Maria Dominguez

This is our Mama Maria (grandmother), as we called her. This is a rare photo in that she isn't wearing her usual babushka. I remember that she always cried and hugged us tight when we came to visit her in Chihuahua....and she cried and hugged us tight at the end of our vacation and we had to leave. She loved to sit and chat about the whole town, she had some memory. My fondest memories of her include making teswino.

Teswino is a homemade beer made from corn. It is an old Indian recipe. She showed me how to place dried corn seeds in between wet burlap sacks. After a few days the seeds would sprout and she would then boil them in a big vat and then mashed them. Later, she poured the mess into crocks and they sat in a dark cool place for some days fermenting. After straining out the solids, all the adults would enjoy. People from throughout the village of Chuichupa would show up to sample her teswino.

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