HIDDEN MEXICO

A one-hour documentary -- broadcast on PBS, 1996-97

Imagine that you are in the quaint covered market in Taxco, one of Mexico's beautiful old Colonial cities. Sitting at one of the market's little restaurants, you've ordered the local specialty, jumiles. The smiling woman behind the counter promptly takes some live triangular_shaped winged green beetles from a plastic bag, places them in her molcajete (stone grinding bowl) and smashes them with a pestle. Mixed together with chiles and tomato, the sauce is served to you on a fresh tortilla. And it's nine o'clock in the morning.

That breakfast is exactly what viewers saw and they travelled with us travelled through two states in Mexico's western region, Michoacán and Guerrero. Apart from Acapulco, in Guerrero, most Americans know little about these two states. Seeing and tasting food and food history, folk art and festivals, are the means by which we explore these fascinating places.

We went at Easter time to see the unique and sometimes gruesome celebrations in Taxco. March and April is the height of the drought season in Mexico. Central Guerrero where we visited artists' village high up in the arid mountains has temperatures the 90s and 100s every day. In Michoacán the climate was more temperate and it was here that we saw the early spring planting of corn -- the staff of life in Mexico.

Mexico has one of the world's greatest cuisines, including its street food. It's a mixture of Precolumbian American and European traditions, all blended into something uniquely Mexican __ just like the Mexican people. The sauces and flavors in all the foods were rich, subtle, mirroring Mexican culture itself. Naturally, we consumed everything on camera including homemade pulque, a kind of beer made from maguay plants. Delicious but potent.

Visually, Mexico is stunning. Our journey took us to Lake Patzcuaro where, in the early morning mists, shot butterfly net fishermen searching for the famed pescado blanco. At Santa Clara del Cobre, the copper town, we saw and heard the men of the Punzo family hammering copper sheets in rhythmic sequence. In the workshops of artists such as the eminent Juan Orta we witnessed elaborate masks taking shape in his skilled hands. The list of sights is long, but the most striking impressions are of a country village and the spectacular Easter ceremonies in Taxco. In the hill country of Michoacán, near the city of Zamora, there was Taracuato where Purepecha (also called Tarascans) women, dressed in magnificent embroidered costumes __ their everyday outfits __ prepared a memorable meal in their open air kitchen. As for Taxco we stood in the middle of ten mile long processions of hooded penitentes. Women wearing chains on their bare feet dragged themselves along the route. Men bearing fifty to sixty_ pound bundles of thorned blackberry stalks, blood running down their backs, and still other men beating themselves raw with knouts passed before us. It was an incredible scene..

All that we saw and sampled only reinforces our original idea that Mexico is as complex a civilization as any in the world. Our hope is that "Hidden Mexico" gives viewers a better idea of the depth and complexity that lies beneath surface impressions of the country and its people.

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