Jumil

Although it is 28 degrees and fair, it is Christmas in Taxco as surely as anywhere else.  Where people once sold onions and tomatoes there are now stands filled with flashing lights, plastic Santas, singing animals, and the obligatory themed candies.  A plastic ponderosa pine forest has been steadily growing from the market's center, each day the mint colored trees creep even further along the streets, forming a vast evergreen forest disrupted only occasionally by their white plastic cousins and stands selling pirated DVDs. 

As best I can tell the first seeds were planted near the deli section, however, things tend to catch on quickly around here, so it is hard to be certain.  If it isn't rudely bleached jeans or an animal flu that occupies the public mind, it is most assuredly a seasonal holiday or food. 

Last months hot item was the Jumil, pronounced “who-meal.”  A beetle so disgusting people get two days off of work to celebrate it.  This spotted pest appears in the nearby mountains in the autumn and for the next several weeks makes up an important part of the Tasqueño diet.  Like all things local, both the producer and consumer believe it is the best.  Let's face it, if Vegemite, Green Chili Wine, or deep-fried turkeys stuffed with chicken and duck were actually the best, they would enjoy more widespread popularity.  As it is, they are mostly favored by people who grew up with them or, at the very least, tolerated for fear of not fitting in.  The same is true of the Jumil. 

Whether you grind it into a crunchy paste and spread it on your quesadilla, or eat it raw while the terrified insect urinates in your mouth, it is not a pleasant experience.  The best that could be said is that it “certainly has a distinct flavor.”  The truth would be that you don't taste that flavor because the urine burns your tongue as surely as a hot cup of tea.  Nevertheless, the Jumil possesses a special magic that holds the community together.  Kids laugh and snort, but ultimately eat the bugs because that's what their family has always done.  The grandparents ham it up, rubbing their tummies and groaning with pleasure. 

According to local legend, if you eat the Jumil you will stay in Taxco.  While that may not be true, it is certain that you will make friends.  Everyone waits expectantly as the foreigners have their first try, fulfilling our part by twisting our faces and moaning in horror.  They laugh, we laugh, and everyone's expectations are satisfied.  Unlike Christmas, it's a tradition that goes back long before they found silver in the hills or in wallets of tourists.  There is no doubt that even when the rest of the world changes into something unrecognizable, when the suburbs of Mexico City reach to Acapulco and Afganistan is the world's sole super power; when December comes around, the Tasqueños will still go to the mountains to eat stink bugs.