"Tales From The Plum Corner" - Chapter 4: My Grandmother's Totumas

My grandmother’s name was Inés, but for the poet Ranuárez, she was INEXÚ, princess of the Otocuao Tribe. She was a woman of strong bearing, a hard worker with an enviable vitality. She always had her hair in braids that she wove herself with great skill.

She did all the house and field work that were characteristic of a proper countryside woman, waking up at the first singing of the rooster to make a delicious coffee that she herself roasted and grinded on a previous day, and then went to the backyard to give breakfast to the barnyard foul. For us, the smell of her freshly made coffee was the thing that woke us up every morning, and one by one we came to the ample kitchen were, neatly stacked against a wall were the Totumas we used, each with its own story.

In the Ciruelar, the taparo plant was very common, and from its fruit, the tapara, we made almost every kitchen utensil needed, like spoons, bowls and forks.

When the tapara was jecha –like my grandmother used to say- she picked them up from the tree, opened them in half and took out the seeds, ones that were covered in a gray tissue with a foul smell. That grey tissue was mixed with salt and the used to treat the scabbies from our dogs. The now empty shells were put to dry, and treated inside and outside with our natural version of sandpaper: chaparro leaves and with a well sharpened blade whose edge was made with a river stone. She then started an artisan’s job, carving with ease pictures of many flowers.

The final touch to her masterpieces was to put the name of each of her grandchildren in what would be, from then on, the plate were our food was served.

Many years later I was able to remember those times in the Ciruelar when I put my hands on some totumas carved by Don Aníbal Villalobos, María Boyer, and my Godfather Alfredo Zapata.

I'm sure grandma Inés learned all of that from her own grandparents back in Santa María, and them in turn must have learned from my Indigenous ancestors from the Amazon.

The smallest totuma was for the coffee. We took that one and went to the barnyard were our grandfather was milking the cows from before the sun rose up, cows that stayed relaxed and happy because of the tunes my grandfather sang to them: “ponte, ponte, Puerto Rico, dame tu leche blanquita de esa ubre rosadita ”*. And like that, we saw how the milk came out and tried to catch some in our totumas, letting it mix with the coffee in which we soaked some sweet buns or the well-known Arepas from Mrs. Faustina, who cooked them in a budare, and sold them in packs of eight for 1 Bolívar. When we wanted some variety, we bought the stew-filled empanadas of Doña Ricarda.

Mrs. Faustina lived for quite some time after my childhood, but the price of her arepas had to be raised a lot. My uncle Francisco also told me that the corn used for the arepas was planted, harvested and later grinded by herself.

Glossary (in order of mention):

-Otocuao: a region of Guárico state, named like that for the indigenous tribe that lived there in previous centuries. The descendants of that tribe moved around the state, and some of them gave birth to my mother’s family, and by extension, they are also my ancestors.

-Totuma: also called “tapara”. The husk of the “Taparo” tree’s fruit. While not exactly tasty for humans, its empty and dried husk hardens enough to replace many wooden objects. Frequently used to make dishes, forks, spoons, bowls and the musical instrument called “maracas”.

-Ciruelar: this is the name of the neighborhood, but also “Ciruela” means “plum”, as in the fruit, so a “ciruelar” would be “a place where a lot of plums are”.

-Jecha: a deformation of the word “hecha”, which in this context means “ready”, as in “ready to harvest.

-Chaparro: a tree whose thin and flexible branches were used as beating sticks when herding cows or to threaten rebellious children. Its leaves have a very rough texture and therefore are used as a natural alternative for sandpaper.

-*: the singing translates to something like: “stand up well, stand up well, Puerto Rico, give me your white milk from that pink udder”. In this case, “Puerto Rico” would be the name of the cow.

-Arepas: one of our more iconic dishes. It could be described as a flattened bun made with corn flour, which can then be either roasted or fried. There is also a heated debate between Colombians and Venezuelans about where the Arepa originated, no conclusive evidence has been presented from either side.

-Budare: a circular, thick sheet of metal used to cook food. In a sense, is just a completely flat cooking pot.

-Bolívar: the name of our official coin. It is called that in honor of our “Libertador” Simón Bolívar, a man who not only gave freedom from the Spanish Crown to Venezuela, but also to other 4 South American nations. Quite a shame that nowadays devaluation has made World of Warcraft’s gold have more value that a Bolívar.

-Empanadas: a well beloved dish eaten in breakfast, dinner, or as a mid-afternoon snack. Usually fried, it is made with the same corn flour as the Arepas, but it varies a lot more since people like to get creative with whatever they put in the dough. It’s shape is that of a half circle, with its inside filled with pretty much whatever you can fit inside it.