Nature and Cooking: Valle del Mezquital, Hidalgo
The Hñähñu (Otomi) food culture shows an extraordinary capacity for adaptation, knowledge, use and transformation of the environment and biodiversity. Let's discover some of its main ingredients from its worldview.
"Everything that runs or flies goes to the pot."
Hñähñu is the one who knows the moon, the sun, the earth, who knows life and what surrounds us and he knows how to live with it ... He is the one who lives with what he has.
Hñui a ras del suelo (2018) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
The hñähñu (Otomi) cuisine
Thehñähñu (Otomi) kitchen space is connected to the backyard, which is where the chefs obtain resources such as fragrant herbs, vegetables, firewood or animals from the yard. It was built with agave stalks, dry quiote (stalk), mesquite sticks, organ pipe cacti or by placing a roof or fence under the shade of a tree.
In these kitchens there was a three stone stove flush with the ground. It was located near the entrance or in a corner for the smoke to escape from the barañitas (dry, thin twigs) that were placed on the hot coals from the previous day. They also used firewood and dried stalks, among other resources, as fuel.
Explicando el arte de hacer pulque fuerte en cuero de chivo (2012) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Drinks
For the Hñähñu (Otomi) people, animals are intermediaries between nature and human beings; they help each other. Such is the case of the meteor that Jesús Salinas revives in his book Etnografía otomí (Otomí Ethnography) of 1983 in the form of a story.
"It was the rat that first taught them to scratch the agave to use the mead. People didn't know how to make pulque or drink it. It is said that people walking around the fields saw an agave with a hole in the center that contained liquid."
Aguamiel de maguey (2012) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
"They were possibly thirsty. Anyway, one of them tried the liquid they found. He realized it was sweet and drank it all. At that time there were a lot of agaves with a lot of mead. These people wanted to know who made the hole.
They looked around and saw that a field rat came to drink the mead as well."
Bebiendo pulque en penca de maguey (2014) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
"In this way they learned that it was probably the field rat that had dug the hole in the maguey. It was then that they learned that the magueys produce the mead. Then the people scraped the maguey. They knew how to take the heart out of the maguey and make pulque; but people always thank the field rat because it was the first to scrape the maguey ”. Jesus Salina Pedraza
Salsa de escamoles con chicharras de maguey (2015) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Insects
"With tortillas and salsa …
everything goes into the belly."
Chicharras de encino y escamoles en salsa de chile guajillo (2016) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Xä’ues en mixote en hoja de maíz (2016) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Chinicuiles asados al comal (2016) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Panal de avispa (2016) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Tamal de ardilla en hoja de maíz (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Animals: mammals, birds, reptiles and marsupials
"We respect them, we learned to get to know them,
to observe their behavior and changes, some of them we eat
others we need for cures and we know when
we can hunt and when we cannot."
Barbacoa de chivo (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Relleno de nopales y escamoles, en barbacoa (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Albóndigas de codorniz (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Correcaminos en chile guajillo acompañado de chicharras de encino (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Lagartija o chincoyote con nopales asado en penca (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Frijol quebrado (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Plants: seeds, vegetables and flowers
"The earth is alive, it is not a thing as they say.
You have to ask for permission to sow seeds,
you have to ask it for a little water to sow seeds
you have to give something back to it for what it gives us.
It must be taken care of as it feeds us,
because… it moves and breathes."
Quelites al vapor cocidos con leña de maguey seca (2020) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Zacatamal de maíz relleno de insectos en hoja de milpa (2010) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Tortillas y tlacoyos de maíz azul y bkanco rellenos de frijoles con chile guajillos (2010) by Lilia Hernández AlbarránMinistry of Culture of the Government of Mexico
Dirección General de Culturas Populares, Indígenas y Urbanas
Mardonio Carballo Manuel
Dirección de Cultura Alimentaria
Griselda Tihui Campos Ortiz
Jesús Mendoza Mejía
Images from the project Estrategias de Supervivencia Doméstica y sus Consecuencias en la Alimentación y la Salud (Domestic Survival Strategies and their Consquences in Food and Health) in collaboration with the Dirección de Antropología Física del INAH (INAH Directorate of Physical Anthropology), coordinated by Edith Yesenia Peña Sánchez. Sample color digital photographs by anthropologist and photographer Lilia Hernández Albarrán. We would like to thank the men and women of the Hñähñü (Otomi) communities who opened the doors of their homes to us, allowed us to enter their kitchens and allowed us to share their tables.
Lilia Hernández Albarrán:
Edith Yesenia Peña Sánchez: Physical anthropologist from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH). Master in Medical Sciences from the University of Colima. Doctor in Anthropological Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Research professor at the Directorate of Physical Anthropology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. Member of the National System of Researchers. His lines of research revolve around anthropology in health and food. Coordinator of the National Kitchen program in Mexico.
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