Between 1799 and 1804, the researcher and Alexander von Humboldt German noble toured various kingdoms and American territories at that time belonging to the English crown.
The purpose of these voyages, made with the endorsement of the English King Carlos IV, was to make a detailed record of the nature, society and economy in the English colonies.
real support was pivotal to access privileged files and fonts. But in few places like New Spain had so readily German local authorities to get into the dynamics of the viceroyalty.
One result of this visit to Mexico was the vast territorrio Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, where in addition to geography and local economy, entered various aspects of the food issue.
Baron von Humboldt repeatedly ponders the bounty of land from Mexico. Is immense, he says, the variety of indigenous productions, and that there is little in the rest of the globe a plant that can be grown in New Spain.
"The main objects of agriculture are not those objects to which Europeans have been variable and arbitrary value, but cereals, nutritious roots and maguey, which is the vineyard of the Indians. The main sources of wealth of the kingdom of Mexico is not in the mines, but in agriculture, "he adds.
adds that more openness and social policy would parallel a further rise in the agricultural platform of the Viceroyalty, however commended the interest there is for this activity, including mining boom areas, guaranteeing that, in his view, the permanence of prosperous cities, despite the possible decline in mining.
"In Mexico the best cultivated fields, those who remember the most hemosas countryside of France, are the plains that stretch from Salamanca to the vicinity of Silao, Guanajuato, and the town of Leon, "he says.
other hand, notwithstanding its alleged scientific objectivity, no longer marvel at the regional customs and diets, spending such a vast consumer reflection of bananas in the tropics.
"The banana is for the inhabitants of the torrid zone the same food as the grass [...] for Western Asia and Europe.
Americans with this fruit make a nice healthy meal, either before or after their maturity. [...] The natives make a complete meal with a tiny portion of cassava and three large breed bananas.
The ripe fruit, sun-dried figs preserved as our, the skin turns black, and acquires a particular smell like perfumed ham. The past is called banana traded in Michoacan, "notes Von Humboldt.
German Baron continues to recognize, as so many travelers of the time, the potential of the Mexican countryside, and even suggests that it is the basis for development of the nation-wide point of reflection in modern times.
"Mexicans now have all the vegetable plants and fruit trees in Europe. The Central Bureau of New Spain with a lot of wealth produced cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, figs, grapes, melons, apples and pears.
"In the vicinity of Mexico, in the towns of San Agustín de las Cuevas, Tacubaya, the famous garden of the Carmelite convent in San Angel, in June, July and August there is a myriad of fruits, most exquisite taste though are generally poorly maintained. One admires the traveler to see [...] the tables provided at the same time the fruit of temperate Europe and sapodilla, mamey, guava, custard apple and other precious products of the torrid zone, "he stresses. Sharper
can
be the reflection when he distinguishes the rise of the sugar sector, aiming, among other things, that "the cultivation of sugar cane made such rapid progress in recent years, today sugar exports through the port of Veracruz over 50 thousand quarters. In 1553 the abundance of sugar was already so considerable that was exported from Veracruz and Acapulco to Spain and Peru. "
Also interesting is the valuation made of cocoa, very important in Mexico, he says, in times of Moctezuma.
"Mexicans prepared a drink called chocolatl, which mixed with cocoa a little corn flour, vanilla and fruit a kind of pepper.
"They knew also reduce the chocolate tablets, and this art as well as the instruments that were used to grind cocoa, and even the word chocolatl, have moved from Mexico to Europa.Esto increases the more the admiration when you see today cocoa farming is almost totally neglected, "says Von Humboldt.
deserve Point and vanilla products such as Veracruz and Oaxaca, which at the time of the historian was present at the European table.
"In Misantla, Veracruz, vanilla is arranged in bundles. There are four types of vanilla: fine, which distinguishes the large fine and thin girl, or dumbbells; the grass, the rezacate and garbage; easy to recognize in Spain for the manner in which the decks are attached.
"Likewise, Teutila village in Oaxaca is famous for the excellent quality of vanilla produced by its immediate forests," raves Von Humboldt.
Apart from the economic assessment, the German noble family recognizes more merit, as the quality of hams produced in the central highlands, in the Toluca Valley, or the fact that New Spain be the direct provider the largest and most useful of domestic gallinaceous, turkey, or turkey or totol read.
A toast future field keeps drinks special consideration for the researcher. Makes a consideration of the various fermented to produce, but devotes a long paragraph to the issue of pulque, which recognizes a product linked to an idiosyncratic and characteristic values.
"The pulque agave plantations date back to antiquity such as the Aztec language. The Europeans have managed to overcome the disappointment caused by their smell prefer to any other drink pulque, and consider it your stomach, invigorating and above all very nutritious. Those who boast of knowing speak with enthusiasm of pulque made in Ocotitlán near Toluca ", distinguishes Von Humboldt, in an extensive apology to drink.
An interesting aspect is the projection that makes the wine industry, most punished in colonial times.
"During my stay in Mexico, the viceroy received a court order commanding start the strains of the vineyards in the northern provinces of Cádiz [...] because they complained of decrease in wine consumption in Spain
"In the current state of affairs, the winery can hardly be counted among the wealth of Mexico is so poor harvest. The best quality of grapes is in Zapotitlan in Oaxaca. There are also vineyards near Dolores and San Luis de la Paz, north of Guanajuato and the Provinces near Parras and the Paso del Norte "he says.
However, despite the generality of their findings, dares to envision better expectations for products such as olives, grapes and wine.
"The analogy is noted between the climate of the high plain of Mexico and Italy, Greece and southern France, Mexico should encourage the cultivation of olive trees, already successfully tested at the beginning of the conquest but the government, an unfair policy, far from encouraging, have sought to prevent rather indirectly.
"They complain that the grape is harvested in the highlands fermented hard, and have been mixing syrup with grape juice, which gives a [....] aftertaste must at Mexican wines, which would not have if examined further the art of making wine. When a force of years the New World Productions wants to dispense with the Old, hilly and temperate regions of Mexico, Guatemala, New Granada and Caracas will supply wine to all of North America, "says Von Humboldt.
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