In One Mexican Town, Goats Provide the Lifeblood of Its Identity and Tradition Alasdair Baverstock - Fox News Latino
go to original October 28, 2016

A Mexican town’s annual fiesta has locals slaughtering thousands of goats, in a bloodbath faithful to local indigenous traditions. (Fox News Latino)

The town of Huajuapan in Oaxaca state celebrates its ancestry in the second half of October, and custom dictates the preparation of the seasonal Mole de Caderas ("Stew of Hips") dish, a vital ingredient of which is cured goat meat.

“It’s a brutal sight, but the result is very delicious,” Isidro Ponce, a Huajuapan shopkeeper whose entire family gets involved in the annual slaughter, told Fox News Latino. “It’s a wonderful bonding activity for the community.”

The mass slaughter of goats here is a rite predating the Spanish arrival in Mexico. At La Matanza ("The Killing"), a ranch on the edge of town, the goats are killed, skinned, butchered, cured and sold in an operation involving more than 100 people.

“It makes sense to kill the goats after the summer, when they are fat from grazing,” the ranch’s owner Guillermo Maza told FNL. “We sell the cured meat throughout Mexico in the coming months, as out method of preparation has made us famous.”

Once at their desired weight, Huajuapan goats are prepared for slaughter by being fed salt, denied water and herded a minimum of 15 miles from the hills surrounding the town to the slaughterhouse.

“The salt makes their blood very thick and their muscles very sinewy,” said Maza, who is the third generation of owners at the slaughter facility. “It’s a vital aspect of the process for achieving the final flavor we want.”

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

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