As part of the events of the International Tourism Fair in Spain (FITUR), the documentary of Roberto Ruiz Esparza, “Tortilla Ceremonial,” was awarded the prize to Best Documentary for the preservation and promotion of the cuisine of the Mexican state of Guanajuato.
The fair, which took place in Madrid from January 17 to 21, aims to promote and connect several channels and corporations of the tourism industry. For this reason, gastronomy has become a drive for international tourism and stories like the one shown in the documentary shine for their cultural value in preserving the gastronomic heritage of Mexico.
The documentary talks about the story of cook María del Consuelo Venancio and the family tradition of ritual seals imprinted on Mexican tortillas – known as “ tortillas ceremoniales ”, roughly, ritual tortillas – and how María del Consuelo learned this technique from her mother.
“It has helped me share my culture and share tortilla; this is the purpose, to rescue [this dish],” the cook explains during the documentary.
(Photo
taken
from Guanajuato's Ministry of Tourism website)
Tortilla Ceremonial
In the central state of Guanajuato , the Otomi people make corn tortillas originally dedicated to saints, hence the reference to a ritual or a ceremony.
To print the seal, they extract the die from the Mexican honeysuckle and use a wooden board engraved with a figure, which was originally that of saints but nowadays the Otomi people also include designs of local flora and fauna.
You can check the documentary in Spanish here:
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