The ladies who work there make just a few dollars a day and work from sunup until after sundown. All day long you can hear the familiar smack as they slap their hands together to form the biggest and best tortillas around. It takes just the right touch: just the right amount of cornmeal and just the right amoutn of water on the hands to keep the tortilla from sticking. The "comal" is always full of fresh, hot tortillas ready for the customers to purchase. 4 tortillas for a little more than 10 cents.
They and their families live in a small community just behind the tortilla stand. You can see inside of it from the top story of our ministry base. Often we wave to the children from our windows and they shout back greetings.
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| Doña Ana making slapping a tortilla out in her hand. In front of her is a comal. Hers is gas based, most times you find them heated with firewood. |
Doña Ana is a sweet lady whose children are regular attenders in our Little Giants program. She is always dressed in "corte" or typical mayan clothes. She and her children speak a mayan dialect. When we have missionary guests or family visiting we always take them to see Doña Ana make tortillas. She is tickled that something so ordinary to her would be such a treat for our guests. They often take pictures and ask questions. she often gives them free samples...and sometimes even warms up her own lunch of beans so that the guest can have warm beans on a fresh tortilla. YUM! when she doesn't have beans to offer she is quick to pull out salt. Tortillas with salt are a common meal for the poor folk. Even my dear husband has memories of dining on just tortillas with salt.
I have watched her youngest daughter, now 2 years old, grow up. As an infant she was always in a sling on Doña Ana's back. If she got fussy during peak times such as lunch then Doña Ana would begin to sway and bounce and shhh shhh shhh her, without ever letting her out of the sling. There just wasn't time to feed or tend to a fussy baby during the lunch rush! As little Marleny got older and heavier, she was confined to a tiny, square playpen placed in one corner of the small tortilla stand, conveniently out of reach of the hot comal. There Marleny occupied herself playing with apron strings, chewing on tortillas, or whatver else she could find to do in that tiny space with no toys.
The tortilla stand is dingy and dirty. I always felt sorry for Marleny tucked away in one corner with no toys, no stimulation, no way to explore, crawl, and learn as a baby should. But this is the way for most of the babies born to the lower class. And this is just one of the reasons why they are slower than other children. They were never given a chance to wake-up that mind of theirs. They were always asked to be quiet, stay out of the way, and were always confined.
When Marleny would fuss Doña Ana would sternly rebuke her, then maybe give her a tortilla to naw on.
At last marleny was walking and climbing out of her small jail. So now she toddles around her mother's legs or toddles after her older siblings.
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| here you can see Doña Ana tending to the tortillas on the comal while her coworker wraps an order of fresh tortillas in a tortilla napkin |
Recently Doña Ana came to our Mother's Day celebration. She had a grand time there as did all of the mothers. She arrived a bit late because she had to finish the lunch rush first. Still, for someone who spends all day every day in a tiny, dark, and dingy shed making hundreds of tortillas, it was a nice break and bit of spoiled treatment for her. We were glad to bless her and her life as so often blessed ours.
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| here you can see a good view of the inside of the tortilla stand. As you can see they sell chips, fruit, and other odd items as well. The roof is tin and it can really be hot inside during the hotter months, but it is nice and toasty inside during the cooler months. |
