As most of you know, I endeavor to be respectful of other cultures. There are certain things, however, that for me are wrong regardless of how acceptable they may be in a given culture: genital mutilation, slavery, and corruption, to name a few.
Which leads me to an interesting cross-cultural situation I’ve been living recently. Two of my Mazatlecan girlfriends, while both still in their forties, are retiring very soon. I am sooo happy for them! They have both worked 20+ years in their careers and are fully vested in their pensions. They are both slated to receive a monthly stipend as well as ongoing, lifelong medical care. Hooray for their good fortune. And, interesting to me, both of them have “plazas” (“places,” “seats,” “positions,” or “jobs”) to give.
What does that mean, you might ask? Or, you may understand this practice better than me, in which case please help me learn! What I have learned from my girlfriends is that they each are able to give their plaza, or their “job,” to someone else.
My first example seems fairly straightforward. One of my girlfriends is fairly high-ranking in her government office. She is retiring, and she has a son who is about 20 and a bit lost. He’s dropped out of school a couple of times, he’s gotten in with the wrong crowd of friends, he has no idea what he wants to do with his life, though he is generally a good kid. She of course wants to help him in any way she can to make a success of his life. She has a plaza or job to give (sort of passing on her job to someone else when she retires), and she is giving that plaza to her son, who is now studying to receive his Bachelor’s degree (university). He will not literally step into her high-ranking position, but he will take an entry-level position in the office in which my friend worked, with a career path that will be similar to hers. Small business owners may dream of passing on their enterprises to their kids, but it’s nice to be able to gift your job to your child upon your retirement, don’t you think?
My other girlfriend is a public school teacher. None of her children want her plaza; they have other career aspirations. She has a neighbor whose mother died a couple of years ago from cancer. This young woman studied to be a teacher, but did really poorly on the qualifying tests. So, there’s pretty much no way that the young woman is going to be hired to teach, from what my friend tells me. Just as my girlfriend was ready for her last week of work, the young woman’s father approached my friend to ask if she’d please give his daughter her plaza. She agreed.
What this means is that, instead of retiring as planned, my friend is going to work 3-4 more months in order to have time to do all the necessary paperwork, so that she can give this young neighbor her plaza. Technically this is not “legal,” as I am told plazas should go to blood relatives only. But it is apparently very common practice. Many people, I’m told, even sell their plazas to the highest bidder.
I’m sorry. While I think it’s fantastic that my friend’s son can get a secure and well-paying government job, and I’m happy a young woman who’s lost her mother will be able to realize her dream of teaching, this plaza practice seems wrong to me. It seems a holdover from an earlier time. It doesn’t reward those who have studied and perform well. I do hope these two young people will thrive in their new roles and prove me wrong, prove that they were, after all, the best people for the positions.
In the meantime, I try to be as supportive a friend as I can be to my girlfriends. They have done their duty, and deserve to celebrate the completion of their careers. They have been told since early in their careers that gifting a plaza to one of their children would be a benefit of their jobs. They are players in a system that is larger than they are, a system I can hope will change to one more merit-based. We live in a world in which more people are educated and competent than in years past, when the system was perhaps first implemented.
The boys are excited! For 350 pesos (the equivalent of about US$30) we have court-side seats to see 20 NBA players up close and personal (intimate venue) this evening in the LoboDome.
Our state governor, Mario López Valdez, arranged for them to come down to Mazatlán to play an exhibition game while they are off the court in the US due to labor negotiations. The NBA stars signed autographs and were available for photos this morning on the malecón, and are planning to do so again this evening prior to the game. They also were kind enough to provide free clinics for children here yesterday and today.
For three days recently Mazatlán was blessed with a lot of laughter (normal here) and a whole lot of wonderful Thai cooking (a blessing), with fresh ingredients and a trained chef in a GORGEOUS old ocean-view home with honest-to-God incredibly wonderful women.
We have terrific food here, but, having lived for a decade in both Tokyo and San Francisco, we don’t have the international variety I would like. I CRAVE good Moroccan, Ethiopian, Indian, lamb shish-kabob, a good borscht …. Ironically, we do have a terrific local Thai restaurant, Zab Thai, where we eat every once in a while and for which we are very grateful.
Anyway, when six months ago my friend Indra told me she’d taken some Thai cooking classes in a friend’s home, I made sure she gave me all the info! I cook a lot of Asian food at home, but I was sure I’d learn something new, and I was eager to check out the classes.
The classes are taught by Lis Maiz Rochin, a Mexican woman who lived in Southeast Asia for years and runs the Mibong restaurant in the Condesa neighborhood of the DF. Her husband is Mazatleco, so fortunately for us Lis comes here regularly. Though I doubt she will visit us again in the heat of September! That’s her on the right in the photo with me.
I wasn’t able to attend all three classes, since I am a working woman, but I made two of them. Each time we prepared four dishes, and walked out of class stuffed!
What I Loved Most
So, what did I love most about these classes? FISH BALLS! They rocked! I was really shocked to realize that I love these little things, order them all the time when traveling, but I’ve never made them at home. And they are so easy! And the dipping sauce we made was exquisite.
I was so so so so very psyched to see fresh (it may have been packaged, I’m not sure, but whole, real not canned) BAMBOO SHOOTS. Oh how I loved these in Japan, eating them as if they were candy! I soooooo miss them. And Lis brought some, and used them with abandon in the foods we prepared. Gotta love it!
Bamboo grows in Mazatlán, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed this until we used it, but if you know where in town I can buy fresh bamboo shoots, please let me know.
Giant fresh GINGER ROOT! Now ginger root I can buy here, and I often do. But these were soooo much fresher than what I normally find here in town, and they were gigantic! I brought some of the class leftovers home, sliced it up, and put it in the freezer so I’d always have some on hand.
I also was sooooo excited to see a bag of sticky rice for the first time in forever! I was lucky to be able to bring home the remainder of this bag, at left, and I plan to do my best to get some shipped from Coyoacán to us here in Mazatlán.
And what did we make with this mochi-gome? Mango sticky rice, of course! Mmmmmhhh!!! Calorie-, sugar-, and fat-free of course (lol).
So, okay Dianne, you loved your nostalgic trip through some of the foods you miss from Japan, finally available in Mazatlán. Anything else?
Yes, Lis had the most beautiful, and practical, Thai wooden mortar and pestle, which she used for making salad dressing. Take a look; that’s the wooden bowl and pestle there at the rear of the photo.
The thing I most loved about this class, though, was that the women attending it were truly awesome. I crave girlfriends who have international interests and passions, who are creative and fun, and boy did I find it with this crew!
Left to right we are Magda, me, Chika (I am sooooo excited to meet a Japanese woman who lives here in Mazatlán!!! FINALLY!!!! Hooray!!!), Erika, Lis our teacher, Manina our hostess, and my friends Nancy and Conchita.
What I Learned
What did I learn in this class? Well, embarrassingly enough, I learned that when we cut lemongrass, we should only cut the center, white, heart of the stalk. I always wondered why the stalks were so hard to cut! Oops! I know that lemon grass (té de limón) also grows here in town, so if you know a source, would you please let me know? I’d love to grow some on my balcony beside my beloved basil plant.
While I’ve eaten a lot of Southeast Asian desserts in my day, I never realized the terrific combo of pairing light/sweet/slimy lychee or rambutan with crispy/strong/bitter fried shallot. Definitely an inspired pairing!
There were of course many things I learned, such as to always remove the green “sprout” in the center of a clove of garlic, if you find one, as it’s bitter. One last learning that really stands out for me, though, is the cool cutter Lis had. I WANT ONE! Mis primas-hermanas or beloved sister-cousins: when I visit Indiana to see you in October please let’s find and buy a few of these. I promised the ladies here I’d try. Why is it so cool? Well…..
Look what it does! You can julienne mango or carrots or whatever, in the same quick and easy way you peel them! Gotta get me one of these gizmos.
Thanks for reading my post! I welcome your comments and especially your local ingredient and supply sources. You all, of course, know about Toyo Foods, up the right-side-fork of the street above Club Navy, next to the pescadería. They are a godsend.
We had a FANTASTIC afternoon and evening learning about shrimping with a cast net/atarraya in the estuaries of Agua Verde, which is between Caimanero and El Rosario. We returned home with heartfelt smiles, new friends, 5 kilos of huge fresh shrimp (for which we paid about 7 bucks), a bunch of fresh crab (which our new fishermen friends gave us for free), and a bucketload of end-of-season mangoes ($4 for a crate full). ¡¡Viva Sinaloa y los Sinaloenses!!!!!!
We set out late Saturday afternoon with our compadres, Jorge and Silvia, to attend the first annual “Festival de la Frasca.” While Jorge told me “frasca” is not a word, and that I surely must be trying to say “zafra” or “open season,” local people tell us it is a southern Sinaloan term meaning “to capture shrimp from the estuary.”
The Festival de la Frasca was supposed to be a food fest with live music. But as usual they were running late setting up, and before we could really get into the party we found much more exciting things calling us.
Just one month ago we had driven this very same road, but shrimp season is now open, and it was an even more wonderful place! I HIGHLY recommend you visit during shrimping season! While the season lasts 6 months, the first few weeks are supposedly the best, as the shrimp and the shrimpers are the most plentiful.
As we drove in we saw men with cast nets (atarrayas) everywhere. Though mango season has finished, it is now the height of the shrimping season, and they have already planted tomatoes. After tomato season will come chile season, and so goes the year here.
Shrimp season is huge. We were told that opening day is like Carnaval—wall-to-wall people everywhere, with families fishing, picnicking and partying all night long. Family members come from all over the region back to Caimanero and Agua Verde to help with the shrimping, and to perform their obligations under the cooperativa(to work a minimum of so many hours and to capture a minimum of so many kilos). Women and children hang out with the fishermen, so it feels like life transfers from town to the estuary during this time.
Beside the road that just two weeks ago looked so very different we saw little houses or shelters, many of them housing the shrimpers. A standard shelter like the one shown here has one or two lights powered by a propane tank, a plastic shelter for rain, chairs, a way to cook (usually a fire pit), a radio and a cell phone. As you can see, they sit just off the road. Can you imagine spending the night there with cars, trucks, and motorcycles coming by a few feet away from you all night?
We greeted one of these guys, Rodolfo, at one of the stands, and he urged us to pull over and join him. So we did. The night crew, including Marco (who lives in Mazatlán but returns home for shrimp season), his 8 year old son and his 17 year old nephew, plus one other man, were just pulling up as we arrived.
Rodolfo proceeded to feed us a whole mess of fresh crab and shrimp, beside the road, in the fresh breeze, looking out over the estuary. La vida dura. While I well know, from living in Japan, how to crack open a fresh crab, scrape out the lungs, and eat the juicy brain and meat, this fisherman really enjoyed teaching us, and my comadre, Silvia, really enjoyed learning.
Here we also ate shrimp crudo with salt and lime (my all-time favorite—huge prawns, still wiggling; oh yum!), but he also cooked some for Silvia in a pot of broth.
We stayed here about an hour, chatting, feasting and just generally relaxing. We bought our first few kilos of shrimp, as well as receiving a huge bagful of cooked crab.
There were also many changueros, who we’ve heard about since arriving in Mazatlán, but this was the first time we met a few. They are estuary shrimpers who are not members of a cooperativa. They catch shrimp but legally are not supposed to be doing so. Many of the changueros used purina (shrimp chow) to get the shrimp up to the surface. None of the cooperativa fishermen we met used purina. They were very proud to explain to us that their shrimp were the purest.
Below is a video of one shrimper casting a net, and his wife helping him take out the shrimp and put them into a bucket.
After getting back in the car, we made the rounds of several cooperativas. At the first one the view was spectacular.
Rodrigo, a man we met there, sold us some more live shrimp. At left is his photo, and below a video of some of the shrimp wishing they could run away.
We had arrived here just in time for sunset. The sky and the water glowed. People were all so friendly, open and hospitable that it was amazing. Everyone was eager to talk, to explain this long Sinaloan shrimping tradition, and to share their catch of the day with us. To me this frasca tradition is soooo important; it’s Sinaloa’s history, and the if not some of the best shrimp in the world. And tons of it are harvested BY HAND here each year and shipped worldwide. I know such shrimping used to happen right here in Mazatlán; even next to Hotel Playa was an estuary (no wonder Zona Dorada floods).
The fishermen brought out packets of salt, fresh limes and bottles of salsa, and urged us to eat from their catch to our hearts’ content. Alfresco dining overlooking the estuary with friendly, happy, relaxed, knowledgable people; it was a wonderful afternoon. Every boy we met knew how to cast a net. They seem to start as young as seven or eight.
“Girls just wanna have fun…”
We also sat here for quite a long time, again feasting on raw shrimp (no cooked ones this time), and watching the guys cast their nets in the scenic little harbor.
The video below shows a guy casting his net from a panga, so you can see that as well as the earth-bound approach shown above.
The pangas or small fishing boats go out with two guys normally, one remero or rower, and one atarrayero or net caster. Most of the estuary is only hip- or waist-deep, so the remero carries a long stick or remo and basically pushes the panga along, similar to the movement of the gondolas in Venice.
Below is a short clip of the gentleman at left rowing.
There are various cooperativas to which the shrimpers belong. This drive out to one of them was really something — estuary on either side of the road, with loads of lit pangas all around.
Below is a video, so you can get a better feel for this road-with-water-on-both-sides drive.
After visiting some very cool places and meeting lots of wonderful people, we ended up spending another couple of hours sitting with Marco and his family. It was so peaceful there, and so very pleasant. Excuse the poorer quality of the photos from here on. The batteries on our camera died, so the remaining photos are taken with our phone.
On the way out we stopped at one last cooperative, this one the largest we’d seen. Here they had a large building or warehouse, surrounded by dozens of pangasfishing. Families were sitting and standing everywhere, waiting for their husbands, fathers, boyfriends and brothers to come in with their catch.
A semi-truck full of ice was waiting nearby.
A group of men with a scale and ledgers was registering incoming shrimp.
After dipping the bins full of shrimp into ice water, they placed the bins in the refrigerated truck where they are covered with ice and then taken to Mazatlán for sorting, packing and export.
It was at this last cooperative that we also saw our youngest atarrayero, this boy of about eight, at left.
We kept telling our friends that this was an otro mundo, or other world, that most guests in Mazatlán don’t know anything about or understand. We learned a lot about how the cooperativas function and about the life of a shrimper. We all got to eat live shrimp and enjoy some great company. The festival probably happened, but we know we had a lot more fun hanging out with our friends and meeting new ones. We already have plans to go back. We will definitely go opening night next year for the carnaval de cameron, and will head out some month just before the full moon when the really large shrimp are said to be much more plentiful and easier to catch. To be able to find Rodolfo and Marco’s shelter, we put their spot into our GPS and got their cell phone number. Stay tuned.
Mazatlán has so very many terrific aspects, but one of our absolute favorites is the music. Live music. Whether it be a single bohemio with guitar strolling past, a world-class symphony or opera in the Angela Peralta, a norteña on the beach, or a complete live band, we trust this enjoyable aspect of life here in our port will never fade!!
We are fortunate to have compadres y comadres we’ve known for over 30 years, and we love to enjoy a “quiet” Sunday afternoon of fresh fish, seafood and, of course, beers for the adults, together with them. One recent Sunday the “boys” started outdoing each other (God bless machismo, a veces), and before the afternoon was over they had hired three separate bands to play for us for hours. Here is a taste.
This first clip above is an instrumental, by the house band that played first for us that Sunday. The name of the song is “Tecateando,” but as we live in the home of Grupo Modelo, we prefer to call it “Pacifiqueando.” Enjoy! You’ll see the signs around for zarandeado, fresh oysters… We have terrific seafood here. You’ll also get a taste of the gorgeous weather we enjoy.
The second clip, above, I post as a tribute to the lead singer. In this one he’s singing Chuy Lizárraga’s popular song, “La Peinada.”
This third clip is of our second band of the day, a smaller norteña group. You can see how difficult it is to relax here, lol…
And, as always, the best for last: El Tololoche Chicoteado! By now things have warmed up, food has been eaten, and beer has been imbibed. This third group had a drummer who took the bass player’s place to dance with the bass, as you’ll see. Once he finished, the bass player decided he wasn’t so elderly after all, and he could dance and jump with his bass as well as the drummer could. It made for a terrific culmination to the day.
When you come to Mazatlán to visit, we know you’ll LOVE our músicos. If you live here, please, please help support our local live music scene! I’ll finish this post with a photo of a cubeta from a typical Sunday afternoon here:
¡VidaMaz! 