Teaching Traditional Cooking to Children and Youth in Oaxaca

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The multi-award-winning Zapotec cook will transmit the strength of our cultural heritage.

From generation to generation, the ancestral knowledge of traditional cooking, where endemic ingredients such as plants, flowers, herbs, and vegetables are used, was passed down from grandmothers to mothers and from mothers to granddaughters. However, over time, few people have shown interest in kitchen work,” said Abigail Mendoza Ruiz, a traditional cook from Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.

The winner of the 2022 National Prize for Arts and Literature in the field of arts and popular traditions considered that “hence the intention to share my knowledge with children and young people in the community, to transmit to them the strength of our cultural heritage, such as gastronomy, language, clothing, dance, among other local expressions,” she added.

For example, in Teotitlán del Valle, traditional cooking consists of dishes cooked in water, which are healthy and have natural ingredients,” she said.

For all these reasons, the mayora Abigaíl will offer the food culture workshop Labaa xten galbayn/ Root of Life, aimed at people aged 10 to 25.

The food culture workshop will be held starting Saturday, September 14, at the Tlamanalli restaurant, located at 39 Juárez Avenue, Teotitlán del Valle, 26 kilometers east of the Oaxacan capital.

The course is sponsored by the Secretariat of Cultures and Arts of Oaxaca, through the Cultural Caravans program, part of the Living Cultures: Languages and Arts project, which promotes the dissemination and practice of traditional crafts at risk in indigenous communities.

The Cultural Caravans program promotes the preservation of traditional practices at risk. In other communities, workshops on backstrap weaving, jarana, dance, among others, are held.

Those interested can register for the food culture workshop Labaa xten galbayn/ Root of Life until Friday, September 13. For more information, call the following numbers: 95-1166-6267 and 95-1524-4006.

Source: Excelsior