Abstract:
In this interview with my neighbor and friend Alejandra Gutierrez, we converse about her story growing up in Piedras Negras, Mexico as well as her experience as a child of migrant farm workers here in the U.S. We discuss the important plants (vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc.) that she grew up growing, harvesting, and using, and how it relates to her family traditions and culture. She is one of the most resilient, hardworking, and compassionate people I know. She has a huge heart and I’m really happy to share her story. The tone of the interview plays very much like a casual conversation intentionally, as we did this unscripted and I wanted it to feel comfortable and non-formal. I added more information about the topics that were discussed such as background information, a further look into some of the plants and their benefits/chemical functions, family recipes, history, and images. I originally set out to do an interview and then type up the important points and information from our conversation, however, I really loved hearing Ale’s story and wanted to share not only my take but the actual recording itself. We trade advice (and fresh veggies and plants) regularly and she is my neighborhood confidant for plants. I have learned a lot about her culture through our conversations about gardening and food. I feel like her description of growing up both in Mexico and having to do hard farm work in America from a young age, along with her personal conversations with me in the past about struggles with being the first English speaker in her family really inspire me. I hope going forward that these excerpts, descriptions, and the interview with her will inspire you as well!
(Image: Piedras Negras- https://mexicanroutes.com/piedras-negras/)
Piedras Negras
Piedras Negras Mexico is a border town adjacent to Eagle Pass Texas. It is located in northeastern Coahuila Mexico along the Rio Grande river. Piedras Negras is a hub for agriculture, manufacturing, cattle raising, industrial work, and coal, silver, zinc and gold mining. Piedras Negras has a semi-arid climate with temperatures getting up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months, earning it the reputation of being one of the hottest cities in Mexico. Alejandra describes her fond memories of growing up in Piedras Negras before moving to the U.S. with her family. She talks in the interview about the river by her family’s home and acreage, where she would play and fish as a child. Textile factories came when she was still very young and started to pollute the river with their industrial waste and since have decimated the water supply and ecosystem there. She mentions how her father and grandfather went to go work at the factory and recalls her mother and her and her siblings making the journey across the bridge and back daily to bring lunch and dinner. Ale also goes into details about their lack of refrigeration and an indoor stove and describes how it necessitated collecting ingredients daily for immediate use, and her mother cooking in the backyard on an outdoor stove. I thoroughly enjoy listening to her talk about her memories of her childhood in Mexico, as her love of the outdoors and relationship with her environment remind me of fond memories of my own experiences growing up.
Migrant farm work in America
Ale was born in Piedras Negras, but when she was very young, moved to the U.S. with her family to do migrant farm work. Many times in the past, out of curiosity, I have asked her about her experience growing up while working in the fields and having to move around. She describes in our interview together the harsh conditions that her and her family faced. She shares her experiences of how it affected not only her family’s relationship to food, but also to her sense of security. Migrant farm workers in the U.S. have one of the hardest and least protected jobs in the country. They provide us all with the food we need, but often it is not reflected in their treatment, living conditions, or pay. They are very seldom recognized for their extremely important role in our lives and for the immense work they do. For more information about how to help support migrant farm workers or to get more information about their struggle, I have included a few links at the bottom of the page.
(Image: Prickly Pear Cactus- Liz Godsey)
Nopales
Nopalitos are the young cactus pads from the Opuntia or Prickly Pear Cactus. Ale paints a vivid picture of their use in her household and her family in my interview with her. They are harvested when still very light green and “new” or first growing because this is when they are at their most tender. Ale says that many in her family love to eat them as soon as they are peeled, whereas she prefers the taste of them cooked. This particular type of cactus is a native to the chihuahuan desert in which she grew up and is easy to find growing wild here in San Antonio. They are covered in fine needles, so harvesting them needs to be done with that in mind. In the past, I have picked them using tongs and a metal bowl. They are then peeled and are ready for cooking or eating fresh. I will include the recipes that Ale describes to me in the interview for the nopalitos with eggs and the green tortillas with nopalitos below this excerpt. Nopalitos evidently have numerous health benefits including dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and they help lower blood sugar. Ale also described how her grandfather would burn the spines off of the Nopales in Mexico for the cattle and how much they enjoyed eating it once the cactus’ defense was nullified. The fruit of the cactus is tangy, sweet, and beautiful purple-red, called the “Tunas” or prickly pear. They can be eaten fresh or used as purees for drinks or turned into jelly or jam. I personally made prickly pear jelly when I was 10. It was a painful process due to my lack of experience on properly handling and harvesting the Tunas (handfuls of tiny needles tend to hurt), but it is one of my favorite types of jelly for toast.
Nopalitos (recipe credit Alejandra Gutierrez)
Ingredients
5 Cactus pads (diced in small cubes)
2 Egg
2 tbsp of oil
4 Juajillo peppers
1/4of a cup of Onion
1 galic
3 tbsp of Cilantro
Salt to taste
Directions
Boil diced cactus cubes with 1/2 tsp of salt
Saute onions and garlic when onion is translucent and Cactus cubes saute for 2 min add your eggs when eggs are done add your Juajillo sauce ingredients
5 Juajillo peppers
1garlic
Juajillo sauce
Take seeds out of peppers and boil until soft. In your blender add Juajillo peppers 1galic blend and strain into your nopalitos. Add salt to taste and the last step add your cilantro to taste.
Green tortillas (recipe credit Alejandra Gutierrez)
Ingredients:
2 cactus pads
1cup of oatmeal flour
2 cups of pan or maseca corn flour
2 cups of spinach
1 to 2 cups of water as needed
1/2 a tbsp salt
Instructions
In a blender add spinach,cactus pads and water
In a bowl add corn flour,oat flour and salt
Knead dough into a playdough consistency make a golf size ball and put in a tortilla press.
Heat up a comal or griddle and place your tortilla
(Chile Pequin: image credit- (Howard Garrett) https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2016/02/04/chile-pequin-is-easy-to-propagate/)
Chile pequin and peppers
Chile peppers are a staple in Mexican cuisine and culture. They have been used there for thousands of years and are believed to have been first cultivated in Mexico (originated from somewhere in central or South America). They are best known for the chemical called capsaicin, an irritant, which gives them their spicy flavor, which is measured (now) in a the Scoville scale for levels of heat. All peppers belong to the family capsicum which is actually part of a wider family that also contains tomatoes and egglplants (nightshade). During my interview with Ale, she describes using the small fruit from the chile pequin for its spicyness (evidently around 5 times hotter than jalepenos according to scoville scale!). She describes them growing wild around the cactus in Piedras Negras growing up, so they would pick them while they were collecting nopalitos. I personally, have volunteer pequins growing all around my large cactus bushes in my backyard, which I share with Ale (cactus and pequin) whenever she needs/wants some for a recipe. We go on in our discussion later to talk about bell peppers. She mentions to me that bell peppers still contain capsaicin, and I was interested to know more, so I did some research. I found that she’s partly right, bell peppers are still indeed members of the genus capsicum, but due to a recessive gene, are the only peppers with no capsaicin which is why they are sweet. I thought this was really interesting, and as I kept reading, I found that there are a few plants that contain trace amounts of capsaicin that are not peppers at all. This includes cilantro, cinnamon and oregano (Spicyexchange).
Ale describes using all different kinds of peppers for flavor and for the health benefits associated with the capsaicin they produce. There are a multitude of health benefits associated with capsaicin including heart health as an anti-inflammatory, weight loss and the chemicals use in topical medications for pain relief (WebMD). Some people are more sensitive to the chemical, especially if their bodies aren’t used to it, so it can cause stomach upset and burning. During our conversation, Ale referenced her family slowly upping the heat in dishes through her childhood to get her used to the spice. We laugh in one segment of the interview when she describes her husband’s family sneaking pequins into their guacamole when he was a boy, much to his surprise and displeasure.
Fresh Chile piquín salsa (recipe credit Alejandra Gutierrez)
-About 15 Chile piquín peppers.
3 to 4 tomatoes
3 scallions
1 Garlic
Instructions
Mash Chile piquín and garlic in a molcajete or
Mortar.
Slice Scallions add those in.
Grate tomatoes add those in.
Add salt to taste.
(Onions-EHAURYLIK//GETTY IMAGES https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a35237910/onion-health-benefits/)
Onions
In many cultures, onions are a base ingredient for dishes of all kinds. As a root vegetable, they are easily stored at room temperature for weeks to months at a time, and as such, are great for any time use. I have always used onions in cooking (nearly every meal) and they are the first thing I learned how to prepare in the kitchen growing up. Ale describes using them as the very first ingredients in her family recipes as well, paired with garlic (a must, and a favorite spice by both her and I). They are a great vehicle for developing the flavors from spices added later in cooking such as cumin, or peppers, because they absorb the oil you cook them in. In Ale’s cooking, she says she uses them for the bases for salsas, caldo (soup/stew), pasta sauce, raw in tacos, and in her daughter, Mia’s favorite stuffed zucchini recipe. When living in Piedras Negras, she describes having them grow fresh in her yard to pick and use immediately on a daily basis. Onions come in many different colors and varieties. In addition to the root bulb, the green tops that grow out at the surface are also delicious and can be chopped and used in recipes or as a garnish. They are very high in vitamins and minerals and contain fiber and carbs in addition to being low in calories.
(Aloe Vera- image credit: Emilija Manevska / Getty Images https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden/plants/a39541351/aloe-vera-plant/)
Aloe
Aloe vera is a plant that my own parents regularly had on hand growing in the garden for use topically on sunburns, cuts and scrapes. Evidently, this is also an important plant to Ales family. She describes always having at least one (Aloe Vera plant) growing up and to this day. Aloe vera is a succulent, so it needs very little water and soil to thrive. It can be reproduced with cuttings of an original plant, so it is easy to turn one into many. Ale described how her mother would cut just the tip of the aloe plant off for use, wrapping it in paper towels to let the yellow liquid that comes out of the cut drain down to the bottom, and using the other side for skin or consumption. I had my own experience trying to cut fresh aloe to use growing up in which I thought that the yellow secretion was the part to use for wounds. To my displeasure, the liquid actually caused an unpleasant sensation and had a very strong foul odor. After some research following my interview, I discovered that the yellow secretion is called aloin (a.k.a. aloe latex) and is not only a potential laxative, but also toxic. Aloe can be good for digestion, diabetes, inflammation, and mouth irritation when consumed in addition to its benefits for skin repair and soothing (ie. burns, allergies, insect bites). It grows well in extreme heat and desert environments, so it is right at home in our ecosystem in San Antonio as well as in Coahuila Mexico where Ale was born.
(Manzanilla- Image credit: https://www.kitchencurandera.com/herbal/2019/5/5/manzanilla-infusion)
Manzanilla
Manzanilla or Chamomile is a flower that is primarily used in tea to help with sleep and anxiety. In our interview, Ale describes her mother growing it in her garden in Mexico and drinking the tea before bed every night to aid in sleep. She also says that her mother would chew the flowers (for flavor? Or maybe because it was soothing) and that many families use Manzanilla for lightening and softening their hair. This was a surprise to me as I had never heard of this use for it before. I did some research because I was curious to know what about the flower caused the lightening affect (or if it really worked!). The results were somewhat varied, but I did find out that chamomile contains three flavonoids called apigen, quercetin, and azulen(Pacheco). Apparently, apigen in combination with azulene brightens hair, whereas the quercetin actually lightens the hair (a chemical process that involves limiting the amount of melanin production in the hair). To make that more clear, the answer to the question “Does manzanilla really lighten hair?” is a resounding “yes”, but slowly over time with repeated application. It also does not damage the hair but is beneficial unlike most hair dyes or chemicals.
(Cilantro- Image credit: WANWISA HERNANDEZ / EYEEM//GETTY IMAGES https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a32615361/growing-cilantro/)
Cilantro
Cilantro is a well loved herb used for garnish in Mexican cuisine (and here in Texas too!). The plant itself is commonly called coriander (the leaves are what is known as cilantro). It is easy to grow, and the seeds are usually used ground up as a spice as well, what we commonly see on the shelves as ground coriander. In my interview, Ale describes her family having their own coriander plants that came from the seeds they would collect from the plants for generations. She claims that they didn’t taste different from other cilantro that she tried later down the road, but maintains that her mother felt they were special because they had been the same passed down in the family for decades. Cilantro has been described as having a soapy flavor to some (and a delicious flavor to others, like myself and Ale). Interestingly, the way individuals experience cilantro is actually related to a genetic smell-receptor that for some people, detects the scent of aldehydes that are present in the cilantro leaves(Petruzzello).
(Hibiscus- Image credit: Liz Godsey)
Hibiscus
The hibiscus is in the mallow family. The species of hibiscus used most commonly in medicine is the Hibiscus sabdariffa, although there are hundreds of species in the Hibiscus genus. Ale talks about using it to make delicious tea. She describes how her mother made the tea by using the dried flowers and some guava fruit, boiling them, and straining them so that it was just liquid remaining. In our interview, she claims that the hibiscus has a multitude of health benefits that include lowering blood sugar, something that is important to her in dealing with her families affliction with diabetes. I did some of my own research to confirm and found that in addition to being significantly beneficial in lowering blood sugar, hibiscus is high in antioxidants and also very useful in helping with the heart, kidneys, blood pressure, anemia, liver, cholesterol levels, and menstruation(Ayres). Talk about flower power! Ale reports that her family would get the dried flowers in the market that were imported from more tropical regions of Mexico. In San Antonio, she reports that you can find them at the Mexican supermarkets, and at HEB in the tea aisle.
Information about how to support migrant farm workers and the struggles they face:
Additional Sources:
Works Cited
“Aloe Vera.” National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, http://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/aloe-vera. Accessed 9 May 2023.
Ayres, Sass. “All about Hibiscus Flower: 14 Science-Backed Health Benefits & More.” Botany Culture, 23 July 2021, http://www.botanyculture.com/hibiscus-flower-health-benefits/.
Bjarnadottir, Adda. “Onions 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Effects.” Healthline, 13 Feb. 2023, http://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/onions#plant-compounds.
“Capsaicin: Health Benefits, Safety Information, Dosage, and More.” WebMD, http://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-capsaicin. Accessed 9 May 2023.
“Nopal Cactus: Benefits, Recipes, and Nutrition.” Medical News Today, http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320293. Accessed 9 May 2023.
Pacheco, Vanesa. “Does Chamomile Actually Lighten Black Hair? I Tried It out & Here’s What Happened – Photos.” Bustle, 11 May 2016, http://www.bustle.com/articles/154365-does-chamomile-actually-lighten-black-hair-i-tried-it-out-heres-what-happened-photos.
Petruzzello, Melissa. “Why Does Cilantro Taste like Soap to Some People?” Encyclopædia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people. Accessed 9 May 2023.
“Piedras Negras, Coahuila.” Wikipedia, 20 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedras_Negras,_Coahuila. Spicyexchange. “What Foods Have Capsaicin? It’s More than Just Peppers!” The Spicy Exchange, 7 Sept. 2022, spicyexchange.com/what-foods-have-capsaicin/.
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