{"id":568,"date":"2014-08-08T19:42:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pachamamitaecu-org-720647.hostingersite.com\/2014\/08\/08\/recuperando-la-memoria-alimenticia-de-las-abuelas\/"},"modified":"2023-03-02T06:21:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T06:21:38","slug":"recuperando-la-memoria-alimenticia-de-las-abuelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pachamamitaecu.org\/en\/2014\/08\/08\/recovering-the-nutritional-memory-of-grandmothers\/","title":{"rendered":"Recovering the nutritional memory of grandmothers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By:<\/span>Jose Fabara-Rojas <\/span>cucuyo@rocketmail.com<\/a><\/span>

Have you seen how people travel on the bus? Asleep! At any time, in the morning, in the afternoon. And it's because they don't eat well" - that's how my grandmother Martha began the conversation, one afternoon when I was <\/span>\u201cNobody takes the time to prepare food properly anymore, now they only like those meals ready to heat up in the microwave, or those cheap hamburgers and pizzas,\u201d he continued tirelessly. \u201cThey are no longer interested in cooking, they have neither the time nor the desire, the kids don\u2019t know how to make a good soup, and even less a good stir-fry,\u201d he concluded.<\/span><\/div>\n

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From that conversation came the idea of sitting next to my grandmothers, and listening patiently and lovingly to everything they could tell me about food, from its preparation and culinary secrets, to the oral culture that surrounds the mysterious space that is the kitchen. <\/span><\/div>\n

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I thought, grandmothers know so much about the subject, and we can't lose that knowledge. And so for a few weeks, together with Karla Mu\u00f1oz, we visited several women, our grandmothers, grandmothers of friends. Sometimes we just talked (actually we mostly listened), and with each one of them the experience was fascinating, it was like traveling to the past, through time, imagining. Each one felt like a queen, a very important person, and no wonder, since their knowledge and memories are spectacular. Grandmothers know the reason for things. Mothers teach you that a broth should be made in a certain way, but grandmothers tell you why it should be made that way, what it implies and what results you will get. And that is a big difference.<\/div>\n
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Sometimes they let us into their private world, into their kitchen. There, among anecdotes, jokes, and secrets, we could observe every detail of their individual way of including the ingredients, since for them there are no measurements, there is only their memory and the recollection of what they have been doing all their lives. The work is complex, not at all simple, and requires a lot of time, which is why Grandma Martha said that she does not understand how they dare to say that housework, in the kitchen, is easy. \u201cIf the health of the whole family is also in our hands!\u201d They are aware of the responsibility they have in their hands.<\/div>\n
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The hours spent with the grandmothers have become moments and experiences that are difficult to describe. It was very nice to achieve an intimate relationship for a few minutes, and in that way to travel and share together what we have always wanted. <\/div>\n
How wonderful is the relationship between humans and their food. Making a collection of recipes was just a pretext, an excuse to transport us to the magical world of cooking, and to rescue its essence. <\/div>\n
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The fruit of our work, that inexact sum of ingredients and portions, we want to make available to those people who do not want to live in a world where that inheritance that belongs to us by right and identity, but that we are losing through sheer carelessness, no longer exists. With this we also seek to inspire them and give themselves time to let themselves be carried away by food and surrender to the act of CREATING for themselves. <\/div>\n
FEED.<\/div>\n
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Below are two recipes that come from those moments:<\/div>\n
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