Food for community

Every year for many years the people of Milpa Alta, Mexico, have prepared a feast in the week before Christmas. Sixty thousand tamales and 15,000 litres of hot chocolate are made in less than a week. The feast is called La Rejunta and is made for pilgrims preparing for the long walk to the holy cave of El Señor de Chalma on January 3rd. The people responsible for organising La Rejunta are called the majordomos. It’s an honour to be chosen and so many people want to do it that the waiting list is full until 2046. Tradition is important to the Milpa Alta people. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat, and vegetables needed as ingredients for the meal. And a year before the event, the men go to the forest and collect wood that they pile up high near the home of the majordomo so that it will be properly dried before it’s used for open-air cooking. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez. "There is an infinity of things to do," Virginia Meza Torres says firmly, as if to indicate there is no time to talk. Eating together is perhaps the most important example. "In my experience, there is a glue, a bonding, that comes from the time together at the table," says Josefina García Jiménez. ."It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when it comes to their turn to be adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them." When the day of La Rejunta arrives, the volunteers have been up all night, though no one admits to feeling tired. After a 14-year wait, and a full year of preparation, it’s almost time for Fermin and Virginia to hand over responsibility to the next majordomos.