Skip to main content

Mexican Cooking Notebooks Collection

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-984-BC

Scope and Content/El Enfoque y Contento

The collection consists of hand written bound books containing recipes for typical dishes prepared in Mexican homes. Most manuscripts in this collection are undated and unattributed.

Esta colección se comprisa de libros escritos a mano que contienen recetas para platos típicos preparados en la casas mexicanas. La mayoría de esta colección no tienen datos ni atributiones.

Dates

  • 1890-1950

Language of Materials

Spanish

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Copy Restrictions

Limited duplication of CSWR material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for compliance with all copyright, privacy, and libel laws. Permission is required for publication or distribution.

Historical Information/Información histórica

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common for women to record family recipes, remedies, and related traditions in a hardcover volume, often a ledger book or blank “commonplace book”. Because this period saw the emergence of literacy among women, the contents of these books extended the spirit of oral histories told by unlettered mothers and grandmothers in the writing of their offspring. Exchanges between women and their manuscripts also gave rise to community cookbooks and fostered the dissemination of regional cuisines as well as women's written work across Mexico. Some scholars present these kinds of manuscripts as windows into how women defined their roles and dispensed conventional wisdom to broader audiences. In the process of compiling community and family cookbooks, women who probably never would have been published or remembered beyond their family ties, produced artifacts for continued inquiry.

Durante el siglo XIX y a principios del XX en México, era común que las mujeres anotaran recetas familiares, remedios y tradiciones relacionadas en un volumen de tapa dura, a menudo un libro mayor o un libro de apuntamiento. Debido a que este período vio la aparición de la alfabetización entre las mujeres, el contenido de estos libros amplió el espíritu de las historias orales contadas por madres y abuelas analfabetas en la escritura de su descendencia. Los intercambios entre mujeres y sus manuscritos también dieron lugar a libros de cocina comunitarios y promovieron la difusión de cocinas regionales, así como el trabajo escrito de mujeres en todo México. Algunos académicos presentan que este tipo de manuscritos son indicios de cómo las mujeres definieron sus roles y dispensaron la sabiduría convencional a un público más amplio. En el proceso de recopilación de libros de cocina comunitarios y familiares, las mujeres que probablemente nunca habrían sido publicadas o recordadas más allá de sus vínculos familiares, produjeron artefactos para continuar investigando.

Extent

1 box (.5 linear ft.)

Abstract

Hand-written books of recipes and kitchen lore from Mexico.
Title
Finding Aid of the Mexican Cooking Notebooks Collection, 1890-1950
Status
Completed
Author
Wendy Pedersen
Date
© 2018
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is in English

Revision Statements

  • Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451