When Louise arrived at the Huichol Center in mid March, she met Candelario Vasquez and Yolanda Ramirez Cordova who are 5th year graduate students at Chapingo University in Texcoco, near Mexico City. Candelario is from VeraCruz and Yolanda from Campeche. At the end of May they completed four months at the Huichol Center where they had been managing soybean seed tests to find the best soybean seed varieties for local cultivation. They also conducted numerous workshops about organic gardening techniques including demonstrations of composting and drip irrigation for Huichol Center staff and Huejuquilla secondary school students.

Louise worked with Huichol Center staff to develop recipes utilizing soybeans, soymilk, tofu and texturized vegetable protein (soya seca) that local Huichol and urban and rural Mexican families would readily integrate into their traditional meals. Malnutrition is a serious problem in rural Mexico, especially among indigenous populations like the Huichols. Soybeans are noteworthy for producing a high-quality protein from limited tillable acreage—ten times more edible protein from an acre than if that same acre were used to raise livestock.

Louise helped to create illustrated brochures showing people how to prepare the recipes developed with the Huichol center staff using the texturized vegetable protein that DIF distributes in the local villages as well as the process of making milk (leche de soya) from soybeans, and tofu (queso de soya) from soymilk.

She and Susana organized and held workshops in soy foods preparation for the local DIF center. They also held workshops in the Huichol villages. Following is Louise’s description of a workshop in the Huichol village of Nueva Colonia that took place near the end of her stay in Huejuquilla:

“When we arrived in Nueva Colonia, a village of about 600 Huichol people, we set up the “kitchen” in the Community Center meeting room. Eliseo (who is on the Huichol Center Board of Directors) and Candelario set up the propane stove so we could start 12 liters of water heating to a boil to make soymilk. Susana called the group together and started her part of the presentation. Cuca, an older Huichol woman from Nueva Coloinia, translated the Spanish into Huichol as Susana started out by showing the people the soybean plants and passing around the actual soybeans which these Huichol women had never seen before. The brochures were also passed around. Happily, the pictures in the brochures really helped the non-literate ladies grasp the content. The women became especially interested when Susana told them that with one kilo of beans they could make six liters of soymillk. Other benefits of soy were also discussed such as helping their children grow and prosper at a healthy rate, and helping to protect them from disease.

All ages were represented, from grandmothers to young mothers and soon we had women chopping onions, cutting potatoes, grinding chiles, etc. It was like a three ring circus. In the 20 minutes it took to cook the soymilk, we started making TVP filling, then went back to strain the milk and start the atole (a thick drink made with corn flour, sugar and flavors added to the milk). Next it was back to finishing the TVP filling with potatoes and chiles poblano (very common dark green fresh chiles). The masa (corn flour dough) for the tortillas had been sent out to cook for lack of comal (flat iron griddle) space but the stacks of hot fresh tortillas arrived right on time to be filled for gorditas. Gorditas are a very common and popular portable food in the area, made with relatively fat corn tortillas that are slit open like pita bead and filled with different ingredients.

Many women crowded around the table to fill gorditas, and then the tasting began. By the time the first round of gorditas was being eaten, the cinnamon atole was ready. This was a major hit (muy rico—very tasty) and made a good impression. Then it was on to the second gorditas filling, a red chile flavor, with chile guajillo (a slightly sweet, mildly hot dried red chile). Most everyone liked the potato filling the most.

We made tofu at the end of the class, saving half the 12 liters of soymilk for atole and half for tofu. There were several volunteers to help strain the curd. We added salt at the end of the curding process and let everyone have a taste. They kept coming back for more. I was pleasantly surprised by how much they liked the tofu. They seemed genuinely interested in the process, and many commented at the end of the class about being impressed by how many different things could be made out of one bean. They could relate to soy well because it was a bean. Many took home the leftover okara and TVP to experiment at home. They also took little bags of soybeans to plant. One of the doctors told us he was really glad that the Huichol women were being introduced to these foods because malnutrition here is so common. They would like to have classes held there on a monthly basis.

It was a very successful trip overall. We definitely instilled a consciousness about this previously unknown “miracle bean.” People were clearly interested and enthused about what we taught. We learned many lessons from this experience, which we will be able to implement in the future. We came back very contented, hopefully having taken a small step in addressing the hunger situation in the Sierra Madre.”

[Since Louise has returned to Tennessee, 500 kilos of soybeans were donated to the Huichol Center and the Center purchased another 150 kilos. Susana reports that the Huichols are very enthusiastic about what they can do with soybeans and she has been sending beans out to the villages where demonstrations were held. The beans are being sold to the people at cost.]