The Art of Mexican Cooking

304 Pages·2014·15.71 MB·English

The Art of Mexican Cooking
culinary agency and social dynamics in Milpa Alta, Mexico
Leonora Joy Adapon
Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. in the subject of Social Anthropology
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department of Anthropology
University of London
June 2001
UMI Number: U17B266
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
Dissertation Publishing
UMI U173266
Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest LLC
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
POLITICAL
AND
T H£S£5
f
2 0 7 0
IOI1S1S
Abstract
Drawing on Alfred Gell’s ‘art nexus’ theory, this dissertation considers cooking as a
kind of artistic practice. The focus of this study is the culinary culture of barbacoa-
makers in the community of Barrio San Mateo, Milpa Alta in Mexico City. Mexican
cuisine is analysed at three levels - the social and cuhnary(contexts)of the production
and consumption of barbacoa; the daily life bf women and especially their domestic
cooking tasks; and the dynamics of hospitality ,as expressed in the cycle of fiestas.
Barbacoa is pit-roast lamb, and the production of it is an important means of
livelihood in San Mateo (along with the cultivation of nopales, and other agricultural
activities). Barbacoa - which is served during fiestas, and also eaten in the market on
Sundays and holidays - is produced by married couples whose social environment both
creates and is created by the practices surrounding the preparation of the dish. The
division of labour observed in making barbacoa is directly related to normative gender
roles, i.e. those performed in the normal domestic context.
Women are associated with cooking, which includes making salsas and other foods
which require laborious culinary input. They appear to be restricted both by the
expectations of men and by the demands of the kitchen. But male and female gender
roles are shown, in this dissertation, to be complementary, and they are not in general
characterized by the hierarchy of men over women. Examination of the fiesta cycle
further reveals that the basis of social interaction is the conjugal unit, both at the level of
families (through links of compadrazgo, co-parenthood), and at the level of the
community (through the mayordomia, the ‘cargo system’).
Women may be viewed as culinary artists whose body of work is the corpus of
Mexican cuisine. The source of their culinary mastery is located in the individual’s
hand or sazon de amor, a touch of love. The development of ‘traditional’ cuisine is
therefore bom of the domestic realm as a product of artistic innovation and technical
skill, both in a culinary and a social sense. Counter to Goody’s theory, this high cuisine
is not the product of a hierarchical society, as such, but rather develops from the highly-
valued work of women as wives, mothers, and family cooks.
2
Acknowledgements
This thesis is dedicated to the memory of Alfred Gell. I was fortunate to be one of
his last students, before his untimely death in 1997. I wish I could thank him personally
for all his understanding and encouragement, especially for taking me seriously when I
announced that I would only do a PhD if I could study chile peppers. Without him I
would never have begun this investigation, nor even think of going to Mexico. He was
my inspiration, my guide, supervisor, accomplice, and most of all, friend.
In Mexico I owe a great debt to many whose generosity and presence made my stay
both pleasant and stimulating. Ricardo Munoz Zurita was my ‘Muchona the Hornet’ of
Mexican cuisine. He welcomed me into his professional and personal life and was a
constant friend even during the oddest of times and for the oddest of needs.
The people with whom I came in contact in Milpa Alta, especially Yadira Arenas
and Luis Enrique Napoles, Ma. Primitiva Bermejo, Dona Margarita Salazar, and
Alejandro Enriquez, took a strange foreigner into their homes, and shared much more
than their lives, homes, and food with me. Ivan Gomezcesar shared with me thoughtful
insight about Milpa Alta, as well as several texts, which I would have not been able to
find or access on my own.
Andres Medina, welcomed me to the Institute of Anthropological Reasearch (IIA)
in the UNAM with a sense of humour. He was the first person to really understand
what I was getting at when I arrived in Mexico for the first time. Without his warmth,
constant moral support and generous interest in me and my work, I would never have
eventually found my way during fieldwork. It was he who introduced me to Luz del
Valle, who offered me valuable friendship and a link into Milpa Alta. Leticia Mendez
was the second person I met there who understood me both academically and
emotionally. Her premature death in 1996 was one of the great shocks that I
encountered in Mexico, and I have missed her ever since.
Janet Long-Solis generously shared some of her books and her contacts with me.
She introduced me to Jose Luis Curiel in the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana,
who allowed me to sit in some classes of the Gastronomy program, and get to know the
students and faculty. It was through him that I met other scholars of Mexican cuisine,
including Jose Luis Juarez and Ricardo Munoz.
3
Other friends in Mexico - Patricia Salero and her family, Ileana Bonilla, Ricardo
Bonilla, Gabriel Gutierrez, Fabiola Alcantara, Antonio Rivera, Abdiel Cervantes, Juan
Carlos Lopez, Juan Manuel Horta, and the rest of the staff of the Executive Dining
Room in the UNAM - opened their hearts and homes to me. Their friendship and
thoughtful conversations constantly provided me with ideas and security.
Back in London, several more people helped me to bring this project to completion,
with incomparable patience, kindness and academic rigour. Fenella Cannell was a
constant presence and was especially helpful in grounding me during the period
immediately following Alfred Gell’s death. Charles Stafford was consistently most
reliable, thoughtful, thorough, and frank. He took more responsibility over me and my
work than he was required, I am sure. Peter Gow always provided timely
encouragement and helped me to learn how to see. Their sensitive comments and
insight were invaluable as I waded through the writing process of this dissertation.
My family, especially my parents and sister, have supported me in all possible
ways, even when they did not understand my motives or reasoning. Without their
constant presence, visits, and patience, I would have had no means to survive. Good
friends and peers like Yueh-ping Yen, Anja Timm, and Dorothy Arts were continually
encouraging and intellectually stimulating, as well as willing eaters for all my culinary
experiments. And finally, much love and gratitude to Kai Kresse, for the reasons just
mentioned and for his astounding commitment and interest in my work and my mental
state.
4
Contents
Acknowledgements 3
Illustrations list 1
Introduction 9
1 The project and the setting 10
1.1 Organization of the thesis 10
1.2 Sociodemographic profile of Milpa Alta 15
1.3 Fieldwork and methodology 19
1.4 Historical background of Milpa Alta 26
1.5 Land and traditions 30
Part I: Food in the private sphere 37
2 An approach to the art of Mexican cooking 38
2.1 Food and culinary art in anthropology 42
2.2 Gell’s theory of art 48
2.3 A recipe as an object of art 50
2.4 On edibility, hospitality, and exchange 53
2.5 Flavour and value 58
2.6 Conclusion: the meaningfulness of food 65
3 Mexican cuisine and Milpa Alta in context 68
3.1 Perceptions of Mexican cuisine 71
The cultural significance of chiles 73
One more comment on food as art in Mexico 74
3.2 Food and love 76
3.3 Mestizo culture, mestizo cuisine 84
3.4 Eating out 90
3.5 Eating in 92
4 Barbacoa in Milpa Alta 95
4.1 Eating barbacoa 95
4.2 Barbacoa makers in Milpa Alta 97
4.3 The process of preparing barbacoa in Barrio San Mateo, Milpa Alta 104
Thursday: La matanza (The slaughter) 104
Friday: Mise en place; sancochando la carne (pre-cooking the meat) 108
Saturday: Prendiendo y llenando el homo (lighting and stacking the oven) 112
Sunday: Sacando la carne (taking out the meat) 114
Saturday, Sunday and Monday: A vender (to sell) 115
Tuesday: La limpieza (cleaning) and a mar car el ganado (marking livestock) 117
Wednesday: Rest 119
4.4 Conclusion 119
5 Women as culinary agents 130
5.1 Shared spaces 132
5.2 Labels and restricted spaces 136
Women and suffering 138
5.3 Women and hard work 145
‘While Mexico sleeps, Milpa Alta works’ 151
5
5.4 Everyday cooking and street food 153
5.5 Womanhood, motherhood and cooking 158
Cooking and marriage 161
Dominance and virtue 165
5.6 Conclusion 169
Part II: Food in the public sphere 175
6 Networks of reciprocity 176
6.1 Compadrazgo 111
6.2 TheMayordomia 181
6.3 The town fiesta 184
Poser os 188
Competition and promise 188
6.4 Other religious festivities 191
The annual pilgrimage to Chalma 192
Holy Week 195
Carnival 197
6.5 Protestantism and tradition - Jehovah's Scapegoats 198
6.6 Conclusion: Social organisation and reciprocity 204
7 Social and spiritual regeneration 210
7.1 Courtship (and accessible spaces) 210
7.2 The four fiestas 216
7.3 The importance of weddings 219
7.4 Feast of mourning 223
7.5 Inheritance and greed 232
7.6 Funerals in relation to other life cycle events 234
On death and birth 235
7.7 Concluding remarks: Death, marriage and hospitality 237
8 The festive life 243
8.1 Hospitality and exchange in the festive spirit 243
8.2 Mole aid molepoblano 249
8.3 Mole and celebration 251
8.4 The development of a tradition 254
8.5 Fiesta food 257
8.6 Conclusion: the presence or absence of mole in fiestas 259
Conclusion 264
9 The centrality of gastronomy in social life 265
9.1 The function of flavour 265
9.2 Flavour, love and desire 269
9.3 The importance of cooking 271
9.4 Gender and cooking 273
9.5 The culinary matrix and the art nexus 278
Agency and intention 278
Glossary 283
Bibliography 288
6
Illustrations
Maps
1 The municipalitites of Mexico City 34
2 The towns of Milpa Alta 35
Figures
1 The families with whom I lived in Milpa Alta 20
2 Linear progression from green chile to complex guacamole 255
3 An example of some interrelations among recipes, shown as families 256
Tables
1 Percentage of families who owned their own homes in Milpa Alta 17
2 Private homes according to predominant material of floor, wall and roof 17
3 Are there three categories of chefs? 47
4 The barrios and pueblos who bring salvas to San Mateo 186
5 Calendar of religious festivals in Milpa Alta 192
6 Mexican cuisine within the public and private realms 268
Photographs
1 Kiko’s nopalera with the hill Teuhtli in the background, Milpa Alta 36
2 The church of the Assumption of Mary, in the centre of Villa Milpa Alta 36
3 Black bean puree marbled with cream of chile poblano soup 67
4 Frying a stuffed chile in its egg batter 67
5 Mole poblano with Mexican rice (arroz rojo) 94
6 Barbacoa as served in a restaurant 94
7 The matanza—Alejandro bleeds a lamb to prepare barbacoa de borrego 123
8 He pulls the skin off the carcass 123
9 Primy and Alejandro flush the dirt out of the anal passage 124
10 A sheep foetus, still attached to the developed uterus 124
11 Alejandro chopping offal 125
12 Primy beating the filling for the panza 125
13 Stacking the perol 126
14 The half-cooked panzas 126
15 Primy stokes the coals in the barbacoa pit 127
16 The basin that is placed at the bottom of the pit oven 127
17 Primy covers the filled pit with the caul 128
18 Molino de salsas, the salsa mill 128
19 Primy removes the cooked meat to take it to the market to sell 129
20 Primy making tacos of barbacoa as she sells in a tianguis 129
21 Comal set on a charcoal grill, with food for taco placero 173
22 Full table set for comida 173
23 Street food (antojitos) from a tianguis in Mexico City 174
24 A meal organised at the last minute. 174
25 Coronation ceremony of new mayordomos in Barrio San Mateo 207
26 Bringing the salva to the barrio fiesta, with mariachis behind the pilgrims 207
27 The anthropologist helping Primy and Dona Margarita make tamales verdes 208
28 Ensalada de betabel ‘sangre de Cristo ’ 208
29 Bacalao a la vizcaina 209
30 Dona Delfina frying stuffed chiles in egg batter 209
31 Torrejas, prepared by Primy Bermejo Martinez 241
7
32 To make bunuelos Primy kneads the dough on a metate 241
33 Primy stretches dough for making bunuelos 242
34 Frying bunuelos 242
35 Yadira, Kiko and their daughter, Valeria 261
36 A hired senora making tamales de alberjon for a fiesta 261
37 Coating pieces of chicken and pork in adobo to prepare mixiotes 262
38 Typical fiesta food 262
39 Token serving of mole, as a second main course at a fiesta 263
Recipes
1 Commercial green salsa for barbacoa 96
2 Camitas 99
3 Salsa pasilla 104
4 Commercial red salsa for barbacoa 110
5 Barbacoa 115
6 Huevos a la mexicana 153
7 Tacoplacero 159
8 Tamales de nopales 185
9 Bunuelos de lujo 191
10 Ensalada de betabel ‘sangre de Cristo’ 195
11 Pescado a la vizcaina al estilo de la abuela 196
12 Torrejas 197
13 Batter for coating fish 227
8