tradition

In San Pablito, Puebla, they still make paper the old-fashioned way – from bark (video)

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In San Pablito, a small village in Puebla, in southeast Mexico, the centuries-old tradition of amate paper — paper made from bark — is an important part of the local economy. It also used to part of the resistance to Spanish colonial rule.

Culture Trip explains:

Mas…In San Pablito, Puebla, they still make paper the old-fashioned way – from bark (video)

WATCH: Mexicans + African-Americans + Gabachos: Mississipi ❤️ ‘hot tamales’

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First, Mexicans from just over the border brought tamales to the fertile Mississippi Delta. African-Americans soon realized the Mexicans had a good thing going in these little, corn-husk-wrapped magical meat pies.

And, sure enough, area whites realized the masa miracles weren’t just for people of color anymore. And that’s why Mississippi loves tamales.

Yes, we know proper Spanish means it is one tamal, two tamales. But we’re not proper Spanish speakers or proper anything, actually.

This one family has been making piñatas for 50 years (video)

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On the outskirts of Mexico City, over 50 years ago, a family began making and selling piñatas to the local community. Nowadays, the whole town is involved. The Piñata King takes a look inside the life of this town, and the head of the family who started it all.

First Person True Story: My Holiday at the Laundromat

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Happy holidays to all.

Turkey, ham, tamales, eggnog y todo, this is the time of the year where you put a lot of stuff “on hold” till next year, while we get together with familia and friends. It’s a beautiful time of the year, where putting something on the back burner for awhile isn’t such a bad idea.

Some things, however, can’t be procrastinated upon, lest other problems be incurred. Keeping oneself in clean clothes is one of them.

Mas…First Person True Story: My Holiday at the Laundromat

Viva Manteca! Lard: It’s what’s for dinner (and trendy oils cause cancer)

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Hey, Millennials, you need more lard in your diet. And beef tallow. What? Animal fats are good for you and trendy oils can cause cancer!

That’s the pitch from Coast Packing Company which we found by following Ernest Miller’s Tweet up there ^^^ with the tacos.

Here’s a screencap featuring manteca and tacos from their website (click on the image to embiggen):

Mas…Viva Manteca! Lard: It’s what’s for dinner (and trendy oils cause cancer)

Latino USA: If You Give a Toddler a Tortilla (NPR audio)

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She just wants to prepare some home made flour tortillas with her baby girl just like she did with her own mom. What’s the big deal?

NPR’s LatinoUSA explains:

April Salazar longs to make her Grandma Alice’s tortillas with her daughter. It is the same tortilla recipe her grandmother’s mother made in Baja California and later in Tucson, Arizona, after she fled the Mexican Revolution. There’s just one problem: she needs the stars to align… and the cooperation of her two-year-old daughter.

Mas…Latino USA: If You Give a Toddler a Tortilla (NPR audio)

The Pocho Ocho craziest cosas we found in our 2017 Rosca de Reyes

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Rosca-de-reyes-mexToday is Three Kings Day, Dia de Los Reyes Magos, AKA Epiphany, the day when Los Tres Reyes dropped by the manger to gift up the original Anchor Baby, El Baby Jesus.

Check out the Pocho Ocho Craziest Things we found in the Rosca de Reyes here at the POCHO world headquarters:

8. Rosca’s Chicken and Waffles

7. Rockettes seeking asylum

6. 300-puund Яusski hacker

Mas…The Pocho Ocho craziest cosas we found in our 2017 Rosca de Reyes

Tia Lencha: What pochos need to know about El Dia de Los Muertos

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Happy Day of the Dead! Is Tia Lencha here. Many people ask me questions about Dia de Los Muertos. I answer the questions today.

Question numero one: Tia Lencha wass this Dia de los Muertos? Is it the Mexican Halloween?
Gwell, kind of, I say. Except that the Day of the Dead celebrations come from the indigenous pagan rituals that trace back 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. Way before Duane Reade sold Halloween candy.

Question numero two: Tia Lencha, wassup with the calaveras (“skulls” for you pochos)?
Bueno, before Jesus came along, people used to keep skulls of their loved ones (and maybe not so loved ones) as trophies. They showed off the skulls during the rituals as symbols of death and rebirth. Kind of heavy, no? I never say my history was all tequila shots and tacos.

Also, calaveras can be short poems, like epitaphs like to mock your friends. Like you can make fun of them on their tombstones. Like for mijo’s daddy, I wrote a calavera about him call “Oscar Meyer” because he like to stick his weenie ebrywhere! He no think it was so funny.

Mas…Tia Lencha: What pochos need to know about El Dia de Los Muertos

Pocho Ocho Top Ways to Decolonize Your Diet

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corn-maizDecolonizing your diet is more than a trendy Chicanx meme, it’s a book, and a chingon idea.

If you want to just say “No!” to the comida of the Conquistadors and eat what Tlaloc intended — the authentic food of your ancestors — here are the Pocho Ocho Top Ways to Decolonize Your Diet:

8. Take the milk out of chocolate and put the chile back in

7. Honor the Aztecs and eat more of Moctezuma’s gold

6. Chihuahua on a stick

Mas…Pocho Ocho Top Ways to Decolonize Your Diet

Kosher for Passover nachos, and rice and beans (video, audio)

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The Jewish celebration of Passover is a week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, or “matzo” in Hebrew. Most Jews stick to matzo and avoid regular bread, wheat products, rice, corn, and beans. This may change, though, since an 800-year-old religious ban on rice and beans was just overturned.

Ingenious cooks over the centuries have found ways to make the most of matzo, by using sheets of softened matzo in place of lasagna noodles, for example, or transforming matzo crumbs into soup dumplings — so-called matzo balls. But what if you want a spicier treat, like nachos? Not to worry! This video from NBC’s TODAY SHOW has the recipe.

The rabbis’ rice and beans reprieve made NPR’s Maria Godoy a happy Hispanic:

Mas…Kosher for Passover nachos, and rice and beans (video, audio)