San Pedro Atocpan, the mole town
A B1 Spanish reading about San Pedro Atocpan in Milpa Alta: family mills that keep their mole recipe secret, and a fair that began in 1977 with four restaurants and four producers.
Octubre en San Pedro Atocpan, el pueblo del mole
Reading for practice
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The narrator visits San Pedro Atocpan, in Milpa Alta in the south of Mexico City, during the national mole fair. Much of the mole sold in the capital comes from this town, and nearly all of it is made by small families who grind in their own mill and keep their recipe secret. Doña Carmen says she has ground mole since she was fifteen and had worked twenty years in her father's mill before that. The fair has been held since 1977; the first one brought together four restaurants and four producers, took place in May alongside the feast of the Señor de Yencuitlalpan, and was later moved to October.
Aquí se hace mole. Buena parte del mole que se vende en la capital sale de este pueblo, y casi todo lo preparan familias pequeñas que muelen en su propio molino y guardan su receta.
«Yo he molido mole desde los quince años», me dice doña Carmen, que atiende un puesto en la feria. «Antes de poner mi negocio, había trabajado veinte años en el molino de mi papá. Nunca hemos escrito la receta. Está en la cabeza y en las manos.»
La Feria Nacional del Mole se celebra desde 1977. En la primera participaron cuatro restaurantes y cuatro productores, y se hizo en mayo, junto con la fiesta del Señor de Yencuitlalpan. Después la cambiaron a octubre para no encimarla con la fiesta religiosa. Hoy dura varias semanas y en ella trabajan cientos de familias del pueblo.
«Cuando yo era niño, ya habían puesto los primeros puestos en la calle», cuenta Rubén, que tiene un restaurante frente a la iglesia. «Nosotros hemos crecido con la feria. Mi mamá vendía mole en canastas cuando todavía no teníamos local.»
No hay un solo mole. Hay moles negros, rojos, verdes y amarillos, con chiles distintos, semillas, especias y, en algunos, chocolate. Cada casa defiende el suyo y ninguna te dice todo lo que lleva.
«He probado como treinta este fin de semana», me dice Ana, una cocinera que ha venido desde Puebla. «Yo había pensado que ya conocía el mole, y me equivoqué.»
La feria también ha cambiado la vida del pueblo. «Desde que existe, aquí se vive de otra manera», dice Rubén. «Mucha gente que se había ido a trabajar lejos ha vuelto para abrir su molino.»
Le pregunto a doña Carmen cuánto tiempo tarda su mole. Se ríe y no me da un número. «Depende del día», dice. «Pero nunca he hecho uno bueno con prisa.»
¿Y tú? ¿Has probado alguna vez el mole? ¿Hay en tu país una comida que cada familia prepara distinto y que nadie escribe? ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no cocinas algo de varias horas?
About this article
What you'll learn
The present perfect and the pluperfect working together with desde and desde que, across several persons and several speakers.
The narrator visits San Pedro Atocpan, in Milpa Alta in the south of Mexico City, during the national mole fair. Much of the mole sold in the capital comes from this town, and nearly all of it is made by small families who grind in their own mill and keep their recipe secret. Doña Carmen says she has ground mole since she was fifteen and had worked twenty years in her father's mill before that. The fair has been held since 1977; the first one brought together four restaurants and four producers, took place in May alongside the feast of the Señor de Yencuitlalpan, and was later moved to October.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
con prisa
newin a hurry, hastily
«La prisa» is haste. The family is large: «tener prisa» (to be in a hurry), «darse prisa» (to hurry up), «de prisa» or «deprisa» (quickly), «sin prisa» (unhurried). Note that Spanish says a person «has» haste rather than «is» in a hurry.
English uses a verb or an adjective where Spanish uses a noun, so a literal translation fails.
como treinta
newabout thirty
Here «como» does not mean «like» but «about». It is very common in spoken Spanish everywhere, and in Mexico you hear it at every turn: «como treinta», «como a las tres». Neutral equivalents are «unos treinta», «alrededor de treinta», «más o menos treinta».
The meaning is nothing like the «como» learners meet first, and it turns up constantly in speech.
junto con
newtogether with
It links two things or two events: «junto con la fiesta», «junto con mi hermano». Do not confuse it with «junto a», which means «next to» and marks a place: «la casa junto al río».
One letter separates «together with» from «beside», and the pair is confused constantly.
frente a
newopposite, facing
It places something face to face with another thing, across the street or the square: «frente a la iglesia». Compare «al lado de» (beside) and «detrás de» (behind). Note «la frente» is a forehead while «el frente» is the front of something.
A core landmark word for giving directions and describing where things stand.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
el nopal
nopal
the prickly pear cactus, eaten as a vegetable in Mexico
The flat pads of this cactus are stripped of their spines and cooked as a vegetable: in salad, with egg, or grilled. The fruit has its own name, «la tuna». The word came into Spanish from Nahuatl.
A staple of Mexican cooking and an unusual ingredient in European kitchens.
el puesto
puestos
a market stall; also a job position
The word leads three lives, and two of them stand side by side in the text: in «habían puesto» the participle «puesto» comes from «poner», while «los puestos» are market stalls. The third sense is a post at work: «un puesto de trabajo».
The phrase «habían puesto los primeros puestos» looks like a mistake until you know both senses.
atender
atiende
to serve or run (a stall); to look after
A false friend for anyone who knows English «attend»: Spanish «atender» does not mean going somewhere but serving or paying attention to: «atender a un cliente», «atender el teléfono». To attend a class is «asistir a clase». The stem changes e to ie: «atiendo», «atiendes», «atiende».
A false friend and a stem change in one word, so there are two ways to get it wrong.
el molino
molino
a mill; here a small workshop where ingredients are ground
The word comes from «moler», to grind. In Mexico «un molino» is often a tiny family business on the street where people bring maize or chillies to be ground. Note that in Mexico «el molinillo» is above all the wooden stick used to whisk chocolate.
It explains how production works in this text: not a factory but a family workshop.
encimar
encimarla
to put one thing on another; of dates, to clash
Built from «encima» (on top). Applied to a calendar, «encimar» means putting two events at the same time. It is an everyday word in Mexico; in Spain «solapar» or «coincidir» is more usual in that sense.
A practical word for talking about schedules, meetings and holidays.
tostar / tostado
tostado
to dry-roast, to toast / toasted
«Tostar» is cooking without oil until aroma and colour appear: bread, coffee, nuts, chillies. In the present the stem shifts o to ue: «tuesto», «tuestas», «tuesta». Frying in oil is «freír», baking is «hornear».
Telling «tostar», «freír» and «asar» apart is needed for any recipe.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
perfect + desde + starting point
he molido mole desde los quince años
I have ground mole since I was fifteen
«Desde los quince años» names the moment it all began, and the perfect «he molido» stretches the action up to today. Note that «moler» changes its stem in the present («muelo»), but its participle is regular and keeps the o: «molido».
One construction holds a whole working life, which is exactly how people tell it out loud.
pluperfect: había + participle
había trabajado veinte años
I had worked twenty years before that
This form puts one past event earlier than another. The reference point here is «antes de poner mi negocio»: first twenty years in her father's mill, then her own business. It is built simply: the imperfect of «haber» («había», «habías», «había», «habíamos», «habían») plus a participle.
Without it a past narrative goes flat, because every event sits on the same level.
cuando era + ya había
ya habían puesto
when I was a child they had already set up
Two past forms work as a pair: «era» paints the background, the speaker's childhood, and «habían puesto» names what had happened even earlier. The word «ya» reinforces the sequence. The participle is irregular: «poner» gives «puesto».
This is the standard way to build a memory in Spanish: background in the imperfect, earlier event in the pluperfect.
the perfect across persons
hemos crecido
we have grown up with the fair
The perfect is «haber» plus an unchanging participle. The text runs it through four persons: «he probado» (I), «has probado» (you), «ha vuelto» (he or she), «hemos crecido» (we). Only «haber» changes; the participle here agrees with nothing. In Mexico and across Spanish America «habéis» is not used: people say «ustedes han» instead.
One small table unlocks the whole tense, and the participle-agreement error shows up in every class.
possessive pronouns: el suyo
el suyo
their own one (the mole)
«El suyo» stands in for «su mole» so the noun need not be repeated. The form agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner: «el suyo» for «el mole», «la suya» for «la receta». The set runs «el mío», «el tuyo», «el suyo», «el nuestro».
It saves you from repeating the noun, which is the main mark of natural writing.
the doubled indirect object
Le pregunto a doña Carmen
I ask doña Carmen
The «le» looks redundant, since the person is named right after. In fact Spanish normally uses both: the pronoun «le» first, then «a» plus the person. The same goes for «Les dije a mis papás» and «Le di el libro a Ana». In the plural «le» becomes «les».
A sentence without the «le» does not sound Spanish, and that is exactly what is missing from learner writing.
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