The Art of Mexican Cooking Culinary Agency and Social Dynamics in Milpa Alta, Mexico
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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 2070 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 preparingbarbacoa 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 Th eMayordomia 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