A ‘hearth to hearth’: Afro-Colombian dialogues around culinary practices

A 'hearth to hearth':
Afro-Colombian dialogues around culinary practices

Three community museums in the Afro-Colombian Pacific and Caribbean gathered around the hearth to put their traditional culinary practices into conversation.

This inspiring dialogue brought together leaders and matriarchs from the Museo Gastronómico del Chocó, Museo de las Tejedoras de Mampuján, and the Museo de Oficios – Fuerte de San Fernando, to exchange knowledge about the traditional cuisines of their territories and engage in the documentation of selected objects from the Chocó collection at the British Museum. Thanks to a collaboration between the Escuela Taller Cartagena de Indias and the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research (SDCELAR), this workshop bridged the collective experience of women at the forefront of these local museums and shed light on Afro-descendant collections from the Colombian Chocó spread across museums in the Global North.

The dialogues were celebrated through a series of workshops in Cartagena, Colombia. Here, different traditions were put into conversation highlighting the ancestral knowledge present in each territory’s culinary practices. The gathering of the leaders was followed by other activities and visits to the Museo de Arte y Memoria de Mampuján, the Museo Histórico de Cartagena (MUHCA), and the Mercado Santa Rita. This opportunity allowed new discussions and cultivated affinities within the local communities and the museums involved.

Learn more about the community spaces involved in this project, and meet the leaders and matriarchs that spearhead these dialogues:

The community museums

Museo Gastronómico del Chocó:
A cultural entity that revitalises, exhibits, investigates, and promotes the intangible cultural heritage of the department of Chocó (Colombia) associated with traditional cuisine, culinary practices and its instruments.

Museo de Arte y Memoria de Mampuján:
The museum houses the Mampuján Weavers’ Workshop. This is an autonomous workspace coordinated by the weavers, functioning as a meeting space for the community. The museum provides psychosocial care to locals and visitors, weaving workshops, and explores the history of the territory through an exhibition space.

Museo de Oficios – Fuerte de San Fernando:
Created by the Bocachica community to promote and enhance their traditions, trades, and knowledge passed down from generation to generation. The museum aims to become a starting point for visitors to explore the territory, and its traditions, allowing the development of community initiatives based on cultural tourism and experiential tourism.

Museum Leaders and Matriarchs

Diana Marcela Mosquera Mosquera is an Afro-descendant eager about culture in the Americas. Self-identified as black, Diana was born in Atrato (Chocó), and she is passionate about the region's food and its flavours. She has a degree in business administration, and she also obtained an MBA in the same field. This experience has helped her understand the business ecosystems of her region, catapulting economic units that perfectly combine her passion for the traditional cuisine of her territory, with the arts, knowledge, and trades associated with the gastronomy of the black and indigenous communities that inhabit this Colombian department.

Liseth Martínez Cuesta seeks to contribute to the social, economic, and cultural development of her region, promoting the integral development of rural women in their financial independence and the preservation of ancestral legacies. Liseth is a Business Manager with an MA in Administration from the University of Queensland - Australia. She has a solid background in organizational administration, business models with social impact, and a particular focus on community work that contributes to preserving the heritage of black communities in the Colombian Pacific. Her work is rooted in the transformation of sugar cane producing traditional beverages, honey, and derivates.

Gledys López Maza is a member of the group of women known in Colombia and around the world as the Mampuján Weavers. Like other weavers from Mampuján, she is an example of resilience and a model of how women are capable of rebuilding a community. With her hands, Gledys not only turns fabric into art and memory, but she also turns every food she cooks into art. Like this, the Mampuján Weavers have managed to rescue the memory of culinary practices and knowledge from their territory.

Elizabeth Villarreal Ruiz is a law student, and local interpreter of the memory of the Museo de Arte y Memoria de Mampuján. In 2013, she began to lead the group “Boys and Girls Building Dreams and Flavours of Peace”, carrying out various investigations and learning the art of the Mampuján weavers. Elizabeth was part of the community team that created the curatorial script and the management of collections of the Museo de Arte y Memoria de Mampuján, as well as the structuring of the memory route in the territory.

Adelaida Castro Seca is a matriarch from the district of Bocachica, an island area of Cartagena de Indias. Adelaida learned the secrets of the cuisine of this territory thanks to her grandmother and her mother. From the kitchen located on the patio of her house in Bocachica, Adelaida transforms the coconut, yuca, ñame, and other ingredients into delicious nibbles known as "gustos de noche" (night treats). With her work, she continues to preserve and transmit the legacy of Bocachica's cuisine to new generations.

Martha Castro Silva is a bocachiquera who, through her training and work as a tourist professional, has sought to ensure that the new generation of bocachiqueros know and preserve the traditional crafts of the territory. Martha was fundamental in recovering the memories of Bocachica, which allowed the creation of the curatorial script for the Museo de Oficios - Fuerte de San Fernando.

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