Hugh Carpenter - Mexican Flavors - Contemporary Recipes from Camp San Miguel

OTHER BOOKS
BY HUGH CARPENTER
AND TERI SANDISON

Pacific Flavors
Chopstix
Fusion Food Cookbook
Hot Wok
Hot Chicken
Hot Pasta
Hot Barbecue
Hot Vegetables
Quick Cooking with Pacific Flavors
Great Ribs
Fast Appetizers
Wok Fast
Fast Entres
Fast Fish
The Great Wings Cookbook

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JOHN CHADBURN MCDONALD, AKA JOHNNY MAC
SEPTEMBER 17, 1982OCTOBER 25, 2006
NEPHEW, SON, BROTHER, FRIEND, CHEF
BON SERVICE

O ur history of San Miguel de Allende begins with the missionary activities of Franciscan Father Juan de San Miguel in 1542 and stretches for centuries along the route from Guanajuato to Mexico City. When Father Juan arrived in this area to build his first conversion chapel at San Miguel Viejo, he was hoping to attract the previously nomadic local Indians (called Chicimecas by their more sophisticated peers, the Aztecs who had made their capital south, in Mexico City) and the Otomi Indians. Over several hundred years, many chapels were built for the Indians, mostly along a route that stretches roughly from the great pyramid site (now called Caada de la Virgen) to the ritual hot springs at Atotonilco, where the Jesuit Father Alfaro (Padre Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro) built his magnificent church starting in 1740, right on top of the Indians sacred springs, in hopes that they would join the new faith. Father Alfaro employed a skilled Indian painter called Pocasangre (Antonio Martinez de Pocasangre) to bring the entire New Testament to life through detailed murals on the walls of his glorious edifice. And he finally succeeded in converting many.

The ritual dances of the Indian cultures are taught to the youngest San Miguel residents.

City founder Father Juan de San Miguels image is still evident in several of the town squares.

During the 1600s, San Miguel had become a successful merchant town serving the silver mining industry, which thrived in the area of Guanajuato. The route, which later would bring independence fighters to battle in Guanajuato, brought the silver traders on the way to Queretero, Mexico City, and beyond to Europe. In the year 1700, 90 percent of the silver mined in the world came from one mine: the Valenciana mine in Guanajuato. The great families of San Miguel, such as the Allendes, the Canals, and the .

The colonial government allowed these Spanish-blooded families to prosper, but they could not participate in the highest levels of the colonial government or armed forces if they had not been born in Spain. A huge level of resentment was generated against the overarching colonial government of Spain. The independence movement had been successful in the United States in 1776, and there were many ongoing movements for self-government throughout Latin America during the early 1800s. In the San Miguel area, an unlikely coalition developed among the terribly overworked laborers, mostly Indians and mestizos (mixed race); their supporters, the Catholic clergy; and the Creoles (criollos, or full-blooded Spaniards born in Mexico).

By the year 1810, centuries of grievances produced a secret conspiracy of independence planners. The clandestine meetings were held at the house of the sub-governor of Queretero and his wife, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, in Queretero. Their plan was to attack the Spanish barracks in Guanajuato in October 1810, but word leaked out to the Spanish. An adrenal-charged group of rebel leaders, including General Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama, gathered the few men they could in San Miguel, and went to Dolores to meet up with their co-conspirator, Father Hidalgo (Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costillo), a Jesuit priest. On the morning of September 16, 1810, Father Hidalgo made his famous call for liberty, El Gritode Dolores (The Cry of Dolores), on the steps of the main church, his church, in the center of town. Then the small group of independence fighters marched on throughout the area to gather men. They stopped at the Church of Atotonilco (Santuario de Atotonilco), where Father Hidalgo grabbed a banner with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe), beloved to the common people, who listened to Hidalgos call for liberty and justice. Hundreds of men joined the ranks in Atotonilco because they had been attending a spiritual retreat there.

The Parroquia church in the center of San Miguel.

A statue of a leader of the independence movement, Father Hidalgo.

This first independence army, mostly on foot and armed with machetes, clubs, slingshots, and bows and arrows, continued to gather fighters. They finally reached the mountainous city of Guanajuato, home of the Valenciana silver mine.

The Spanish soldiers had, of course, been warned of the coming insurrection and had moved with their families into the fortified granary (alhndiga) building in the center of the city. From this strategic location, they were able to fire their rifles from the rooftops down on the freedom fighters. Machetes and rocks were useless weapons in this situation.

A very strong and brave Indian miner, called simply Pipila, strapped a slab of stone onto his back for protection and took a flaming torch up to the great wooden doors of the granary. He successfully ignited the doors, and soon the first legendary battle for independence from Spain was won by the AllendeHidalgo coalition of insurgents. All of these brave early leaders were eventually killed during the ten long years of the independence movement, but their energy lives on.

We visualize this history when we enjoy a musical performance in the main plaza, El Jardin, in front of the Allende family home; when we drive along the route to Atotonilco to enjoy a gourmet lunch or folk-art shopping; or continue on to Dolores Hidalgo for a few pieces of their famous Talavera-style pottery (an industry founded by the revolutionary priest Father Hidalgo). The legendary figures and places introduced here are still exerting a magnetic presence today along these historic roads.

M exican Flavors does for Mexican cooking what our cookbook