Mexican Carnivals!

Presented by: Rocio Carvajal Food history writer, cook and author.

Episode 71

Carnivals are synonymous with good times, mind-blowing choreographies, music and spectacular costumes. But under that shiny surface, there’s a long, complex and utterly fascinating history.

Carnivals are a vehicle for the collective expression of a culture’s identity, history and creativity, which allows them to continue evolving as life-affirming acts.

This episode explores key aspects of the cultural history of carnivals and the common traits they share in Mexico and across Latin America.

Life is indeed a sequence of cycles and across history, cultures have created ways to mark endings and beginnings by marking these special moments as a community and I am thrilled and grateful to start another chapter for Pass the Chipotle podcast.

As part of my public engagement and education work, I offer lectures, talks and workshops about a wide range of topics related to Mexican culture and food traditions, and since these are mostly private events I thought It’d be nice to share part of that with you over the show. Earlier this year I offered a lecture about carnivals in Latin America and it was an amazing challenge to do a cross-section view of the commonalities that these expressions have in a continent that has so many diverse and rich cultures but is joined by a common historical thread which is our shared colonial past. The actual research for this lecture was a very powerful experience, as I found so much in the dozens of papers, books, interviews and articles, the challenges that we have faced in the long process of reaching out to our ancestral cultures and coming to terms with who we are today and who we aspire to become. And I decided then to revise my notes and dig deeper to write this episode that puts Mexico front and centre to explore the cultural, historical and artistic aspects of carnivals to create a rich approach for understanding the key components of these life-affirming acts we call carnivals.

While reading about the rise of carnivals performed by Mexican immigrants in the US I came across the work of Cinthya Santos Briones an interdisciplinary artist and anthropologist based in New York whose work left me speechless. It is deeply moving and poignant and a very important effort to dignify and champion the life and stories of immigrants. Pay her website a visit and check this article by her. And maybe, if you’re in the area you will be able to visit one of her future exhibitions, and if you do send photos!