Friends
First of all, thank you for continuing to walk with me on this journey. I have exciting news to share.
Today! April 6 Virtual Screening and Discussion - Short Documentary Series
After a 2-week marathon, hosting screenings in the territory of origin of this project - Manabí, Ecuador - today we will virtually screen this new series of three short films about traditional dishes made in and by students and women experts of Calceta. The videos were born out of a workshop on ethnographic documentary that Alejandra Zambrano and I taught there with the support of an award from the Líneas de Fomento del Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural (National Heritage Institute).
We will show the short films: El bollo de Dolores, El rompope de Angélica and La tonga de Olivia (subtitled in English), via Facebook live at Comidas que Curan. Next we will have a conversation with the project and film crew moderated by our gracious host Vanessa Villegas, creator of the podcast Carreta de Recetas.
7 pm - Ecuador, Mexico and CST (USA) time
Live broadcast here: facebook.com/comidasquecuran.org
Also I encourage you to subscribe and turn on notifications for our YouTube channel here to be the first to know when we publish these three videos—soon!
Butter-Podcasts
Please listen to the beautiful conversation I had with Javier Carrera about nutrition and food traditions in an episode of Radio Semilla, the Seed Guardians Network’s podcast. It was an honor for me to be invited to participate in one of my favorite podcasts, a true school of knowledge and experiences on how to live well.
Listen here https://linktr.ee/radiosemillapodcast
Much of our conversation dealt with the topic of animal fats vs. industrial vegetable fats, the misinformation that circulates about them, and how it has deprived us for decades from benefiting from the nutritional and healing value of such meaningful foods as coconut or butter. It's a topic very close to my ♡ and it was what moved me to make the documentary Raspando coco.
A month ago, after giving a series of workshops on healthy eating habits, with Kichwa women in a rural community called Guangaje, in the Ecuadorian highlands, my interest was reactivated, this time around butter. I was shocked to see how in a rural, peasant population, in such need of solutions to severe nutritional deficiencies and related conditions, such as skin problems, a remedy as ancient and effective for these ailments as butter, is unknown.
At the request of the participants, mothers of young children, I went to Latacunga, a nearby town, to look for butter to show them, but all I found for sale in the stores and supermarkets were refined oils, vegetable spreads and margarines. It is worth noting that in Latacunga and the entire province of Cotopaxi there are large companies distributing dairy products throughout the country. It seemed unheard of, but I was not surprised, as this is very similar to the story I gathered related to coconut in Esmeraldas.
I invite you to listen to the following episode of Carreta de Recetas Podcast with Vanessa Villegas, where she narrates the story and prejudices that butter has endured, a highly nutritious, healing, sacred and culturally significant food in human history. This is another one of my all-time favorite podcasts, I recommend listening to all of the episodes. I say the episodes are free classes in anthropology and food history.
Butter, a survivor and writing as therapy - https://carretaderecetas.com/la-mantequilla-una-sobreviviente-y-la-escritura-como-terapia/
I'll save more news for the next newsletter. I hope to see you tonight on our Facebook.
With (buttered) love and gratitude,
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