This is Villa de Tamazulapan del Progreso,
a beautiful little village
in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca.
My village,
and the surrounding
154 villages of the region,
have a population of about 400,000 people.
For many centuries,
our culture has retained its mysticism,
rituals
and many culinary traditions.
And one of those culinary traditions
is our special connection with chocolate,
dating back 800 years.
Our ancient, indigenous communities
were among the first cultures in the world
to use chocolate
as a symbol for a social union.
This image was made
between the 13th century
and the early 16th century,
and it is part
of the “Zouche-Nuttall Codex.”
The codex is composed
of 47 painted deer skins,
all of which represent the history
of the Mixtec region.
There are many social dynamics
taking place in this picture,
which specifically showcases the marriage
between the Mixtec King and Queen.
And notice the cup
of hot chocolate between them
that they are sharing
to seal their marital bond.
This tradition is still alive today,
with chocolate front and center
during the most important events
of our communities,
like births, weddings and even funerals.
But even though Oaxaca
has a rich history of chocolate,
and even though people enjoy chocolate
all around the world,
ancient Mixtec traditions
around how to grow cocoa,
process it and prepare it
are fading away.
Mexico is considered
the cradle of chocolate,
but four out of five chocolates made
in Mexico are made with foreign cocoa.
Meanwhile, the average age
of a Mexican farmer is 63 years old.
So we need to train
a new generation of farmers
in order to keep our land fertile
and our crops alive.
I wanted
to do something about this,
and given that I truly believe
in preserving and spreading the wisdom
from indigenous communities
to modern life,
I turned my attention back
to Oaxaca’s rich history of chocolate.
And also, I wanted to try to support
economically in my region,
which has been considered
one of the poorest regions of Mexico.
So I teamed up with a tenacious
team of local people
to embrace our regional chocolate culture
and make it a sustainable industry
by its own right.
We call it Oaxacanita Chocolate,
and it’s unlike a mass-marketed
bar of chocolate.
That’s because we rescued
two native cocoa bean species.
We started by growing
20 trees on a rooftop,
and we’ve expanded
our tree growth to five towns,
cultivating 5,000
cocoa trees and counting,
with the help of professionals
like engineer Iván García,
who was a gardener in the United States
and has decided to come back
to his community
to be part of this taste movement.
We also talked with traditional
cooks of the region
to learn about the regional recipes.
There were many different ways
that their ancestors used
to prepare hot chocolate,
starting from how the cocoa beans
were roasted using clay comales
to the many methods
for stone grinding the paste.
And now with this ancestral knowledge,
we make a hot chocolate
that uses spices like cinnamon,
flavors like almonds
and less sugar than most people
are used to tasting,
and that is a faithful representation
for this millenary tradition.
This recipe creates a rich,
smooth, velvety flavor
that warms not only your heart,
but your soul.
And we, of course, wanted to engage
the very communities
whose wisdom and skills
have been passed down over generations,
but are in danger of disappearing.
Our employees are mostly women,
some of whom are having
their first financial opportunities
to support their families.
People like Doña Rocío,
who is our roast master,
and who already knows
the importance of tatemado,
which means over roasting
in traditional cuisine.
Over roasting allows the cocoa beans
to develop a stronger flavor
while enabling us to more easily clean
the husk off the bean.
And then there is Doña Maricruz,
whose knowledge about cocoa beans
has taught all of us
how to screen cocoa beans for quality,
classify the different varieties
and mix certain bean species together
to create subtle but distinctive
flavors in the chocolate.
And we engage in local artisans
to create our packaging
with sustainable materials
that they are already working with,
like woven baskets,
clay cups and molinillos.
Together, we cultivate
the cocoa from the trees,
produce the chocolate
and package the final product.
We started operations on a tiny scale
in an empty room
of my grandmother’s house.
In 2015, we sold
about 50 kilograms of chocolate.
By 2020, we sold
over 1,800 kilograms of chocolate,
and our work has been recognized
by the US government,
the International Youth Foundation
and Facebook,
leading us to be the first
Mexican chocolate company
to be awarded internationally
for social impact.
Working with a community
for a community has taught me
that we can simultaneously
preserve traditions,
economically boost the region,
employ people locally
and sell a delicious product
with a history that people
care about on a global scale.
That potential lies
in local communities around the world,
so let’s invest in our indigenous history.
That history is full of wisdom,
and who knows,
it may also be delicious.
Cheers.