Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Semi-Squatting in Alamos: Chiltepin, Scorpions and Vaqueros


After a short respite in San Carlos by the sea, we went in search of more chiltepin in the areas around Alamos - a small town in the hills of Sonora. This colonial pueblo was a prominent mining center during the 1800s, and shortly after the revolution, the town was the capital of the Western Province of Mexico, a huge state that includes most of present day Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua. The colonial buildings have been mostly preserved (largely by the zillions of gringo retirees that have moved here since the 1950s) and the city is one of Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos – 20 towns that are considered important for their historical value and representation of the era. This was the setting in which we began the next stage of the wild chile quest…

Not 15 minutes into town, we tracked down the home/store of a family who buys and sells chiltepin (referred to us by another conctact who had worked in the area previously). Cold calling in a way, we showed up, were invited to have a chat on the porch, and it turned out that la familia Hurtado was indeed willing and able to help us to get oriented and refer us to someone who could guide us into the hills around the city to hunt for the wild chiltepin plants themselves. In addition, rather than paying for a luxury gringo hotel, Don Oracio Hurtado and his wife Lupe suggested that we could stay, for a minimal price, in the vacant apartment next door (owned by extended family of theirs). At the time, this seemed like a great idea. We “camped” on the bare concrete floors, tried to ignore the various six and eight legged residents and joked that this must be what it is like to be a squatter.

Over the next few days we headed north each morning on dusty roads into the lands of the Guaijiro, one of the smallest of the 7 indigenous tribes of Sonora. The Guaijiro pick and harvest chiltepin during this time of year to supplement their cattle-based/small farm incomes. At each little town that we came to we were told that , oh yes, there are chiltepin in these mountains, but they’re not near here, they’re “mas alla” - with emphatic gestures to the mountains further to the north. Poco a poco, with various guides on different days, we managed to collect samples from nearly 30 plants – some of which were 4 hours from Alamos, accessed by a one-lane-rock-strewn-goat-trail.

During our last days in Alamos, the doctor working in one of the small towns that we passed got wind of our presence and insisted that we stop to share lunch with him and his family at his house on our way out. We had a great meal – the main course was a mutton stew, with potatoes and ancho chiles. Unfortunately, macaroni and mayonnaise (somehow now a part of cuisine “tipico” here) raised their ugly heads and soured H’s gut. However, the conversation regarding rural health and development was quite fascinating. To end our successful Alamos visit, we were greeted with a number of wild animal sightings at dusk as we returned to town.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

The Cult of Chiltepine - in AZ and Sonora

Last Saturday, I went to the Tumacacori Mountains in Arizona , with T., a postdoc at the University of Washington, to visit his field site - the Wild Chile Botanical Reserve. In this extreme landscape, filled with cacti, brambles, mesquite and hackberry, we hiked into arroyos and found chiltepin plants in the shade of trees and rocks. The plants were totally laden with fruit, as the area had been subject to an unsually strong summer monsoon season and since this was a "reserve" and relatively unknown, there was no one harvesting the fruits. On the high plateaus, where there was little drainage, we didn't encounter many chiles - but this was a different story in the small drainages, where we would often find 5 or 6 individuals within a short distance of each other. I sampled about 20 plants overall and left with the promise of more seeds from T., should I need them...

A couple of days later, in the Valle de Rio Sonora, where the local baseball team is called "The Chiltepineros" and no meal complete without some of the red, round BB sized fruit at the table, Heather and I followed the hand drawn map to the small town of Mazocahui, where we found the infamous Luis selling chiltepin on the curve depicted on the yellow piece of legal pad. Luis was thrilled that someone sent us his way and that we were here to learn about chiltepin in the area. Chiltepin is sold by the side of the road, sold by volume, at about 10 dollars a liter. This is a real bargain compared to the 5 dollars for an ounce I paid in Tuscon! This time of year, folks are out the in the hills, collecting the fruit, drying them and selling them. For many people, this is a significant portion of their yearly income and a good harvest can bring some disposable income to the family. The following day, Luis led us through the landscape of Mazocahui as we collected the fruit of 25+ plants from the river bottom of the Rio Sonora to the slopes of the range that line the valley below. These plants were fairly similar compared to the population in Arizona - except for one plant, which had orange fruit. We're heading to Alamos to continue our quest...