The Black Agave - Cultural Newspaper from Oaxaca, México.

PERIoDICO CULTURAL BIMESTRAL

año 0 | número 0 | octubre 2021 | oaxaca, M´éxico

Editorial Letter

The paper and ink that you have in your hands will be a platform for graphics and free opinions to make visible the work of traditional cooks, healers, shamans, midwives, mezcal masters and other Oaxacan artisans that make our land a unique place.

Page 01

Maestro Raúl Gaspar de Yogana, Ejutla.

Yogana Chronicle

Yogana… the name of the community in Ejutla district resonates in my head, a place which claims to be the birthplace of excellent mezcals, one of the best I have tasted in the State of Oaxaca.

Page 05

About social responsibility in Oaxacan gastronomy It is easy to romanticize, but if we want to talk about social responsibility, we must first address uncomfortable and even dangerous issues.

Page 02

His generosity led him to stay and talk with me for almost three hours, to explain his comings and goings between the painting and the poster and the magazine, his love for the pencil as a tool to change the world, as he told me that afternoon.

Page 11

A Garden of Eden in the Oaxacan coastline

Your holidays at Samory Luxury Resort will be unforgettable, and you will likely come back for another one of a kind experience.

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Traditional healers and mezcal: an ancestral tradition Mezcal is a spiritual and ritual drink in traditional medicine in Oaxaca.

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The Black Agave es un periódico cultural bimestral de arte y cultura. Número de reserva ante el Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor en proceso. El contenido de los artículos no refleja necesariamente la opinión del editor. Los artículos contenidos en esta publicación sólo podrán ser reproducidas con previa autorización. www.theblackagave.com.mx | theblackagave.com.mx

Editorial Letter

About social responsibility in Oaxacan gastronomy

I

t has been two years since my last printed publication and the passage of time, if nothing else, has improved my teaching and brought gratitude for what I have learned. Difficult times have come, however we have managed to move forward in the community, giving way to creativity and realization of cultural projects with a social purpose. The Black Agave is a free publication for our readers, its main objective is to make known to those reading our content through images and chronicles the cultural richness of Oaxaca reflected in our mezcal, its gastronomy and traditions that make our state a unique place worthy of being represented in a printed fanzine.

The paper and ink that you have in your hands will be a platform for graphics and free opinions to make visible the work of traditional cooks, healers, shamans, midwives, mezcal masters and other Oaxacan artisans that make our land a unique place. This is why now is the key and decisive moment to persist and believe even more that by working in community we will achieve our goals. And so we begin this effort number 0.

Fernando Arce Sánchez.

Directory The Black Agave Director Editorial : Fernando Arce. @ferarcefotografo Editor de estilo: Antonio Escobedo. @Zentromx | Traducción : Gaetano Donizetti / Tabatha A. Mata | Director Editorial y Fotografía : Fernando Arce Sánchez www.theblackagave.com.mx Informes: Fer.arce.fotografo@hotmail.com 9511560321.

Colaboradores: Sacaremos provecho de nuestros grafitos y redactaremos nuestras columnas :“Crónicas de Mezcal” una columna a cargo de León Lory Langlé, (La voz bluesera de Mono Cilíndrero 1996) oaxaqueño por convicción y amante de esta bebida espirituosa llamada mezcal @leonmezcal Viajaremos a través de nuestro estado para recomendar lugares únicos creados por el hombre y vivir una experiencia extraordinaria a través de nuestra Columna “Trashumante” a cargo de Andrea Gandarce, quien nos enaltece cada uno de los rincones de estos bellos espacios para hospedarnos en nuestra costa Oaxaqueña @andrea_gandarce

Al hablar de las “Plantas Poderosas” viene siempre a mi mente la friega que me daba mi abuela con hierbas aromáticas para curarme ese espanto que traía dentro. La antropóloga Gemila nos contará su propia experiencia de lo vivido al crecer con curanderas tradicionales en la Sierra Juárez Oaxaqueña. @yerbabrujamx Una vez en mesa es difícil poder hablar con la boca llena, en oaxaca es muy común que la gente de la comunidad a donde vayas te reciba con un plato de comida, la forma común de dar una bienvenida. “Cocina Nómada” viaja con cocineras tradicionales y chefs a distintas partes de oaxaca para preservar esas recetas que se han perdido en generaciones. @nomad.cook “Miscelánea” : Obra o escrito en que se tratan materias inconexas y mezcladas, una variedad de textos recabados por el curador de arte Fernando Gálvez. @fernandogalvez9

It is easy to romanticize, but if we want to talk about social responsibility, we must first address uncomfortable and even dangerous issues.

Por Luis Hernández (Nomad Cook)

O

axaca is considered a culinary destination. Its tlayudas, moles, chapulines, empanadas, memelas and tejate are among the best known dishes; nevertheless, these are traditional to the Central Valleys region, food examples from other areas in the state are more discreet in Oaxacan cuisine.

The caldo de piedra of the Papaloapan region, the tetelas of the Mixteca and the garnachitas of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec are slightly known. Other dishes, such as the pozole mixteco, the mää’tsy ayuujk, the tutuñí, chinches of the Southern Sierra, and the delicious fish tamales and shrimp mole of the Ikoot people are rare to find and barely known, but why? My theory is because they are not profitable.

Millions have been invested in the “Oaxaca” brand and, as every economic project, it is important to recoup the money invested, in addition to generating profits. The economic income for the hospitality sector in the capital city of Oaxaca equaled six billion pesos only in 2019. But, what is the cost of pursuing financial gains?

Oaxaca is one of the most ethnically and

linguistically diverse states, and thanks to this, it also possesses a great diversity of dishes. However, it is also the second poorest state in Mexico, Chiapas being the first.

If we decided to become investors, our priority would be to make the most amount of profits with the least amount of investment. At present, the dishes that are promoted to attract visitors are enough; to include more would mean to invest in infrastructure in communities where these delicacies are prepared.

Tourism is largely administered by the state´s government, and they avoid making public all land conflicts that this local administrator - not owner - provokes. It is not a good idea to show visitors if your house is a mess.

The south is rich in resources: water, metals, wind, fertile soil for sowing, etc., and those are also profitable businesses. State administrations have seen the opposition by these communities with disgust. Besides knowing ancestral food techniques, they also try to survive the attacks of mining and power corporations. Land defenders who fight these projects are being murdered month after month.

What does this have to do with gastronomy?

It is very important to me not to separate things: food is a reflection of its community of origin, to eat is a political thing and goes hand in hand with the people and the problems they face. If we decontextualize and put dishes or ingredients in a restaurant or book without referring to their milieux, we are only presenting one side of the story.

I am not saying that one needs to talk rigorously on these issues every single time we try a dish, but if we are to extract this knowledge and make profits with this cuisine as external agents, it is our responsibility to help visibilize not only the nice part of it, but also the problems exposed by those who are silenced for doing so. Those communities,

that we call indigenous, who prepare these emblematic dishes, have long-time suffered from discrimination and systematic violence.

We need to get our hands dirty; these issues have to be discussed and pointed out. When gourmet restaurants serve a tetela, I wonder if they think about the Triqui occupation in Copala or when serving chintestle, if they know about the theft of water in Ayutla.

What about amarillo empanadas? We would then have to talk about the mining company in Ocotlán.

Yogana Chronicle

Yogana… the name of the community in Ejutla district resonates in my head, a place which claims to be the birthplace of excellent mezcals, one of the best I have tasted in the State of Oaxaca.

León Lory Langle

W

e headed between music, vegetation and exalted humor to what would become the first of numerous trips where we exchange ideas and discuss, without knowing it at that moment, a fusion of projects that unite an elixir wrapped in stories, myths, tradition and culture.

As we enter the community, I remember reading a publication by Guillermo Rangel Rojas where he quotes from the book History of Oaxaca where Father José Antonio Gay mentions: “…The Etla Valley, Ejutla, Ocotlán and Zimatlán, a great lake which disappeared because of the drainage by aborigines in Yogana. A marsh still exists ... “ The terrain of the valley shows, in effect, that this was the seat of an ancient lake and until 1881 there existed in the lower parts of the valley small lagoons and swamps, remains of the old lake…” also it is mentioned by Fray Francisco de Burgoa in his book Geographical Description the location of the drain 22 kilometers to the south.

Our appointment is with “a true character”, says Fernando Arce, my partner in this adventure. We are visiting mezcal master Raúl Gaspar, who has been making the distilled beverage since the age of fifteen.

Gaspar has been working for 65 years in this community. On his land, with every cycle year after year, he sows corn, beans and squash in previously delimited furrows for some of the agave plantations. This he does in order to have food for his animals and to save a little extra money apart from what he

earns with the sale of his prized mezcal.

Tío Raúl, whom I address with respect in this way, welcomes us with a his own peculiar jovial, honest and quick smile.

With his lucid mind all full of memories and stories, he regales us impetuously and without suspicion. ¨I am 80 years old,¨ he mentions, ¨but I feel as if youth will not abandon me!¨ Along with that statement his smile shines and he turns vigorously, looking for the complicit eyes of his wife who, in an affectionate and playful way and with a discreet head movement, corroborates the enthusiasm and affirmation of her partner.

He tells us how he has noticed the change in the rain cycles, ¨It no longer rains as it used to,¨ he says. ¨The rains used to start in April, May... and according to their early or late arrival, the time for sowing could be established. Now it is no longer constant or certain. We might sow thinking that it will be a good year and only a few small rains will fall that barely feed the crop, also the agave is scarce.¨ He says, ¨The merchants come from Jalisco and take everything, all the agave, they don´t care for big or small and here there is need.¨ With this last sentence the smile fades and the voice breaks in a low and painful tone while he turns his eyes to the floor, observing his huaraches. He rallies, avowing, ¨But I love making mezcalito!¨ The joy returns to his body and with a vigorous jump he gets up from his chair and invites us to go to the room where he keeps what is left of his mezcal. ¨I have tobalá, cuixhe, san martinero and espadí,¨ he assures us while he opens the door, moves some barrels that are in the way and shuffles a huge amount of bags of corn and beans that he has on a nearby table. His wife arrives quickly to support her companion while he looks to one side, the left, to talk to her in a loud manner. He explains to us that he has been losing his hearing and that we have to talk to him loudly.

Tío Raúl, without asking any questions, brings a jícara and venenciado, his mezcal, and explains he likes it strong, and proudly shows us the pearl. “Look... the cork is well, well closed” and immediately he invites us to imbibe while his eyes follow us with each sip, looking for the expressions of surprise and approval that he knows for sure we´ll have. ¨How do you like the espadín?¨ he asks without looking at us because he is already serving the tobalá. ¨This one is from last year,¨ he explains, while he repeats the ritual of the venenciado showing us the cork. ¨And you, would you accompany us with a mezcal maestro?¨ he turns to see me and takes off his palm hat showing his gray hair. He laughs nervously as his wife, in a scolding tone, explains to us that he can’t drink the elixir anymore but sometimes he sneaks some shots. She has caught him before.

We all show complicity and joke about the subject, while watching how attentively he receives the jícara from my hand and slowly brings it to his nose for an intense inhalation. He exclaims while releasing the aroma he held with such pleasure, ¨Ahhhh how delicious this tobalá is, isn’t it?¨ And slowly, knowing that his wife does not take her eyes off him, he gives me back the jícara, so that we can enjoy and finish.

His mezcals are characteristic and full of strength. He shares with us his wisdom of the process and gives us a detailed explanation of his unique way with a special drink which he is now selling that is distilled only once in his alembic, a still, with a cooler where he adds the cuixhe. It is very scarce.

This takes me by surprise because this agave is abundant in the region, and seeing my astonished face he shares that young people no longer want to work with mezcal because it requires a lot of work and they prefer to migrate and bring their dollars to build their houses.

The cuixhe is incredibly exquisite and while I vibrate in an ecstasy of drunkenness his

wife appears with a jícara that I can assure you... I swear... contained the most glorious pumpkin seeds in the world.

Kindly, after buying his mezcal, we enjoyed a heated and enmezcalada conversation in his patio, with countless anecdotes that I will be happy to share with you later.

The joy, affection and hospitality in which Don Raúl Gaspar allows us to hang out in his home, feels affectionately similar to the warmth that accompanies me sip by sip of his exquisite mezcal, Yogana´s mezcal.

Cheers!

A Garden of Eden in the Oaxacan coastline Por Andrea Gandarce

L

ocated at km 156 on the Cumaná Coast, and only 30 minutes away from Puerto Escondido, you can find Samory Luxury Resort. This boutique hotel awakens all senses and takes one’s breath away with its beautiful gardens, where luxury, comfort and nature blend in a strategic oceanfront location.

The pool will delight you at first sight, since it creates the illusion of melting into the sea, where the sun disappears in its waters at sunset, providing you with a relaxing experience, great for a refreshing dip.

It all begins with a welcome cocktail made with mezcal, that spiritual drink that inebriates the soul. The welcoming ceremony to this paradise is carried out by a peculiar host, the hotel´s pet, a retriever named Dream that happily greets you from the very first moment.

This astonishing oasis is surrounded by cactuses, palm trees, agave plants and exotic flora, in which you can choose to stay in one of its eight bungalow-type suites with private terraces and sea views. Each one is beautifully and tastefully decorated, thus creating an elegant atmosphere, yet charming with a romantic feel.

While being here, we have the opportunity to be reminded that we live in a world full of charm, and that there are human beings like Sammy Gafari, who fell in love with these shores and dedicated himself to take care of each detail of this heaven on earth personally. The hotel and its surroundings become the perfect stage to live unique experiences, where all worries disappear to give place to a state of peace and tranquility that enwrap you.

Another feature that will conquer you is its dining area under the palapa, as having breakfast there will leave you speechless while looking at the ocean early in the morning. This is a communal area where you can grab a snack, have a drink while bathing in the pool or where you can just lay down on the comfortable sofas to read a book.

Your holidays at Samory Luxury Resort will be unforgettable, and you will likely come back for another one of a kind experience.

Traditional healers and mezcal: an ancestral Por Gemila La Bruja

The mezcal is so magical and powerful that it is not only considered an alcoholic beverage, but also a ritual drink, present in social and political events of a community.

I

n Oaxaca, mezcal plays a fundamental role in the cosmovision of indigenous groups, since it is present in celebrations and religious festivities, including mayordomías. It also plays a key role in everyday rituals, such as ritual cleansings and healing ceremonies to treat espanto or susto (a condition of being frightened as a result of emotional trauma) and sadness, marriage proposals, births and funerals.

Each healer has her/his own treatments and practices, but they all agree on today’s topic: mezcal is a spiritual and ritual drink in traditional medicine in Oaxaca.

Female healers use this distilled spirit to cure evil eye, remove aire malo (evil spirit sickness), but also as an offering to deities when it comes to building a new house, asking for the chaneque´s or guardian spirit´s permission (also known as Bëni Guíaa or owner of the place) and to show their respect.

According to Ángela Méndez (+), master healer, in her book: Herbolaria Oaxaqueña para la salud, “espanto is caused after experiencing shocking events such as falls, accidents, earthquakes, among others, as well as emotions originated by couples´ conflicts, depression, separation, uncontested love, mourning or loneliness. The soul gets lost.”

In the Northern Sierra, as well as in the Central Valleys and other regions in Oaxaca and Mexico, it is customary to cure this “illness” with traditional cleansings. Herbs and hen or turkey eggs, in addition to other elements like cigar, copal chips, and mezcal are used (in its pristine condition or macerated with some plants, woods and resins).

Traditionally, herbs cure aire malo and purify energy fields. When mezcal is used in combination with the smoke of burning copal chips, it helps to balance emotions and allows for the return of the spirit to the body.

During a ritual cleansing to treat evil eye or espanto, mezcal is not only sipped, it is also applied onto the skin in the form of rubbing massages and sopladas, technique that consists in taking a sip of mezcal and spraying it or spitting it in a rapid way on the sick person’s back, chest and face. This therapy, as healers say, makes the susto go away, so that the soul can find its way back to the body.

When talking specifically about macerated mezcals, a traditional healer uses several plants such as purple bugambilia flowers (bougainvillea spectabilis), rue (ruta graveolens), rosemary (salvia rosmarinus), basil (ocimum basilicum) and ocote pine (pinus spp). The process takes about 40 days inside a clear flask or a ceramic one. At the end of this period, the alcohol obtained is used for rubbing or massaging the forehead, temples, nape of the neck, chest and forearms before a cleansing ceremony. It is also used in cold or fever cases, due to the feverreducing effect when mezcal, cinnamon and bugambilia flowers are applied on the skin.

For its digestive effects, it is also possible to find some types of mezcal combined with Mexican marigold (tagetes lucida), lemon beebrush (Aloysia citrodora) and pennyroyal (mentha pulegium). These are offered as aperitifs before a heavy meal, or as a house remedy in case of indigestion, diarrhea, nausea or empacho, term used in Mexico when referring to the combination of these symptoms.

“My great grandmother, a Zapotec healer, used to say that when mezcal was applied to bottom of the feet, it helped to reduce any fever, since it caused the body to sweat” Some drops of mezcal with herbs when bathing clear the mind and eliminate all negative vibes.

When a petition was made in the forest or before the sowing season, she would first ask the chaneque for its permission with an offering. She would make a small hole in the ground in which she would deposit flowers, cigars, an ocote pine cross, a pinch of salt, a candle, a wellserved plate and a tecomate or gourd with mezcal, as one would welcome an important guest, greeting her/him with the best food and drink.

It is also a custom, among the people of my town, to pour some mezcal on the ground before giving it a first sip as a sign of respect to Mother Earth, who provides us with food.

Since this spirit is magical and powerful, it is highly valued as an offering to deities in order to obtain their blessings, giving thanks for a bountiful harvest season, to celebrate the rainy season, when changes in local authorities occur and during the selection process of the next steward for the coming patron saint festivities.

The process of making mezcal is by itself a form of ritual with an ancestral concept and a rich history full of legends and mysticism, starting by the planting season and picking of the agave plants, depositing the pines inside the earth oven and covering/uncovering them up, followed by the grinding, fermentation and distillation stages.

It has rightfully gained the name of “drink of the gods”, and that is why it should be sipped with much respect, slowly and passionately.

For my people and myself, as a traditional healer, descendent of a healer from the sierra of Oaxaca, the mezcal represents protection, celebration and a cure.

In memory of my great grandmother, Elvira Solano Díaz, my friend Ángela Méndez Hernández and to all women who practice the trade and art of healing with powerful plants.

VICENTE ROJO IN MEMORIAM

books that deploy a series of fully artistic strategies, so they would jump from being mere editions to become true artist’s books, a genre of which the master Rojo would also give us several jewels in his personal career as a creator.

Fernando Gálvez de Aguinaga

A

s in a small town general store, this column will have everything, hence the title miscellaneous. We will arrange among our shelves, many jars and paintings full of artists’ stories, as well as old or recently printed books. We will talk about historical objects and put them in the showcases as novelties because perhaps they have been forgotten and when we describe them they will shine again and will have a new attitude.

This space will be neither merely aesthetic nor only historical, because for the obvious reasons that we have a wide assortment of liquors, mezcals, pulque buckets and wines, as well as other substances that well digested were transfigured into myth, rite, poetry, film, engraving or song. However, to start today, let’s talk about the most superb of all artists, a creator who shaped the look of several generations of Mexicans since he was a great editorial and graphic designer as well as painter, sculptor and engraver.

Almost all of us born in Mexico after the 50’s have had some of his designs or works in front of us.

I am referring to the recently deceased Vicente Rojo, who developed the design of the newspaper La Jornada, and thus reaches our hands every day through that newspaper, because although the formation of the tabloid has changed since its beginnings, the masthead with the name of the newspaper and the logotype still have the clear, aesthetic and functional style of the master who developed the design of the newspaper. He was born in Spain but became a Mexican just a year before his majority

of age, at seventeen, to join his father, a Spanish refugee and brother of the military chief of the Spanish Republicans, after whom he was named, since his uncle was General Vicente Rojo Luch.

Yes, his uncle was a hero of the resistance against Franco’s regime, our Vicente Rojo was a hero of sight, people sometimes do not realize the importance of graphic designers, but if we tell them that the first edition of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude was published with a cover by the master Rojo, then one begins to want to know more about how a designer shaped so many beloved books, how he forged a revolutionary style that combined not only a unique skill, but a character who also had a fully avant-garde sense of aesthetics. He was an abstract painter, was part of the generation of the social rupture and his development in the editorial field had been forged in journalism, accompanying many of the proposals of cultural supplements promoted by the great Fernando Benítez.

In those spaces of journalism, he joined intellectual circles of historians, writers and journalists. So many of his proposals for the covers of a book mix his craft, his visual wisdom, his intellectual lucidity to transfigure in image the reading of a book, with his creative complicity with the writer.

An example that his was not a job but a whole intellectual and creative process, is a pair of books, almost objects that he designed based on texts by Octavio Paz: ¨Discos¨, an interactive and visual poem, and Duchamp´s ¨El Castillo de la Pureza¨, both developed between 1967 and 1968, becoming object

Thus, the communicating vessels between the designer, the artist and the man are many, his creation alongside ¨Neus Espresate¨ of the wonderful Ediciones Era, where he published many of the books of his friends Carlos Monsiváis, José Emilio Pacheco, Elena Poniatowska, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, etc., turned those publishing efforts into a true publishing house, into a true gathering. The talks became books, not only of the attendees but also of the names and international and national titles that interested them. These were shared at meetings and parties as Rojo shared with me extensively since the first interview I did with him in 1993.

I remember how nervous I was as a 22-yearold reporter getting to talk with one of the intellectuals I most admired. I can almost see him standing at the door of his studio in Coyoacán, waiting for me like a trace in a diamond sweater inside that façade that looked like another painting of his series ¨Mexico Under the Rain¨ but painted with bricks in the middle of a street. His generosity led him to stay and talk with me for almost three hours, to explain his comings and goings between the painting and the poster and the magazine, his love for the pencil as a tool to change the world, as he told me that afternoon.

Then, many years later in 2005 being director of the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca, I organized an exhibition for him which I could not attend because the

inauguration of his show coincided with the birth of my son. When I was told that my exwife was already in labor, I remember that Maestro Toledo told me, “Run away, that doesn’t happen every day”. And so, running out of the 17th century mansion that houses the IAGO, and halfway through the race I ran into Maestro Rojo and when I explained to him that I could not be at his exhibition the next day because of the birth of my first baby, he told me: “Go on, don’t stop. I’ll make arrangements with Toledo here. There is no better inauguration than the one you are going to have, let’s see how the design turns out.”

We let out a laugh and I started running again, further ahead, a bicycle skidded in front of me interrupting my race again. A young man got off in a hurry and told me, “Maestro, I was going to see you in your office. I bring you this bottle because you allowed me to work in the IAGO library one night for my professional exam with some books I needed and now that Vicente Rojo is going to exhibit there, who was one of those I studied as a designer that night, I didn’t want to stop thanking you.”

He extended a bottle with an engraving by Joel Rendón as a label showing a woman with a baby in her arms, I snatched it from his hand almost without stopping and understood that the magic of the artist Vicente Rojo transcended editorial and artistic objects to cast a spell on life. Now that the man has departed, the spell of his vast body of work continues to change our existence, there is his heartbeat, his mind, his art.