150 Tortillas

Bournemouth 23rd July 2017

Six days and counting down, I have agreed to participate with MILPA in a little festival in Bournemouth, I am happy I agreed and I am so looking forward to it. 100 plain tortillas will be handmade as well as 50 with spinach, some dishes to fill up the tacos and 50 bags of corn biscuits, my favorites with coffee and my father’s in law with tea.

The art of making tortillas is wonderful, I am starting to understand why the Señoras (ladies) who make them in Mexico always seem very happy near the heat of the comal (round flat grille)...

Any thoughts of worries in life seem to disappear while the corn dough is been molded in a small ball in the palms of your hands. Squeeze them with the tortilla machine until it is flat will take you to another dimension, the comal is burning hot and ready to receive the raw tortilla, the only worry in your head is to place it properly, be very careful to do not bend it, that will ruin it! Also, be very careful with your hands, they are just millimetres from burning on the hot comal; and then finally, carefully place it, a tortilla has born! The hot comal commences to cook it, turn it around and wait for the hit that will, perhaps, if you are lucky, make the tortilla soufflé… which in this case and according to Mexican women means that you are ready to get married…

The pile of tortillas grows and grows, the temptation is enormous, grab one and put it into your watery mouth that generates saliva to the smell of the recently fresh tortillas coming out the comal is getting too much to handle; the ones that are cooking need immediate attention, the temptation is constantly poking you but passing the cooked ones to a basket is leaving spaces in the comal to be filled for new ones… impossible to be quick enough to eat one while cooking them… patience is a virtue, here is just a fact, there is not another option but wait; and the risk of getting burn, the risk of spoiling the rhythm of the whole tortilla production is a risk that is not worthy to take or it is?;

I am delighted and proud of being a “tortillera” (woman who makes tortillas) I am enjoying so much with MILPA, besides one of the perks of being tortillera it is that although even if it is at the end and right there when the anticipation of having a tortilla in your mouth is at its highest moment, finally comes this fantastic reward, the tasty freshly made tortilla melts in your mouth and you feel in each bite that is taking you the MILPA, cornfields where the corn is born, fields that are exposed to glorious sun shines and shower with fresh water and the smell of wet earth and the inevitable desire to smile comes to your face: happiness!