Notes on Chapter Three
EL PUEBLO QUE FUIMOS
"THE PEOPLE WE WERE"
Isaac Rogel

 

A selection of Mexican sweet breads.

Notes on Chapter 3 "El canasto de pan"

(1)  The "bolillo", the little round crusty bread roll often served in "classier" Mexican restaurants is familiar to many tourists.  Some (including me) say it is about the best bread roll in the world.  The rest of the breads described are mostly different shapes of sweet bread, and there's no way to describe them in English.  You'll just have to go south and try them.

(2)  In the official Catholic church calendar, November 1 is All Saints' Day, and November 2 is All Souls' Day.  Mexicans, being more interested in death than in saints [read Octavio Paz's classic Labyrinth of Solitude] have conflated the two: November 1 is for those who died as children, November 2 for those who died as adults.  These are two very important days for Mexicans.  You can read more about "El día de los muertos" here.

(3)  Marigolds in Mexico are traditionally associated with death.  You won't find many marigolds in a Mexican patio.

(4)  Ajonjolí is a Mexican herb for which there is no exact equivalent in North American cookery.

(5)  Naguales are witches, and the name suggests that the myth of naguales was handed down from the ancient Indians.

(6)  "Bracero" comes from brazo (arm), and can be literally translated as something like "arm user".  The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines bracero as "Jornalero no especializado, que emigra, a veces temporalmente, a otro país" (a non-specialized day laborer who emigrates, sometimes temporarily, to another country).   The Royal Spanish Academy is accepted by most Spanish-speakers as the final arbiter of proper usage of the Spanish language.  The Royal Academy's website is here.

The "bracero" program was started in 1942 to alleviate the shortage of farm labor in the U.S. caused by World War II, and ended in 1964.  You can read a lot more about the bracero program here.

(7)  Finca has many meanings in Spanish from country to country.  As in the story it can mean something like a big farm, or "estate". In many parts of South America it means a "country house" (i.e., a place to get away from the city), although the finca may be little more than a shack.

(8)  Defender and defenderse are cognates, and usually mean just what you'd think they mean.  There is another often heard meaning which may strike you as a bit strange: Se defiende bien en español = "He speaks Spanish quite well.

(9)  Here is a mistake English speakers learning Spanish:often make  using parientes to mean parents (it's actual meaning is "relatives").  This works both ways; many a Spanish-speaker learning English has innocently asked "Do you live with your fathers?"

(10) El otro lado, without further clarification (el otro lado del río, etc.) means to most Mexicans the United States.

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More of the myriad types and shapes of Mexican breads.

 

An American bakery and bread delivery truck of the approximate period when Cenobio was proudly delivering bread from a truck.