden, and used to have animals that were all eaten by the region´s fauna! Ps lunch time conversation was dominated by the largess of Nora´s plugs. Horacio, who is in charge of the grounds and plants at the school, was an amazing help, and we tried to return the favor by trimming branches with a machete and clippers.


The main reason we were out there was to interview and photograph community corn farmers. Unfortunately, many of them have cleared out due to lack of resources, including water and seeds. They now are mostly workers in the city or have passed away. We DID however, have a PLANTASTIC time with the ever-charming and quite saucy Don Gaudencio (below).





Don Gaudencio showed us around his different farm plots - mostly corn, but also fruit trees, squash, and alfalfa. He boasts six pure bred beagles, two horses, a dauschund (sp? hotdog dog), a smattering of other animals, and his supposedly odious 90 year old suegra - mother-in-law, Margarita.



Since our first somewhat intimidating encounter, he has greatly warmed up to us, saying we are good people, make him feel young again, and he cheekily calls us his girlfriends. He spouted a plethora of wisdom about equality, acceptance, witches, and devils. He also taught us Mexican sayings, including: If you create a crow, it will peck your eyes out... english equivalent, You reap what you sow.. how appropriate!




Much to our delight, he invited us to share a few glasses of pulque with him at his cousin´s house. Pulque is a traditional Mexican drink made from fermented Maguey juice. He was trying to get us red-faced. Dee-lish. And the family was very sweet. We will return soon at his bequest to have a meal with him and an interview.


In addition to the photographs, we have transcribed and translated the tail end of our interview with three faculty from the Montessori school. Their comments on corn are as follows!

Vanesa: Corn has been, from the time of our ancestors – and it continues to be - a primary source of nourishment… It is a food that you will find in ninety percent of the country´s kitchens – on a large or small scale. Perhaps for a family in the city, it might be ten per cent of their nourishment or five. It is like an accessory to their nourishment. However, while that is how they cook, in many areas, in places farther from the city, it adds up to eighty per cent of their food - Mexican will always have tortillas in the refrigerator.

Nelly: Before, if someone didn´t farm, he didn´t eat. Now one can get tortillas in other ways. You can get tortillas in the supermarket, while before in Mexico, it was the tortillería. And so, as the cost of agricultural supplies is rising, it is not worth it for people to farm. You may know how to farm a lot of land, but to go and buy a tortilla that is easier to obtain, that´s not as tasty and not with the same properties as corn cultivated in your home, it is still more accessible. So, the land that has been cultivated, has been left alone… and I think that it is really sad to see deserted fields; there doesn´t exist the same farming that there was ten years ago – not so far back, right?