02x03 - Oaxaca, Mexico

[bunniefuu]

People say I have a very strong character.

That I'm very demanding,

proud,

independent.

I think they're absolutely right.

So I'm always

kind of particular about the way
I do things.

I can't change.

I don't want to.

One must be strong...

to survive.

In Oaxaca, every day is a celebration.

It's where you dance, you toast to life,
you drink mezcal,

and it's where you find
the most profound flavors in Mexico.

Oaxaca is magical.

We have incredible biodiversity,

a variety of indigenous cultures,

salsas and moles
you can't find anywhere else.

All that comes together to make
the best street food in the country.

Memelas...

tlayudas...

tamales...

piedrazos...

and aguas frescas.

Empanadas stuffed with delicious moles.

Oaxaca is rich.

The Central de Abastos market, for me,

is the most beautiful place in the city

due to the number of aromas
and flavors you find there.

The Central de Abastos
is where you find

the best product, the best quality,
the best price.

There's a great variety of food.

And that's where you find Doña Vale.

She is amazing,

and she sells memelas,

one of the tastiest
and most symbolic dishes in Oaxaca.

A memela is a slightly
thicker than normal tortilla

cooked on both sides,

normally dressed with lard.

Many places add cheese,
and that's a traditional memela.

Three and three? Two, two in the meantime.

But what sets Doña Vale apart
is her morita chili salsa.

The salsa plays the most important role.

The simplest thing in the world,
but it's something so rich in flavor.

It's incredible.

Tomatillo, tomato?

She's a Oaxacan lady who represents

the entire working class.

She's the boss.

Work makes me happy.

It gives me peace.

It's the exercise, the movement,
the people.

It energizes me.

In my stall, I do everything.

I've tried working with others,

but I don't have the patience.

My personality comes from my dad.

He was hard-working,

grumpy,

but affectionate, just like me.

My parents were farmers in a small town.

They grew corn, potatoes, beans, peas.

We made a living from that.

REGIONAL MILL

-Good morning. Is the grinder ready?
-Yes.

I had eight brothers

and six sisters.

I was responsible for making meals

for my younger siblings...

getting them ready for school
and doing the laundry.

When my mom made tortillas,

I had fun.

I played with the masa,

and I made memelas.

They were, like, my toys.

-Thank you.
-Have a nice day.

I liked making memelas.

The roots of our cuisine
are built mainly on corn.

It's the basis of our diet,

and a gift from Mother Earth to Oaxacans.

We eat it...

and we drink it.

From it came the tamales, tortillas,
and empanadas

that are so exquisite and famous
in Oaxaca.

This place is a family tradition.

It was founded
by my great-grandmother in 1965.

And I've been in charge of the business
for over 20 years.

Ever since I was a kid,
I wanted to help my grandmother

make empanadas de amarillo.

It's very traditional,
especially here in Oaxaca.

Mole amarillo is an indigenous sauce
that's enriched with corn and chilies.

It's called "yellow mole"
because the original recipe

calls for yellow costeño pepper,
which left a subtle color.

Now it's made with all kinds of chilies.

So the color varies.

I prepare my mole amarillo

with guajillo chili, tomato,

garlic, onions, a few spices, and,
above all,

hoja de hierba santa,
which dominates the flavor.

Our recipes have remained the same

to preserve the tradition and flavor.

I have customers

who started coming here as kids,

and now they come with their own kids.

I have a 25 year old daughter.

When she sees I can't do it anymore,

she'll continue the tradition.

Life on the farm
was very beautiful and simple.

Can you please weigh my chocolate now?

I was 24 years old

when my life completely changed.

We were all out planting corn

when we saw a fire at the house.

We all tried to put it out,

but it grew worse.

There was nothing we could do.

The fire wiped our house clean
off the land.

It left us without clothing, without food.

We had to leave.

We came to Oaxaca with nothing.

When we first arrived in Oaxaca,
it was very hard

because I had no idea how to work
in a city.

And I missed our farm.

For your table, buddy.

A quarter of enchilada,
and a quarter of chorizo.

I was able to find a job
at the 20 de Noviembre Market,

washing dishes.

That's where I met a man from Mitla.

He was small and skinny.

Good afternoon,
can I have mole without rice, please?

He invited me to eat with him;
I said, "No."

I'd never had a boyfriend,

but he wouldn't take no for an answer.

He came to my house and spoke to my dad.

Dad said, "Of course, go with him."

The next day, I left.

At night,

Oaxacans live to party and celebrate.

And for the people who go out to party,

the tlayuda is the perfect way

to end the night.

A tlayuda is a big, thin tortilla

that holds everything you could want.

In the streets of Oaxaca,
especially downtown,

they are folded and toasted
directly over coals.

They're sold with steak,
chorizo, and seasoned pork.

La Chinita's stall is packed with people

who go out partying
and come back to eat tlayudas.

It's really famous in Oaxaca.

I started this business out of necessity.

My husband died in an accident.

I had four kids, and I said,

"Well, how will I make money?" Right?

I had to find a way to move forward.

Nobody taught me how to make tlayudas.

I'd prepare them at home for my children,

and I liked them.

So I thought other people
would like them too.

It didn't take long, thank God,
before I was very well-known.

A tlayuda is dressed with lard,

and then we add bean paste.

Later, we add cheese and salsa.

We have customers who say,

"Chinita, I'll take you to Los Angeles
so you can prepare and sell your tlayudas.

I'll take you."

But these same customers
don't want us to leave this corner.

So it's best if they come to Oaxaca
to eat a traditional meal

at Tlayudas La Chinita.

I went to Mitla to live with my boyfriend.

We lived together for a short time,

like four months.

But I didn't like it.

He didn't take any initiative.

He wasn't looking for a job.

Then, I discovered

I was pregnant.

I didn't know what to do.

I went to church alone to think.

I thanked God

because I wanted a baby girl.

But I felt like I didn't have the patience
for a partner.

I wanted my freedom.

That's when I decided to live alone,

working to support my daughter.

He understood.

So I went back home,

pregnant with my daughter.

My dad didn't like it.

I was heavily criticized.

He wouldn't talk to me.

It was hard.

But I had already decided...

how I wanted to live.

The day I had my daughter
was so beautiful.

I was so happy that she was born healthy.

I hoped she'd grow up different
than I had,

that she would go to school,

and that she would have an easier life.

-Three kilograms.
-Yes, ma'am.

But that whole first year

I couldn't find a job.

No one would hire me with my daughter

because being a single mom
was not the norm.

But I needed to work
to support my daughter.

So I did what I could.

I started washing sheets
in a hotel at night.

In the morning, I'd go to the market
with my baby to buy fruit

and then sold it on the street.

I always felt bad
because it just wasn't enough.

One day, I was cooking at home.

My mom put a little bit of masa
in my hands.

I felt like a kid again,

making memelas by my mother's side...

with tomatoes, garlic, lard, and cheese.

That's when I decided what I would do.

I would sell memelas in the market.

My mom said,

"Leave your daughter at home,
and I'll take care of her."

So I took everything I had

and rented a little stall
at the Central de Abastos market.

-The piedrazo is very good, Doña Aurora.
-I'm glad you liked it.

You put some chili in my sauce.
Were you angry?

No, I was calm.

A piedrazo is toasted bread
soaked in vinegar.

You can add cheese or chili salt.

Here's the first one.

It's a tasty treat for us, Oaxaqueños.

Piedrazos are our specialty.

They used to be sold at schools
here in Oaxaca.

They used to be made
with only bread, salt, and salsa.

Nowadays, you also add potatoes, onions,

carrots, cheese, salt, and salsa.

We make the vinegar from pineapple,

apples, plantain peels,
water, and raw cane sugar.

You leave it for a month
and it turns into vinegar.

We make aguas frescas
the way our grandmothers taught us.

We have horchata with prickly pear...

figleaf gourd...

and peach.

That's our specialty.

It's a tradition to gather at that place

to enjoy those drinks and piedrazos.

And enjoying that taste of childhood
is something marvelous.

When I opened my small business...

I only had 100 pesos to start out.

I bought one kilogram of corn,

but I didn't have enough money for plates.

So I used plantain leaves as plates.

I'd wash them

and that's how I would serve the food.

I started selling memelas
at 20 cents each.

The other merchants were not happy
with me there.

They didn't want competition.

They got jealous and angry.

They didn't want a challenge
from a new vendor.

They wanted me to leave...

so they dumped garbage
in front of my stall.

It was hard because I wasn't used to that.

I was all alone.

I didn't know if I had the strength
to do it.

But I'm stubborn...

and independent.

I couldn't give them the satisfaction
of quitting.

I had to get through it...

for my daughter.

But to succeed,
I had to make something unique.

In my mind,

those early memelas weren't good enough.

I needed something else,

something special.

I had ideas because

the dried chili vendor in front of me

kept dropping chilies
when he was packing up.

I needed them, he didn't.

I picked them up, washed them well,
and put them to use.

With lots of garlic

and tomatillos,

I discovered a way to make a salsa
with those dried chilies.

An invention.

It had a real flavor...

of Oaxaca.

It's a salsa that's smokier
than it is spicy.

It has a certain sweetness.

It's so simple,

but hard to recreate.

Here's another one.

From the first day people started
telling me the salsa was very good.

More and more people
started asking for it.

So my business started to grow.

Tomatillo?

People really liked my salsa.

If I didn't make it, they'd ask,

"What happened to the sauce?"

Then, the chefs came.

They started to talk about me,

and they put me in a book.

People recognize her.
They're inspired by her sauce.

When I started appearing on Facebook,

some customers said, "You're famous!"

I had no clue.

I sell, clean up, and cook again.

People have come from India,
from New York.

They come from Canada.

I tell them, "My mortars and I,
we went international."

She simply became

a symbol
of the Central de Abastos market.

Let me do it.

She represents something so traditional,
so rich and comforting...

which is what gives Oaxacans
their strength...

and our pride.

The desire to always be in control

and to put out the best you have...

means sacrificing absolutely everything...

unconditionally.

It's always noble, always from the heart.

Nothing in the world can make her fail.

I've been selling memelas
for almost 35 years now,

and I still feel strong.

And it's beautiful to remember
what I lived through.

I became this person
due to all that effort.

I'm very happy because my daughter
was able to go to school...

and to live a better life.

And now I have a grandson.

My daughter doesn't try to stop me
from working.

She knows I won't listen to her.

I'll always do what I feel like doing.

I can't change.