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Louise Hagler, soy cooking expert, author of seven cookbooks, and Plenty advisor, has been making multiple visits to the Huichol Center in late July to further the development of this project.
Louise had been able to secure thirty-five varieties of soy seed for planting trials through a generous donation from Randall Nelson, a professor and agriculture researcher at the University of Illinois.
This donation will enable the HCCSTA to determine which type of seed would grow best in the area around Huejuquilla.
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Louise describes one visit to Mexico:
"We did a soy demo at the Huichol Center, with TVP (texturized vegetable protein which is soybean meal with the oil extracted), making gorditas (a stuffed turnover very popular here) with two different flavor fillings, and they were well received. The women who attended, both Huichol and Mexican, work at the Center.
They were especially interested in looking at the cookbooks I brought (in English but with pictures). Several men from the Center came by too, and all of them said they liked the food. One man would not try it when he heard it was soy. Some of the women took gorditas home for their families to try. We also made soymilk and turned it into tofu.
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Everyone tried a taste of the tofu on their tortillas. We prepared an “okara hash” with fried whole beans, onion, garlic, chili, and okara (the pulp left from making soy milk) that was very tasty as well, and filling with all that fiber.
They eat very simple food here, but have very specific tastes. The main sources of protein in the mountain villages are beans, eggs, and very occasionally meat. |
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I visited Chapingo University. Chapingo is the largest and oldest agricultural university in Mexico, just outside of Mexico City in Texcoco. Students from age 15 to 23 are selected from all over the country by testing and the education is free.
The school is supported by the government, but their resources are limited. They do seed trials for all kinds of foods and have laboratories for testing soil, soil diseases, etc.
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I met with Dr. José de Jesús Loyola, who is head of the soybean projects at Chapingo University and his compadre Ing. Ciriaco Ayalo Sánchez. Ciriaco has written a 40-page book on how to grow soybeans in Mexico, the only one written there. I gave them a copy of the Plenty soy guide and they said they would review it. They told me that soybeans were first planted in Mexico in 1909, and that in the 1950s President Diaz started a project to replace indigenous beans with the soybean, but the project failed. The people did not accept the soybean, most likely because they did not know what to do with it.
We are of like mind in that their goal is to feed people, not agribusiness. They do not use genetically modified beans. Their emphasis is to come up with a soybean that is high in oil and protein that will grow well. Their soybean trials have been ongoing for a couple of years. They are very interested in making an alliance with us to work together to find the varieties that will work in the temperate high altitudes. They want to come to Huejuquilla to see what we are doing. These people are the agricultural soy experts in Mexico, but they would like a lot more information about how make soyfoods.
I also had a very encouraging meeting at the American Soybean Association in Mexico City. ASA promotes US soybeans as both feed for animals and food for human consumption. ASA works with DIF (Departamento Infantes y Familias) in Jalisco. DIF does nutritional outreach in the country. Each state handles its own DIF program, so it is different in each state. In Jalisco, ASA works with DIF to provide good prices for their “soya seca” (dry soy—TVP) which is part of the food baskets they distribute to needy families. Each family is evaluated for social economic status, income, number of dependents, and is given a weekly basket containing the TVP, rice, beans, soup, oil, oatmeal, milk, etc. They have found that the women who cook with the soyfoods prefer the whole soybean to the processed products like TVP because the beans are a more familiar form. They have been making milk and some tofu, and using the okara in tortillas and chorizo (sausage). The TVP has not been very well accepted in this country or in Latin America in general, mainly from lack of teaching or instruction on how to use it. The TVP tends to be given to animals because families have not learned how to incorporate it into traditional meals.”
Through Louise’s field work and contacts, Plenty and HCCSTA are developing an integrated program of educational activities focusing on soy, including the soy bean variety trials; producing and distributing familiar foods that incorporate soy, and providing education to local families and nutrition educators as to the use of TVP. With funding, consistency, and a lot of legwork, these activities can have a positive impact on the health of the people in this area and, eventually, may have broader impact in other regions of Mexico as well.
—by Lisa Wartinger for Plenty and Susana Valadez for the Huichol Center |
Mexico’s Huichol people have maintained their traditional culture, language, and spiritual way of life for centuries. The rugged and remote terrain of the mountainous
Huichol homeland in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit has provided a pocket of isolation where an estimated 7,000 of these remaining descendants of the Aztecs reside.
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The Huichols’ cooperative way of life is rooted in a native spirituality that is reflected in their intricate dress, diverse art forms, ancient shamanic practices, and mythical ceremonial traditions. The Huichol people are very protective of their cultural heritage and customs are known for resisting attempts of assimilation by governments and religious organizations. In some areas of the Huichol homeland the traditions are still strong, while in others, they have become echoes of the past.
The Huichol culture is in a difficult transitional period—from being a flourishing tribe in a once remote location to an accessible and vulnerable ethnic group becoming increasingly exposed to a global audience. Social ills such as alcoholism, cultural alienation, suicide and other consequences of extreme poverty are taking root. Huichol communities are some of the most economically disenfranchised within Mexico.
Subsistence farming does not provide enough family income to meet all basic needs, and cash paying jobs are extremely scarce in their mountain villages. Most Huichol families do not grow enough food to provide adequate nutrition for their children.
Over the past year, Plenty has been developing a soy food and nutrition project with the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts (HCCSTA). The HCCSTA is a registered nonprofit organization managed by a board of directors who are residents of Huichol communities in the Jalisco State of Mexico. The Center is located in the Jalisco town of Huejuquilla, where thousands of Huichol people come from their highland villages in the Sierra Madre mountains to purchase basic goods for their families, to sell crafts and agriculture products and to catch buses to other parts of the country.
The Center assists Huichol families by providing technical and marketing assistance and materials for craft producers; health education services; a school for Huichol children that teaches Huichol language skills; emergency transportation; and volunteers to help develop and implement community service projects. There is a staff of 25-30 people to manage the Center and produce and market the exquisite traditional beaded crafts and yarn paintings.
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