Documentation of traditional foods and agrobiodiversity of the Rarámuri (Chihuahua, Mexico) by means of videos: pinole and esquiate derived from maize (Zea mays)

Due to alterations in the way of life of the Rarámuri and to the current school dynamics in the Sierra Tarahumara, large numbers of children live in boarding schools which serve industrialized meals based upon industrialized ingredients and only have contact with their families during weekends or vacation. This situation produces cultural changes in the food habits of children because the institutional meals contrast from their traditional diet that, upon returning home, they dislike and even spurn. As a consequence, the Rarámuri NGO, NATIKA, solicited us to document the preparation of some traditional foods so as to raise their social status in order to promote their consumption. Rarámuri foods are agrobiodiversity products of their milpas (multiple cropping systems). Because maize is the most important plant in their diet, the initial video focuses on ground popped-corn in the form of "pinole" and “esquiate”.