We Eat Minerals

LIME (TENEXTLI) Calcium oxide

“this was the service given to emperor Moctezuma by the Tlaxcaltecas or from Tlaxcala, Cholula and Huejotzingo. Even though they were not exactly tributary, they brought among other things loads of lime or tenextli”.

From the burnt stone of lime, quick-lime is gotten which in water and settled is essential for preparing nixtamal (corn paste for tortillas), atoles (thick drinks) and tamales (a dish made of corn). The proportion used for nixtamal is two spoons of lime dissolved in two liters of water for one kilo of corn.

A thin layer of lime dissolved in water is put on new clay comales (round plates) to prevent tortillas from sticking on it. The same lime water is spread on the outside of clay pots which allow liquids to go through.


SALT, ITZAL. Sodium chloride

Sea salt was luxurious among the Aztecs, that is why only nobles used it. Moctezuma got it as a tribute from the people from Ocuila who delivered two thousand bassoons with salt every eighty days.

Nowadays, salt is still a luxury in many native communities which are located in hard access places; among the Tarahumaras for example. In Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, small salt tamales are made, mixed with ash, to be eaten by the traveling. Ash or neztli, settled in water is a part of the preparation of many dishes and drinks. It is also used as an antidote against scorpion’s bites because it contains vegetal alkali; the same effect can be gotten by drinking tequesquite water which contains mineral álkali.


TEQUESQUITE, TEQUIXQUITL. Sodium chloride and carbonate

Saltpeter or efflorescent salt appears in dry seasons on abandoned ground by lake waters of the Mexican Valley. The natives of Ixtapalapa controlled this salt’s business, who according to its quality, classified it in espumilla, confitillo, cascarilla and polvillo. Poor natives used tequesquite instead of salt and some of them still consider it essential in the preparation of some dishes, especially to soften beans and cook nopales and vegetables, so they keep their natural color.

Tequesquite can be used as a yeast. This condiment is prepared for that matter: ten transparent green tomato skins and one stone of tequezquite are boiled in one cup of water; once the stone has been dissolved and the water has boiled once, it is retired from the fire and allowed to settle. When it is cold it is strained and is incorporated to any dough to be fluffed up.
To make vinegar, tequesquite is added to pulque (fermented juice of maguey plant), putting it on the fire but making sure it does not boil. It is taken off from the fire and is left to be fermented for two or three days.


EARTH BREAD

“They used a ceremony, usually in all this land, men and women, boys and girls, that when they entered a place where there were images of idols, one or many of them, they touched the ground with one finger and put it in their mouth or on their tongue. They called this eating earth, which they did as a reverence to their gods”.

“They used to make the oath of doing something they obligated themselves to. They demanded them to make an oath, to be sure of their word, and the oath was done like this: For the life of the Sun and the life of our lady Earth, I won’t fail to what I said, and to be more sure I eat this earth. They touched the earth with their fingers and put them in their mouth and licked them, that way they ate earth, making an oath”.

In order to end with this custom, certain laws were established during the Viceroyship. In Huehuetlan, near Soconusco, Chiapas people used to eat so much soil that the authorities said in 1625: “due to the disorder caused by the native’s eating soil from their youth to their oldness,(…) I demand that no male or female native eats soil, not in a small or big amount (…) justice will be done when in this town’s gibbet, fifty whips are given to them the first time and one hundred for the others (…) the one who does it twice will not have republic office for four years, from the day he committed it and was punished. And if he was a principal, he will have to be at the people’s service.

Despite the prohibitions, eating earth still has an important ritual sense. In the sanctuary of Nuestra Seņora de San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, they mould soil from the well to make some rectangular breads with the image of the virgin or the temple engraved on them. Some of them are colored and people take them as souvenirs to remember their visit. Others are left “natural” and people buy them to be eaten little by little when they want to allay their pain or cure diseases. In the sanctuary of Seņor del Santo Entierro in Caracuaro, Michoacan, limestone with a pink color is sold, which is believed to have similar qualities. In the sanctuary of the black Christ of Esquipulas earth breads are bought to be eaten by pregnant women, who also bite small pieces of scented clay in order to satisfy the “fancy” they feel for eating soil. It is said that if they ate common earth, the child they are expecting would become an “earth eating child”.