O contexto ritual da moagem de cacau em San Nicolás, Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, México

Abstract

San Nicolás is one of the old neighborhoods of Ixmiquilpan (Hidalgo, Mexico) that shares its traditional cuisine with the entire Mezquital Valley but stands out by its taste for champurrado (chocolate atole) and charape (pulque made from seeds and local fruits) on the days of its patronal feast. These two beverages are prepared in the context of an intense ritual that shows the integration between some elements of Mesoamerican religion and Catholicism. This article focuses on observing and analyzing cocoa grinding since some aspects have great relevance within the various food and ritual practices among the Otomi people of the Ixmiquilpan Valley. Cocoa grinding refers to an updating of traditional cuisine—to grinding as a ritual, to a bloodless sacrifice, to social reproduction, to the integration of the mechanism of reciprocity and donation, and to the closeness between cuisine and rituality around devotion to patron saints.