Apr

Memorable Moments: Haven’t You Heard?

by Your friends at OIC on April 8, 2019

Listen up.
© iStock

Sure, it’s the great writing pared with great visuals that keeps you coming back to share OIC Moments with us, but we don’t want to overlook the impact sounds can have on bringing ideas and experiences to life. So while our bloggers work on what they’ve got to say next, we wanted to give you a look (and a listen) back at some popular posts with audible contributions.

Your friends at OIC Comments

Croatia/Ireland/Mexico

Sep

A Tale of Two Jungles

by Eva Boynton on September 11, 2017

Trees in the jungle and a a city monument, symbolizing life in the jungle of Quintana Roo and the concrete jungle of Mexico City (images © Sam Anaya).

From the Mayan jungle to the concrete jungle
© Sam Anaya

Sensing Life in Quintana Roo & Mexico City

A symphony plays before me in an outdoor theater. The sun passes through a roof of leaves, tree branches crawl up and around the doorways, and rain delicately drizzles upon the earthen seats. This is the Mayan jungle in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

I had arrived here from another theater where sunlight illuminates towering structures and passes through glass windows. The red, yellow, and green of signal lights reflect in the puddles of afternoon rains. This is the concrete jungle of Mexico City.

Sometimes you have to see—feel, taste, and hear—things differently in order to sense their similarities. From 2015 to 2016, I lived in both a thick tropical forest and a crowded city. Although these two environments could not be more different, I found my sensory experiences revealing theatrical parallels.

Oh, I see more than just urban versus rural. I sense life in two jungles that are not all that different: one in Quintana Roo and the other in the middle of Mexico City.

Listen to the Symphony

In Quintana Roo, I wake up to parrots chattering and to a “swoosh” of wings as they fly off from the trees. Neighboring birds sing to welcome the day. Their overlapping calls vary in note and rhythm.

A Motmot bird in the jungle, illustrating life in Quintana Roo (image © Sam Anaya).

A blue-crowned motmot (Toh in Mayan), adds a song to the eclectic symphony.
© Sam Anaya

Listen with me to an expansive aviary that stretches for thousands of miles around me:

I also hear the chopping of wood in the nearby pueblo. I smile at the familiar call; “Booooooxxx (Bo-sh)! Panchoooooo!” Down the dirt road, our neighbor Máxima yells for her two dogs, a yellow lab and a black and orange chihuahua. I wonder if they are off following their noses through the jungle.

Back in the concrete jungle, I wake up to another symphony of sounds. This time, I hear a classical melody from outside the window; a woman plays her violin on the street corner.

A woman playing violin on the street in Mexico City, showing that sound helps us see things differently (image © Eva Boynton).

Morning serenade in Mexico City
© Eva Boynton

The sounds of doors opening and closing overlap with voices of family farewells as they head to work and school. I listen to this musical composition as the walls become windows, connecting apartment worlds for miles and miles.

I smile when a familiar voice crescendoes from the courtyard: “Gelatinnnnaaaaaaaass!” It’s Señora Ruano wheeling her cups of gelatin through the neighborhood. I wonder how many people will come out to buy her colorful treats.

Taste and Smell the Streets

The scent of the air in the Mayan jungle sends me to Máxima’s house. On the way, I smell the leaves of epazote, a Mayan herb, standing out among the jungle’s varied plants. I gather some leaves as I remember their lemony flavor, essential to black beans and quesadillas.

Máxima invites me to taste her caldo de carne (meat soup). My eyes squeeze shut from the spice hitting my tongue. She takes me onto a dirt path where a habanero pepper plant grows. She laughs as she shows me the tiny secret ingredient to her green–hot soup.

A hand holding two habanero peppers, illustrating life in Quintana Roo (image © Sam Anaya).

Some green peppers are red-hot in the Mayan jungle.
© Sam Anaya

In Mexico City, scents in the air always invite me to the downtown market. Leaving my apartment, I smell the limes growing from a manicured garden in the courtyard. I slip a couple into my bag, remembering how well their flavor goes with everything in Mexican cuisine.

A vendor with a plate of tacos and a spoon of salsa, showing life in Mexico City (image©alexsalcedo/iStock).

In the unique buffet of senses, first comes smell and then, undoubtedly, taste.
© alexsalcedo/iStock

At the market, a taco vendor waves me over to try his tacos al pastor (shepherd tacos with pork). I dip a taco into the salsa verde (green salsa), thinking it will be less spicy than the red one. Immediately, my eyes start watering, and the vendor laughs as he tells me to try the salsa roja (red sauce) next time.

Feel the Texture of the Walls

Paths in the Mayan jungle are decorated by walls of smooth ferns, spiky ceiba trees, and firm chic palm leaves. I touch the bark of a chicozapote tree. It is rough and has deep lines running from root to branch.

The trunk of a chicazapote tree, showing one aspect of life in Quintana Roo (image © Sam Anaya).

Paths are enclosed by a green hallway. Here, nature is the structure that gives proof of time passing.
© Sam Anaya

My fingers trace the man-made lines that cut through the natural patterns of the tree bark. I imagine the Mayas who made those marks first, gathering the sticky resin to use as glue for their ancient structures. I carefully trace the grooves.

Such trees show up in the cities of Mexico, proving that even in the concrete jungle, nature reaches and changes structures. My fingers touch the peeling paint of old wood doors in Mexico City. I am careful not to take any of their splintering wood with me.

An old door with chipping wood and paint, showing life in Mexico City (image © Eva Boynton).

Trees become doors for stone walls of Mexico City.
Here, too, they stand tall through time and weather.
© Eva Boynton

See the Vistas

When I’m in the Mayan jungle, I take an evening walk to my favorite vista point and witness the forest changing from dusk to dark. I stop at a busy intersection where ants cover the ground in organized lines, monkeys swing from trees, and butterflies swirl by.

A monkey swinging from a tree in the jungle in Mexico, showing how a different vista can help us see things differently and see life in Quintana Roo (image © Sam Anaya).

Trees are pathways for the residents of the Mayan jungle. Play and survival intersect here.
© Sam Anaya

From the roof of an abandoned building, I take in more of the evening view. I look down to see the intersection of jungle life. Fireflies turn on their lights and illuminate the dirt path below. Parrots return to rest in the trees. I watch the horizon turn from a lush green to a black backdrop for leafy silhouettes.

When the sun starts to set in the Mexico City jungle, I head downtown to the roof of a museum and watch the city’s evening transition. There’s a busy intersection there, too, where traffic zooms by and people file in and out of buses.

When cars stop, a man balances a bike on his head and does a juggling act. Kids play soccer, and a woman sells a colorful array of balloons.

A man juggles while balancing a bicycle on his head in Mexico City, showing life in Mexico City (image © Eva Boynton).

Like the Mayan jungle, the concrete jungle’s intersections are full of life:
travel, performance, and entrepreneurship.
© Eva Boynton

Streetlights and car headlights turn on to illuminate an asphalt maze. The horizon changes from colorful architecture to dark silhouetted rectangles.

Sensing life in Quintana Roo and Mexico City, I see two jungles where the inhabitants of each balance creativity, spirit, and survival. Some may feel that one jungle is cruder, dirtier, or more arcane than the other. But in the evening light, I see their similarities; I see two very vibrant jungles.

Comment on this post below.

Eva Boynton 2 Comments

Cultural Encounters/Mexico

Sep

What’s in the World’s Largest Food Museum?

by Eva Boynton on September 21, 2016

A woman selling chocolate at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

Oaxacan chocolate rivals Swiss and Belgian chocolate in flavor, in uses (mole, hot chocolate,
sweet and savory dishes), and in cultural heritage.
© Sam Anaya A.

Chocolate, Pineapples, and Cultural Heritage—All at Mexico’s Central de Abasto

“Zoooooom!” A cart stacked with mangos tumbles by me, almost taking my right foot along for the ride. Fortunately, Isabel Ramillo, who sells chocolate from Oaxaca, grabs my shoulder to pull me out of the way.

As I regain my composure, my nose catches a whiff of meats, flowers, and spices for Mexican mole sauce. My ears ring with the sounds of “¡Buen precio!”, whistles, and hundreds of shuffling feet.

I’m in Mexico City at the Central de Abasto (“Supply Center”), the world’s largest wholesale market. But, considering the people, produce, and regions of Mexico represented here, to my eye it is more like a bustling food museum.

Pineapples stacked with their juice in front at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Eva Boynton)

At this “museum,” the exhibits are interactive—buy and sell, sell and buy.
© Eva Boynton

Within the mountains of tomatoes, baskets of chile de árbol (tree chile), bags of nopal (a type of cactus), and shelves of pineapple, there are also links to Mexico’s cultural heritage. You may be surprised at what you find.

Metropolis Within a Metropolis

The Central de Abasto has everything typical of a big city: banks, kitchen supplies, laundry, convenience stores, electronics and restaurants—not to mention Mexico’s greatest show of produce, fish, flowers, seafood, milks, and meats.

Foods attract the eye in museum-like exhibits, carefully arranged for beauty and stability.

Carrots stacked in a criss-cross pattern at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Eva Boynton)

A carrot weaving?
© Eva Boynton

The market is a hive of activity with somewhere between 300,000–450,000 daily visitors, more than see Rome or Madrid in a day! Consider its impact:

30 thousand tons of food are sold here on a daily basis.
The market provides 80% of the food consumption for over 20 million Mexicans.
About 10,000 loaders, known as diableros, operate carts that carry goods to the vendors’ stands. They are among the market’s 70,000 employees.
Warehouses in the market complex cover 328 hectares (810 acres).
Fifteen halls, totaling 11 kilometers in length, hold 100 warehouse sections each—all filled to the brim.

In fact, the market is so big that freeway-like signs direct customers to the halls, each of which specializes in one type of food or goods. In just the produce area, about 2,000 vendors sell fruits and vegetables.

Inside a hall packed with people at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

Cultural Roots

The concept of a large central market in the area that became Mexico City goes back six hundred years to the Aztec market known as Tlanechicoloya. Throughout Mexico’s cultural history, foods and goods have continued to change hands in central markets.

In the 20th century, when Mexico City expanded around the downtown La Merced market to the point that traffic congestion impeded market operations, the government decided to open a new central supply center.

In 1982, it inaugurated the Central de Abasto in Iztapalapa, an outlying district in the eastern part of Mexico City. Over time, the Central de Abasto became its own metropolis. Today, it is not only the most important food supply and distribution site for Mexico City but also for the entire country.

Two vendors holding a papaya in front a stack of papayas wrapped in newspapers at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

Papayas travel from Oaxaca to the Central de Abasto to be sold by Enrique and Eric Mandujano. They are wrapped in newspaper to keep their color and avoid oxidation.
© Sam Anaya A.

The produce from the country travels first through the Central de Abasto and on to homes, taco stands, neighborhood mini-markets in Mexico City and even to outlets in Mexico’s different states.

A Taste of Cultural Heritage

Mexico is a country of diverse cultures and regions, all represented at the Central de Abasto by vendors offering products unique to their regions.

If the market is a food “museum” offering a collection of cultural heritage, then the foods are the cultural artifacts in the collection. These are foods that have fed indigenous and Mexican populations across centuries. They offer you nourishment and something more—a taste of cultural heritage. Tastes like these:

1. The Pitahaya

Known as dragon fruit, pitahaya or pitaya (pee-TAH-yah) comes in an exotic pink with a delicious surprise center. As a member of the cactus family, it grows in the northern desert regions of Mexico.

Every July, a pitahaya festival is celebrated in Miraflores, Baja California. A gathering contest kicks it off and is followed by traditional dance, music, and food dishes, many of which showcase pitahaya as an ingredient. The festival began thousands of years ago with the Pericúes, Guaycuras and Cochimíes, indigenous peoples who celebrated the juicy fruit in cactus “forests.”

A girl holding a pitahaya fruit cut in half at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

2. Magnificent Mole Sauce

Coming from the Nahuatl word molli that means “sauce” or “mixture,” mole (MO-lay) is used as a base for soup, poured over different kinds of meats, or used as a sauce for enchiladas. It can include a complex arrangement of 20 ingredients, including chiles, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and sometimes cacao.

Bags filled with different spices at Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image© Eva Boynton)

The flavors and styles of mole vary with the region in Mexico where it is prepared: moles come sweet, spicy, red, yellow, brown, and in a variety of names. Mole poblano, named the “national dish of Mexico,” is associated with either the state of Puebla or Oaxaca. The origin of the famous dish is a mystery told in several legends.

3. Huitlacoche

Huitlacoche (wheat-lah-CO-chay) is a fungus that grows on corn kernels, a delicacy inherited from the Aztec who added it to soups, crepes, quesadillas and tamales. Though its name translates from Nahuatl as “raven’s excrement,” it makes a tasty dish when you slap it together with onion, garlic, and salt.

Huitlacoche fungus at the market, an artifact of cultural heritage at Central de Abasto (image © Eva Boynton).

In Chiapas, people connect huitlacoche to family, history, and life in Mexico. When families searched for the fungus in corn fields, they spent quality time together. While they walked through the fields, elders passed down stories and families built a relationship to their land and crops.

Oh, I See

The experience of the Central de Abasto is like that of a grand museum. You leave happily exhausted from looking hard at the details of the past and present.

What I took away from the market was not only some tasty cultural artifacts but also a new understanding of Mexico’s culinary cultural heritage. The Central de Abasto transforms from a food market to an epicenter of national inheritance: the gifts of the land incorporated into cultural practices.

Mexico City is the city with the most museums in the world — 128 in all. It is a city that proudly preserves its cultural heritage. Let’s put one more museum on the list—the Central de Abasto!

A table with produce bought at the Central de Abasto, the world's largest wholesale market where Mexico's cultural heritage is also on display. (image © Sam Anaya A.)

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Eva Boynton 6 Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Mexico

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Category Archives: Mexico