Workshop: A History of Mexican Food in Five Artworks

So what's it going to be about? This online workshop proposes an understanding of Mexican food as a constellation of many cuisines shaped by cultural, social, and historical processes. This workshop approaches food as a series of layers, depths, and regional practices that coexist, overlap, and transform over time. What we understand today as “Mexican food” emerges from continuous processes of migration, adaptation, exchange, and survival. Through codex, colonial paintings, Mexican muralists contemporary art, and European artists, participants will learn how food can be read as a form of knowledge, memory, and power. In a contemporary context where Mexican food is often reduced to branding and consumption, this workshop seeks to restore history, process, and meaning to what we eat. 👥 Who Is This Workshop For? This workshop is open to anyone interested in food, art, history, and cultural processes. No prior knowledge of Mexican cuisine or art history is required. Session 1 Maize, Codex, and Technology Artwork: Florentino Codex This session introduces the Mesoamerican world through the study of Mexica codex, where maize appears not only as food but as the substance from which humans are created. By analysing visual representations of maize deities and agricultural practices, participants will explore how food, religion, and knowledge systems were deeply interconnected. The session also examines nixtamalisation as an Indigenous technology that transforms maize both physically and symbolically, positioning it as a foundational process in Mexican food cultures. Recipe to be analysed: Tlacoyos from Mexico City. Session 2 Castas, Taste, and the Birth of Mole Artwork: Caste system monograph Focusing on colonial New Spain, this session explores how the caste system shaped access to ingredients, cooking practices, and the classification of taste. Through the analysis of casta paintings, participants will examine how food became a marker of identity, hierarchy, and control. The session also introduces mole as a culinary process emerging from this period, reflecting both imposed structures and acts of adaptation and resistance within domestic and convent kitchens. Recipe to be analysed: Mole negro from Puebla Session 3 Street Food, Migration, and Muralism Movement: Mexican Muralism This session looks at post-revolutionary Mexico and the rise of street food in urban contexts. Through the work of Mexican muralists, particularly their representations of labour and everyday life, participants will explore how internal migration and economic necessity contributed to the development of street food culture. Recipe to be analysed: Tacos de canasta Session 4 Garnacha Culture and Contemporary Representations Artwork: Contemporary mexican artists This session focuses on the culture of garnacha—fried, excessive, pleasurable food—and its place in contemporary Mexican identity. Through the work of contemporary artists like César Ríos, participants will examine how street food continues to be represented, aestheticised, and reinterpreted. The session considers the relationship between food, class, desire, and representation in contemporary contexts. Recipe to be analysed: Garnacha mexican street food Session 5 Diaspora, Displacement, and the Meaning of Mexican Food Artwork: Ear of a Corn with a Vase of Flowers (Rachel Ruysch) The final session reflects on Mexican food in the diaspora, using Ireland as a case study. Through the analysis of a European still life painting featuring maize, participants will consider what happens when ingredients travel beyond their original cultural and symbolic contexts. This session opens a broader discussion on authenticity, adaptation, and who gets to define what “Mexican food” is outside of Mexico. Duration: 5 sessions Starts: May 6 🗓 Dates: 5 Wednesdays: 6 May/ 13 May/20 May/ 27 May/ 3 June 🕕 Time: 6:30 PM – 8:15 PM (Irish time / GMT+1) 💶 Price: €30 (includes all 5 sessions and access to additional materials such as selected bibliographies, visual references, and recipes discussed throughout the workshop) 📌 Format: Online via Zoom 🎥 Can’t make it to a session? We can provide a recording session upon request. Taught by: Erick Gustavo Carrillo Ortiz Erick holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from Centro Eleia (Mexico). For six years, he worked in clinical practice and teaching, while also co-founding Inverosímil, a magazine developed in collaboration with emerging artists, focused on hybrid writing and everyday experiences. He later coordinated and led workshops at Invernadëro on topics including art, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics. He currently lives in Ireland, where he completed a Master's in Visual and Critical Studies at TU Dublin, with a dissertation on the representation of the microbus and its relationship to Baroque churches. He is also co-founder of Fondita Mestiza, a cultural project that brings together art, food, and critical thinking. Alongside this, he writes on Substack, exploring food and everyday life through a critical lens—somewhere between personal narrative and informal critique—and, when not writing, he makes delicious pan de elote, flan, and cheesecakes.