Mexico is a country full of enigmas, chiaroscuro and contrasts that provokes a lot of curiosity in many foreigners and sometimes few Mexicans. Why? Because despite the advances technological, social Y cheapthere is traditions that are preserved and that have clung to the time and space of mexicans, becoming part of the identity of a particular town, because in less philosophical terms we are what we do, what we learn and what we eat.
Possibly because our being is nourished by our environment and context. If you have cooked in a Teflon or aluminum pan your whole life, it is unlikely that even you conceive the fact of cooking in clay, because the conditions and way of treating from the ingredients to the materials, changes whether we like it or not. But if your curiosity to get to know Mexican cuisine in depth takes you further, it is possible that you have already run to the nearest market to buy your clay utensils, such as pans, casseroles either little jars.
The mud It is one of the oldest materials and we could even say that it is mythical. Mexico. We first saw him in Mayan mythology in the Popol Vuh, where we could see how the gods, in an act of boredom, created the human beings that would populate the earth. Kukulkan and Tepeu tested various materials before deciding that the men would be of corn and one of them was mudwhich was discarded, because it was fragile and easily fell apart to reintegrate into the earth.
Where is the Barrio de la Luz?
Nobody would know that hundreds of years after the moment in which this myth was located, a people would come out that would dedicate their entire life to clay. We are talking about nothing more and nothing less than the light district, Puebla a place that is housed in one of the four divisions of Analco, also known as Tepetlapa, which in Nahuatl means “firm land”, because it was a place where mud abounded. This material is key for wrapped utensils in the preparation of the famous mole poblano.
However, it was until century XVIwhen the glaziers and potters who produced common earthenwareyellow, white and red with which they made glass or glazed clay objects, such as casseroles, jars, jars for pulque and even vases. The light district It has more than 100 years of uninterrupted production of clay utensils and according to Arturo López, one of the producers and heirs of the oldest pot business in Puebla, up to 12 good-sized pieces can come out a week.
Arturo López pointed out that a casserole is made in parts and “the first day the cajete is made, the second the straw and then comes the rim. Then come the ears. (A casserole) does not come out in one piece” assured the expert, gastrolab. In addition, he pointed out that in times of drought the pots can take up to 8 or 10 days to dry so that later they can be painted or decorated, to finally be able to sell them. The largest ones are at $1800 pesos, but one can find smaller ones that fit all budgets, since in the Barrio de la Luz there are them from $45 pesos (although they are small).
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