PSA

There is a silent killer in the serene fields and bustling cities of Mexico. This killer does its work without regard to its victim's age or size or anything. This killer seems sort of harmless, but is actually heartless.

This killer is nixtamalization.

"Oh, sure," you say, "whatever." Or maybe what you say, because you are not jaded, is "What is nixtamalization?"

I'm so glad you asked! This is nixtamalization:

Anyway, it's whatever fucked up thing that many people in the world do to corn to make it "digestible" and increase the protein content. I guess this is important to folks who eat many tortillas. A funny sidenote: some American students, I think public health folks, did some popular health education with communities here in Mexico and informed them of how many tortillas each person should eat per meal: 3--this is hilarious information for the Mexicans. Silly Americans!

Nixtamalization hates me and I hate it. Mostly it hurts my tummy and so I've chosen to boycott, yes! boycott! the nixtamal. I've mostly been eating toast lately, a product of this boycott and also a constant stomachache. At least I don't have the green apple quickstep like some people. But yesterday when I spoke to my uncle Dario on the phone, I complained about how I missed that most holy of corn products, the arepa, and he asked if I could just buy the right flour and make my own. When I explained that the Mexicans do this terrible thing to all the corn he paused, probably contemplating the gravity of what I was telling him. "How sad," he finally said.

So onward, til the 22nd when I gorge myself on every fresh corn product ever made.

Things are okay, work is good, I'll put up more Oaxaca photos later!