A ruling party senator has provoked both a quizzical and critical reaction by declaring that eating tacos of carnitas is to celebrate the fall of Tenochtitlán, the Mexica or Aztec city that was located on the land where Mexico City now stands.

Jesusa Rodríguez made the controversial claim about the popular pork tacos in a video posted to her Twitter account last week.

“. . . Exactly 500 years ago, the conquest of the continental territory of Mexico began. With the conquest, the Catholic religion arrived and was imposed with blood and fire by fanatics and murderers who came to pillage our territory and our culture,” she said.

“. . . This conquest was completed on August 13, 1521, with the fall of the great Tenochtitlán, which was also the first day that tacos de carnitas were eaten in this country. The Spanish brought the pigs and the Mexicans provided the tortillas. Remember every time that you eat tacos de carnitas, you’re celebrating the fall of the great Tenochtitlán,” the Morena party lawmaker said.

Former President Felipe Calderón was among many social media users who responded to Rodríguez’s curious claim.

“Beyond the delusions of this lady (maybe that is how these political times are), as a michoacano [native of Michoacán] I love carnitas, they’re emblematic for us and certainly a gastronomic representation of our mestizaje [miscegenation of the Spanish and indigenous peoples], the pork from Spain and the tortilla from right here,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Crazy! It’s forbidden to eat tacos de carnitas because they remind us of the consummation of the conquest. And this senator has never eaten a taco de carnitas? Crazy . . .” wrote journalist Joaquín López-Dóriga.

Another journalist, Mario Campos, said he will now “remember the benefits of being a country with several cultures behind it” whenever he eats tacos de carnitas, while National Autonomous University (UNAM) historian Alfredo Ávila said there were inaccuracies in Rodríguez’s claims.

“When she asserts that the conquest of the ‘continental territory of Mexico’ began in 1519, she should have said of the continental territory that today is Mexico. At that time, it was territory of various altépetl [city-state] communities,” he wrote on Twitter.

Ávila also challenged other assertions made by Rodríguez, such as the claim that tacos de carnitas were eaten at the conclusion of the conquest.

“. . .  When you eat a taco de carnitas, you’re not celebrating the conquest of the altépetl of México. In fact, there are no testimonies that on August 13, [1521], that dish was eaten . . .” he wrote.

It’s not the first time that the Morena senator, theater director, actress and artist has courted controversy.

On March 8, Rodríguez asserted that it’s not common for Catholics to be intelligent.

Source: Nación 321 (sp)