You might remember as a kid chewing on mezquite pods for their sweet juicy pulp and spitting out the seeds. It wasn’t just a fun snack that my Great Grandfather once told me and my cousins about at Easter. There was the guilty pleasure of eating something from the ground without sickness or consequence. For the original indigenes of this land, the pods were a way of life.
Nearby Border Patrol agents were probably at a loss witnessing a June 6 ceremony on the banks of Chacon Creek as a group of nearly 50 turned in unison to each cardinal direction, shaking wooden rattles as native elder Joey Diaz De Leon blew into a conch shell whose sound resonated through the brush and over the Río Grande. He advised participants to ask the mezquite tree for permission to take its seeds. After a brief Mezquite 101 intro by Virginia Palacios, harvesters picked mature pods.
That event was the start of programming of the first annual Encuentro de Mezquite hosted by the Laredo Center for Urban Agriculture and Sustainability (“LCUAS”) and the Texas Indigenous Food Project. LCUAS runs the Canseco House gardens. After the June 6 hike, attendees met at Canseco House for a lesson about preparation of mezquite beans and a tasting of mezquite agua fresca and empanadas.
The Encuentro’s goal has been to introduce Laredoans to our ancient past and native food sources. When Don Tomás Sánchez founded Laredo in 1755 and established what was primarily a ranching community dedicated to livestock, he encountered indigenes like the Esto’k Gna, known as the Carrizo-Comecrudo. Across a large region of South Texas and Northern Mexico, they were not major cultivators of maiz, frijol, and calabaza like tribes farther south.
As noted by Saltillo professor Carlos Manuel Valdes in La Gente del Mezquite, they lived nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyles, traveling with the seasons to hunt bison and deer and to forage native plants like nopales and yucca flowers (Spanish Dagger). Their most nutritious staple food was mezquite beans pulverized into flour to make a mezquitamal, or atole.
The June 6 Encuentro attendees expressed surprise that we abandoned a food source that is gluten-free, high in protein, amino acids, and complex carbohydrates, with an aromatic sweetness despite its low-glycemic index. This unfortunate loss was a consequence of colonization, which sought to replace native ways with European practices for farming and ranching, a trend that has continued with today’s unsustainable development along the South Texas border. With our leaders now struggling to address critical water shortages, inflation, diabetes, and heart disease, perhaps our answers are with the people who were doing just fine here in health and harmony for over 10,000 years.
In collaboration with Monte Mucho Audubon Society, the Encuentro’s foraging hikes were followed by a meet-up and mezquite tasting on June 6 and 20.
A weekend-long festival that includes food, panels, vendors, and a deep dive into Laredo’s native past begins August 7 at 7 p.m. at Casa Ortiz with a Mezquite Workshop featuring Luna Vela and opening remarks by Maite Gómez-Rejón.
On August 8 at the Laredo Center for the Arts, Laredoans are invited to a Mercado de Mezquite from 9 a.m. to noon. From 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Maite Gómez-Rejón will deliver the Mezquitada’s keynote address, followed by a presentation by Lucille Contreras of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, other panels, and a luncheon.
La Pita Mangana Ranch is the site of an August 8 carne asada and barbacoa demonstration from 6 to 9 p.m. The Encuentro de Mezquite culminates on August 9 at La Pita Mangana Ranch with a barbacoa brunch from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
(Native Laredoan Ryan Cantú has 10 years of experience in civil litigation.He is on the board of the Laredo Film Society, and is currently under contract with Texas Tech University Press for a book about the culinary traditions of South Texas and Northeastern Mexico.)
