Young Women Preserve Yucatecan Culinary Heritage

Mérida, Yucatán — Despite the proliferation of restaurants with innovative options and fusions between local, national, and international gastronomy in Yucatán, traditional cuisine remains present in the daily life of communities, and increasingly more generations interested in its preservation are emerging.

One example is Gladys Collí, a young cook originally from the municipality of Santa Elena, who together with the team from Aldea Maya Xa’anil Naj promotes the consumption of foods prepared with ancestral techniques inherited for decades.

“Our purpose is to preserve what our family, our mothers, grandmothers… transmit to us; it is to give value to our roots, our identity. They (the ancestors) maintain what is the originality of the dishes, their knowledge that comes from generation to generation,” shares Gladys Collí.

Collí was part of the group of traditional cooks who participated in the Comprehensive Tourism Training and Competitiveness Program, led by the Secretariat of Tourism Development (Sefotur), which aims to provide the tools to offer a better experience to visitors.

Under that concept, Gladys Collí highlights that traditional cuisine is a great attraction of Yucatán that tourists should not miss, but it is important that they know from the origins and not only the new proposals.

“That is the difference; in the communities we do not function exactly like a restaurant. We offer traditional cuisine where people can even get to know the Mayan house, how people live in a hut, daily life, our customs, traditions, and all the interpretation of these.”

Just 15 minutes from the Uxmal archaeological zone, the team of traditional cooks from Aldea Maya Xa’anil Naj invites people to try chicken pibil or relleno negro, a dish that takes them three days to prepare.

“The seasoning is made from scratch; we use metates, molcajetes, hand mills, and in this case, in the preparation of relleno negro, it takes three days to finish the dish.”

Now, Gladys Collí assures, the mission is to spread this enthusiasm to the next generations, who are already being invited to help in food preparation so that they do it with the same vocation to avoid the loss of traditional cuisine.