Today, Susan studied at the apron of the Master.
After we finished early in the NPH clinic, she decided to
offer assistance at the tortilla hut.
Like most others – a building of brick and tile, located near the center
of the Ranch – the tortilla hut stands out only by its adjacent, open-air,
wood-fired, smoke-belching black cauldron……
and by its delicious and enticing fragrance.
Doña Gloria directs the daily orchestration of stoking the
fire, boiling the thick, yellow maize, adding the lye, and stirring with her
squat wooden baton until the kernels are softened to her exacting
standard.
The second movement brings large amounts of the boiled
concoction through a funnel/grinder apparatus, to produce the malleable, doughy
masa, which finds itself formed into uniform, flat discs by the hand-cranked
“tortillero”.
At the large, black stovetop, Doña Gloria performs her grand
finale of cooking the tortillas to a spottily-browned, slightly crisp
perfection. Her spatula effortlessly flips
and rearranges the notes on her page, while towers of finished product rise to
her right. Her accompanist shuttles the
aromatic, freshly-made tortillas to a large, draped washbasin, used to
transport the precious contents to the insulated termos, and then on to the
hogars for lunch. Spectators are graced
with samples that – with a pinch of salt in the smoky tortilla air – complete
the experience of ecstasy.
While the floor of her chamber is swept, and the instruments
are cleaned for another day’s performance, Doña Gloria sits and wipes her damp
brow. With the face of someone much
younger than her 69 years, her smile reveals a sense of satisfaction and
accomplishment. A stout and solid woman,
her dimensions trend toward those of her perfectly-round works of art. Hands grown strong and tough through years of
hard work smooth back feathery gray hair beneath a well-worn baseball cap. Work is finished until starting up again before
tomorrow’s dawn.
*The Stavinohas have now temporarily returned
to the US. Appearing in Neighbors Far
Away will be essays from their previous visits to NPH Honduras.
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