The San Miguel Gourmet closed on Sunday the 13th and it was a good success: the producers who came to exhibit and sell their products were happy about the event. Apparently many of them found new chains of distribution for their products, which was the main goal of the Fair.
The following week end I was invited to Chiapas by the Secretaria de Turismo.
In Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the state, there was an exhibition of organic products from Mexico and it was very important for me to go, so I accepted the invitation, even if I was still recovering from the enormous work of the San Miguel Gourmet.
I had never being to Chiapas, although it is one of the favorites for European tourism in Mexico. In fact, there is a funny situation that I noticed: here in San Miguel we deal only with a northern American tourism; in Chiapas it is the opposite. The only tourism is European.
So my trip, among the other goals, was oriented towards discovering why this dramatic difference.
As soon as I got there I was received by the Secretario de Turismo of the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, a beautiful colonial city
We had a great chat where we touched all the points of my research: we agreed that foreign tourism represents a catalyst for the development of projects for sustainable tourism in the field, particularly with indigenous communities.
We also mentioned the fact that San Cristobal, like San Miguel, has a relatively short tourist season, compared to the rest of the year and this has to change towards a tourism less massive, that has a smaller impact on the territory and generates jobs not only in the high season but in a more consistent way through out the year.
Then we were asked what we wanted to eat and I said I was interested in local food. Like in San Miguel it is very difficult to find good Mexican autoctonous food at late hours.
We ended up eating in a “Fonda” that had only tostadas… but so good!
It is interesting to see that two of the most important tourist places in Mexico have the same problems: a relatively short season and a lack of restaurants that serve real Mexican cuisine.
In both cities it is easy to find international cuisine, fusion and funny things like that, and it is difficult to eat good Mexican food. Why is it? I think that part of the reason is that the Mexicans still have difficulties recognizing the unicity of their culinary traditions: what seems obvious and normal to them has an unbelievable potential for the development of tourism. Mexico is the second country in the world for biodiversity and the foreigners who come look for expressions of that biodiversity, especially in food.
In our visit we saw very interesting realities, totally different from the Mexico we know in this area.
We went to see a church, San Juan Chamula where the indigenous traditions are still very strong: it is a valley with a big church in the middle with people praying in rare languages, and to strange gods. Catholic priests are not allowed in the church and all the rituals belong still to the indigenous traditions.
We also visited another community where a group of women make what they call artesanias very different from the local ones: the Chiapas arts and crafts are canvases they use for everyday life and not gadgets made up to suit the foreign market.
When you get to the house of these indigenous women they take you to their kitchen. Very different from what we call kitchen: it is a room where at the centre they light a fire. There is no chimney, so the smoke is strong and thick, and it goes out wherever it finds some exit. In their kitchen we were offered freshly made tortillas, beans, chorizo, and a beautiful hot sauce.
After the merienda we passed to see their arts and crafts. It is a fact that the breakfast inspired to buy their merchandize. We ended up spending some money, which is good because we brought home some beautiful materials from Chiapas, and by doing that we helped the local economy.
San Cristobal offers a very nice night life: many bars and restaurants with live music, and you can chose between salsa or music from the mountains of latin America; you can have little tapas, but also in that respect I must say I was expecting more quality.
It is interesting to see how the operators of the tourist industry at all levels are still missing the importance of developing their business towards the local cuisine.
The foreigners who come to mexico want to eat good Mexican food, which is so hard to find out of the country and paradoxically even in the country.
