What Were The Effects Of The Tortilla Mechanization In Mexico? (Essay Sample)

Discussion post 2 Name Institutional Affiliation Prior to the mechanization of tortilla, the process of making it required long hours of grinding maize in which people had to kneel on the ground in front of a metate. Between the 1920s and the 1930s, the mechanization as well as the urban industrialization of food production helped transform the entire process through the introduction of automatic tortilla makers and the use of masa harina. The complex skills that were required to make tortillas were mechanized in three main stages that evolved over an interval of 50 years starting from the early 20th century. The difficult work of hand grinding corn using the metate was first replaced by forged steel (Wilk, 2006). This was followed by the technology for automatically pressing out and cooking tortillas. This second stage of mechanization of the tortilla made it possible for small-scale tortilla factories to spread across Mexico. The final stage of mechanization involved industrial production of masa harina which facilitated the vertical integration of food processing under Grupo Maseca (Wilk, 2006). Replacing the metate with mechanical mills helped free a significant portion of rural women from a grueling daily chore. According to Pilcher (1998), it came to represent, for many, the emancipating dream of the Mexican Revolution. The introduction of corn mills also played a significant role in exposing peasant farmers to the market forces. As such, the mechanization of tortilla helped incorporate peasants into the national economy. It also resulted in greater involvement of male workers in the tortilla making process. To a greater extent, the tradition of sharing recipes in Mexico was oral. Bower (1997) argues that the oral tradition might be the reason why Mexican cooking readily uses experimentation and also incorporates hybrid approaches and ingredients, bringing together the European and the indigenous “in a culinary outcry of freedom against the limitation of the written rules.” Recipe books have a relatively short history in the country and it was not until the 19th century that community cookbooks became popular. According to Bower (1997) they became a fashionable expression of culinary artistry as well as a determination to asocial Mexican nationalism and European elitism at that time. The late 19th century cookbooks that were written after the Second World War promoted Indian foods as a symbol of the Mexican nation. These cookbooks emerged out of the community works that came up at the turn of the century. Through social gatherings, women were able to share family recipes which were then developed into properly organized cooking classes. Those who were able to become successful teachers availed recipes to women magazines and also went ahead to public their own cookbooks. Through their cookbooks, such women were able come up with a distinct cuisine that appealed to the middle-class Mexican national identity. Through the cookbooks, cultural icons such as charro horsemen, mariachi music and indigenista murals were promoted as the original representations of lo mexicano, thereby helped forge a national consensus (Joseph, et al., 2001). The Mexican cuisine today still exhibit a considerable amount of Mexican tradition and history. The cuisine has, in the past few years, gained significant recognition across the wo...