While the world was paralyzed, leaving the streets of past places like New York, Hong Kong or Paris practically empty because of the covid-19, in Real de Catorce, a semi-desert town of about 1,300 inhabitants, the health alert was lived in a very different way. Nobody wore a mask, people greeted each other without prevention, and there were no restrictions on access to shops. The main measure to protect the community was to restrict the passage of tourists, a sufficiently effective strategy to avoid contagion, since to date no case has been presented in the town. All this despite the fact that, according to the statement issued by the Ministry of Health on August 10, nearly 500,000 cases had been registered throughout Mexico and more than 12,000 in the state of San Luis Potosí to date.
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According to Felipe Frías Saucedo, former director of municipal Tourism, tourism is the main economic activity of the inhabitants of Real de Catorce, with more than 20,000 visitors per year. With the access closed, the engine of the economy stopped, strongly affecting the source of income of its inhabitants, but this obstacle, in turn, has been a reminder of the great wealth of the environment where they live. Many have turned to ancient knowledge and traditional wild fruit gathering methods, which have been a great support amidst economic scarcity.
Real de Catorce is hidden in the high mountains of San Luis Potosí and is characterized by a vegetation of desert and thorny scrub. It was founded with the wealth that mining brought during the times of the conquest, however in 1910 it began to decline with the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, leaving the town without a source of income, in addition to being deforested due to the large amounts of firewood. they needed for the operation of the boilers.
Most of those who depended on mining withdrew, leaving a ghost town. Over the years, Real de Catorce came back to life thanks to the arrival of Hollywood, its rich history, its proximity to Cerro del Quemado, one of the most sacred places for the indigenous Wixarika community, as well as easy access to the desert where It is possible to find peyote, a sacred medicine for this community. All these factors put this town back on the map, positioning it as a highly sought-after destination for national and international tourism, being the second place to receive the Magical Town appointment in 2001.
Although the availability of food has not stopped during the pandemic, the lack of tourism, and consequently of income, prompted the residents of Real de Catorce to return to ancestral knowledge
Those who resisted the times of mining decline concentrated on agriculture, but as tourism arrived, it brought with it a new lifestyle, faster money, and a growing trade in a wide variety of products that were previously difficult to find. Consequently, this transformation alienated its inhabitants from the traditions of their grandparents and the countryside. “From here, from the nearby ranches, the only thing there is right now is apples, peaches and apricots. The little corn and beans they grow they use for themselves, they don't sell it, ”explains Flor Saucedo Hernández, owner of one of the busiest food dispensaries in Real de Catorce. Part of the food that Saucedo and her family bring to supply the community comes from greenhouses 32 kilometers from the town. "Right now we bring the pumpkin, cucumber, bell pepper, poblano pepper, onion and tomato from San Isidro, but when there aren't any, we have to order it from San Luis," he says. The rest of the products are purchased from the market in Matehuala, located 61 kilometers away.
Although the availability of food did not stop during the pandemic, the lack of tourism, and therefore the impossibility of generating income in this way, prompted many of its inhabitants to return to ancestral knowledge, such as the collection of cacti. or fruits of the desert, and the elaboration of drinks and traditional dishes.
This is the case of Patricia Hernández and Alfonso García, known to the community as Paty and Ponchito, a 51- and 61-year-old couple, residents of Real de Catorce. Before the start of the crisis, Paty used to sell cajeta (milk candy) to tourists who visit this magical town. Meanwhile, Ponchito usually moves to the city of Monterrey, located about 350 kilometers from her home, to work in construction for a few months of the year, an activity that allows her to save money and return home. When the alert for covid-19 began in Mexico, Ponchito was in Monterrey, but unable to carry out his work due to restrictions, he made the decision to return to Real de Catorce where he has his own home and is surrounded by a wealthy food source. "Here, badly or well, we never lack food, while in the city everything is money," she explains.
Ponchito gets up every morning before the sun rises and around seven o'clock he is collecting the mead, a drink that is extracted from the maguey, a plant that abounds in this region of Mexico and to which they have come to solve in these times of crisis . The preparation process consists of cutting several of the leaves to reach the heart, then a hole is scraped where this liquid will accumulate daily. Ponchito explains that "the collection of mead must be done twice a day, at sunrise and at sunset, it can be consumed in various ways, fresh, cooked or fermented." In this last form it is commonly called pulque.
Maguey plants "can produce up to six months and from each one you can get up to four liters a day," says Ponchito. Mead and pulque - or elixir of the gods, as many call it - could also have beneficial health properties as it could help fight obesity, according to the results of a study conducted on mice published in Nature .
Maguey plants can produce up to six months and from each one you can obtain up to four liters of mead per day
In the almost three months in which access to tourists was restricted, Paty was unable to sell traditional sweets, or rent the rooms generally occupied by Huichol artisans and pilgrims, most of whom left town due to the health crisis. During this time, Paty sold the mead to other villagers and the rest were consumed at home. This practice, and the production offered by the milpa, where they grow fruit trees such as peaches and apples, facilitated their transition during the pandemic.
Another case similar to that of Paty and Ponchito is that of Socorro Aguilar, 77. The woman cuts nopales (Opuntia cactus) for household consumption and for sale. The physical state of the lady, as she herself affirms, is evidence of "the miraculous properties" for the health of this cactus, because at her age she walks at a slow pace, but without difficulty, through the hills of Real, even after a stroke. that he suffered a few years ago.
Aquilar compares life from before with that of now, mentioning the lack of health in youth because "they only want packaged food and medicine in tablets, putting aside the great contributions of cacti, flowers and medicinal plants."
Lucio García, a nurse at the Real de Catorce Health Center, acknowledges that obesity in the community is less than in other parts of the country, but it is still a problem. "People do a lot of physical activity, going up the streets implies a certain effort," he says, since the town is made up of steep slopes. In Mexico, 71.3% of the population suffers from overweight or obesity, according to the results of the Survey National Health of 2012, while the Altiplano region where Real de Catorce is located has the lowest obesity rate in the State, although it represents the eighth cause of morbidity among the population, according to the reports of the San Luis Potosí Health Sector Diagnosis 2018 .
Both Paty and Ponchito and Mrs. Aquilar coincide in pointing out that in the desert there is always food available, both wild and those grown in the cornfields, and although several have a season, they vary, ensuring food throughout the year. In addition to nopales and mead, it is possible to find cabochons (biznaga cactus flower) in March and April, prickly pears (nopal fruit) harvested between July and November, aloe flowers available between April and June, and quiotes (logs produced by the maguey) between November and January. The latter can measure up to 10 meters, both its trunk and its flowers are for consumption and provide the inhabitants of the desert with food in the harshest months of winter, when "other fruits are not available for harvest," says Ponchito.
The powerful and multifaceted maguey plant not only represents a source of food and drink for people, but also contributes to sustaining the animals, an essential part of the life in the countryside of Real de Catorce. Juan Ramírez, a 75-year-old man who, like Mrs. Aquilar, preserves the ancestral knowledge of the desert, uses the quiotes to feed the donkey and horse that she has in her house. It is very common to find these animals in the town, since with a mountainous environment and narrow roads, they are perfect transportation methods for the community.
Ramírez grew up on the ranches near Real de Catorce in times when - as during the pandemic - tourism was nil, in this way "agriculture and exotic desert plants were the only way to survive," he says. Previously, he cut quiotes and baked them in an oven made with volcanic stones to exchange them for other products such as corn, "essential for making the tortillas that accompany all our meals." As the years go by, this arduous process becomes difficult since the cooking lasts around 36 hours, not counting the work of collecting firewood, which is scarce in the desert. Now, reserve the quiotes for your animals.
During his daily tour of the desert hills, Ramírez collects the sotol garrocha (flower that sprouts from the trunk of this plant), or the quiote flower for consumption. However, he agrees with Mrs. Aguilar that youth no longer appreciate these foods. "None of the five grandchildren who live with me want to eat what is found in the forest," he explains.
The difficult moments that are experienced worldwide due to covid-19 are showing the importance of autonomous agriculture, such as the one that has kept the residents of Real de Catorce well fed. The UN has already warned of the food shortage that triggers a crisis like the current one. Although in 2008, the urban population surpassed the rural population, showing that fewer and fewer people are engaged in field work, cases such as the return to the practices of collecting desert fruits and flowers, as well as the creation of orchards homemade in rural areas, reveal the importance of the rural to achieve food sovereignty. In the words of Anusha Murthy of Edible Issues: "Now more than ever, it is important to focus on a hyperlocal production system ... The best way to guarantee access to food all year round is to grow it ourselves."
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