Today I learned that the word “taco” originated from “tlaco” in the Aztec’s Nahuatl language, I also learned that stone meal grinding tools used to make tortillas, the metate and the mano have also been found in ancient Chinese sites, and that my grandmother’s town in Mexico wasn’t the only one to be buried beneath a dam and a reservoir.
Whew! That’s a lot.
We are on a tour offered once a week to benefit residents of a farming village outside San Miguel de Allende. We are visiting three homes.
The village of Agustin Gonzalez is located less than a half hour from San Miguel de Allende. The town was built to replace the original town inundated to build a nearby reservoir. That was what happened to my mother‘s hometown of Guerrero Viejo, Tamaulipas when Falcon Reservoir and Dam were built 70 years ago 90 miles south of Laredo. I felt an immediate kinship with the residents of Agustin Gonzalez.
Decades ago in 1973 the population here existed mainly by farming. Villagers also made clay pots and supplemented their income by selling them in the market of San Miguel. When their village was flooded, clay used for their pottery lay underwater and inaccessible. The clay pot making ended.
Twenty five years ago a group of women, mostly retired Americans, who now lived in San Miguel, set out to help another group of women. These women had sewing and embroidery skills and lived in the village of Agustin Gonzalez. The Americans introduced them to the art of hook rug making.
American expats organized workshops to teach the local women to make hook rugs, a craft invented in Ireland and adopted in the early U.S. colonies. It was unknown in Mexico. Today, instead of selling clay pots, the villagers supplement their farming income with the sale of hook rug art at the organic market each week in San Miguel, as well as in galleries in the US. The Otomi women sell the hook rug art they make for much more than they could sell their previous sewn goods. The children of the village can now afford to study beyond tuition-free grade school. Some have gone on to attend university.
American ex-pats conduct a weekly tour to the village with all proceeds going to the village. They also organize collection of wool clothing to be shipped from the US for use in the rug making. Here is a wonderful video narrated by our tour guide, Charlotte.
We are eager to see the hook rug work, but our first stop is at an outdoor kitchen of a home in the village where we are to be served some interesting cooking lessons with our lunch.
We are shown how locally grown corn kernels are softened with ash and water and then ground on a metate into masa for corn tortillas using no additional ingredients. We are shown an intricately carved wooden stamp with a unique-to-the-family design for decorating the tortillas before they are cooked for special holidays. These are family heirlooms passed from one generation to the next.
We then enjoyed a delicious vegetarian spread (meat is only for special occasions) of beans, potato cakes, chiles rellenos, guacamole and a Central Mexican salad, Xoconostle, made with a sour cactus fruit, chiles, mint and salt.
Our next stop was another home compound where several related families lived. We watch as melon water was prepared and served to us for a refreshing dessert. Two grade school children, a sister and brother, sing us the Otomi version of the Mexican national anthem. The dry, stacked stonework of the home is a thing to behold. The men of the village work in the U.S. part of the year, returning home with resources to build onto their homes.
On the last stop of the tour we arrive past two Holsteins munching on hay to the verdant home of Doña Maria, a 90 year-old Otomi grandmother. We also meet her daughter, Bonifacia has been a hook rug maker since the project’s early years.
Doña Maria may be in the last generation to speak Otomi fluently. Spanish has been adopted as the principal language by many Otomi. We learned some basic terms from a worksheet that our guide, Charlotte shared.
Doña Maria and her daughters are proud of their hook rug art. Charlotte points out the vibrant colors and designs we see today came about over time with the workshops offered to hook rug makers on color theory and design.
I look around at our group and marvel at our group of tourists, of Mexican and American heritages, and at our chance convergence under shade trees at 6500 feet, sharing cooking, languages and stories, all thanks to a group of expat Americans with the will to help lift members of their adopted community, and Mexican farming women willing to learn new skills to help their families’ future.
Padamojo, Doña Maria. Thank you, also to to all the hook rug makers of Agustin Gonzalez, and to Charlotte and her team of volunteers who made possible this beautiful and important cross cultural exchange.
Want to learn more? Visit their website:
www.rughookproject.com
English: Charlotte US 512 447 2150
Español: Oralia on WhatsApp 1-52-1-415-101-9966
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