Bread almost always defines a culture whether it's French baguette or a German rye.The same is true with Latino and indigenous loaves and recipes.There is a movement to get away from the more European traditions and into the ancient breads of the New World.
John Birdsall a food writer and former cook wrote about Latinx and indigenous bakers rediscovering their culinary roots in yesterday's New York Times Food section. He focused on don Guerra , a leader of Tucson Arizona's local grain movement. He was an entrepreneur from the age of eight when he had his shoeshine business in his father Bennie's barber shop.By sixteen he was managing a diner.His love of baking kicked in after that. His mom, Denise, who also has Irish roots baked breads,cookies and pies to supplement the family income while his Mexican grandmother created tortillas. He started his first bakery , The Village Baker in 1996 in flagstaff. He opened a second branch a few years later in Ashland Oregon.It was too much. He got hi BA in primary school education and left the food industry. Yet the lure of baking was too strong. Mr. Guerra turned his two car garage into a bakery in 2009.It was named CSB (for community supported bakery). It was busy with people craving Mexican influenced breads. He now has Barrio Charro which features pan azteca sandwiches and a variety of Mexican foods' from tortillas and sopas or soups along with one that has whole grains produced by Hayden FLour Mills.
Mr. Guerra should be known for just his amazing dishes and breads but he is also becoming famous for bringing the indigenous grains back to Arizona. He wants to import heritage organic wheat from across the border in Nogales. He has reached out to small farm owners like Jose Luis Lambarri in the Sonora state, near the town of Ciudad Obregon. four hundred miles south of Tuscon . The grain is the much desired Yaqui-50 , a soft wheat that has a sweet and nutty flavor. His passion is a source of inspiration for other Latinx bakers. Long Beach California;'s Gusto bread's owner Arturo Enciso favors Spanish terms for his creations. He calls his sourdough starter masa madre or mother dough. baguettes are huesos or bones. he bakes the delicious dark California bread is made with state grown wheat a direct nod to Barrio's heritage loaf.Bryan Ford , author of New World Sourdough that looks at craft baking through the lens of Latin America has noticed a shifts in the beginnings of the movement. He is Afro-Honduran and finds it refreshing that the grains of Mexico, along with Central and South American are now being highlighted.
Don Guerra is leading the country in returning to its' indigenous baking roots. The result is delicious bread loved by previous generations. Now the current generation is enjoying the sweet yeasty goodness of traditional loaves.
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