Nourishing Baby
This project is centered on a cultural organizing process that seeks to document and disseminate some of the knowledge of people of the El Paso borderland in regards to the first year of life - with cultural wisdom, advice, and recipes that support families during this critical period of time.
Baby Teotl eating amaranth atole. Video courtesy of Sandra Iturbe.
Anthology Coming Soon
The culmination of this effort is a bilingual (English/Spanish) anthology titled: The First Year of Life: Recipes of Care from the Frontera / El primer año de vida: Recetas de cariño desde la frontera.
While many ‘baby books’ exist and there is an overabundance of ‘baby advice,’ a lot of what exists is underpinned by dominant western paradigms; there are few books on this topic that are rooted in cultural wisdom for people of Mexican heritage. Borderland dwellers have vibrant knowledge regards to physical, emotional, and spiritual care for families during the tender first year of life. This anthology uplifts the voices of local practitioners and ‘gente que sabe’ in a collection of essays, poetry, recipes and advice.
Contributors include Lety Knight, Nancy Lechuga, Nancy Lorenza Green, Gris Muñoz, Richard Yáñez, and Doña Ernestina Martinez, among many others.
Photo courtesy of Xipe Rivera
“[El nieto] es amado … una joya, una pluma preciosa… Florece.”— Códice Florentino, Libro 10
This project was launched with support of a Border Narrative Change grant from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and the Ford Foundation. The Border Futures Fund from the Center for Cultural Power supported its completion.