I know, I know...we promised you a bean blog and not a blog about a trip to Mexico that we took several years ago -- that's the subject of an entirely different blog. And we will get to other beans before too long. But before we leave all of our culinary reminiscing about Michoacan, I wanted to point anyone interested to two books that I read while we were on that trip that I recommend.
The first is less culinary, but deals with the history of the region. Mexico is of course characterized by the relationship (or lack thereof) between the indigenous people and the European settlers/conquestors which played out differently in different parts of the country. Bernardino Verastique's book Michoacan and Eden:Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico tells the story of Vasco de Quiroga, one of the bishops working in the Michoacan region in the 17th century. I found this book extremely fascinating in the way it discussed the history of the area from the point of view of both the native Purepecha people and the Spaniards who came in and took over. Quiroga was a humanist, and brought many interesting ideas to the region, such as the idea that each village should specialize in a different craft (pottery, mask making, basketry, etc), an idea which still exists today. The book does a nice job of treating Quiroga even-handedly, rather than caricaturing him as either a Villain or a Savior. And while it is clearly written by an academic, the tone is fairly light and never gets too academicly dense.
The second book is Cuisines of Hidden Mexico: A Culinary Journey to Guerrero and Michoacan by Bruce Kraig, and it is part travelog, part cookbook, and part history as it is filled with the author's stories of trying to film a documentary series set in this part of the world. I am not sure it has as wide an audience as a better-written book could, but I found it very valuable in planning our trip when we went and have gone back to consult recipes a number of times in the years since.
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