Indigenous food panel reminds listeners to stay connected to ancestral roots

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) hosted an Indigenous food panel with L.A. chef Poncho Martinez from Poncho's Tlayudas, anthropologist chef and educator Dr. Claudia Serrato and Chef Diana Davila from Chicago’s Mi Tocaya. 

The panel was centered around their relationship with Indigenous food, and how they grew up with different but similar experiences that allowed them to learn about their Indigenous ancestral food and ingredients. In the panel, the chefs discussed their relationship with Indigenous food systems and the evolution of Mexican and Latin cuisines. The panel was taped virtually and moderated by James Beard award-winning writer Bill Esparza. 

Brenda Castillo from NHMC opened the panel by talking about her experience of growing up in Boyle Heights and eating Mexican food. Castillo said, “80% of Mexican food uses Indigenous ingredients or techniques.” 

Dr. Claudia Serrato, anthropologist, chef and educator at California State University, Dominguez Hills, was born and raised in East Los Angeles. Her family comes from Michoacan, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas. 

“As a youth, we ate a lot of cactus, a lot of tortilla, a lot of frijol,” Serrato said. She later began to question what role other foods that have in our health are considered Mexican food but were introduced later in the cuisine like chicken, pork and beef. 

“What is it about Mexican food that’s causing this?” she said. “How is my body occupied?” 

She realized that the roots of Mexican cuisine did not have the colonial foods like chicken, pork, beef, wheat and sugar, because these ingredients came from Europe. So she began a journey to decolonize her food.

Chef Diana Davila from Chicago antojería Mi Tocaya also learned about food at an early age. 

“Food is very important in Mexican culture,” Davila said. Her family loved cooking and she spent many summers in San Luis Potosi. She remembers going to the market with her grandmother and her aunt to purchase ingredients for  the meal for the day. 

Martinez is from Santo Domingo Albarradas in Oaxaca and is a traditional Zapoteco chef. Growing up in Oaxaca, his relationship with Indigenous food was from birth,  learning to have a relationship with food, learning how to cook and then sharing that knowledge in Los Angeles.