El Sol y La Luna hosts fundraising dinner

El Sol y La Luna hosts fundraising dinner for Oaxaca-based women organization focused on saving native maize seeds. MAMAZ Collective is a non-profit women’s arts organization that strives to raise awareness about our environment and our native seeds through art, food, and culture.

May 24, 2010 (Austin, TX) – What a better way to emphasize the importance of biodiversity than through our foodstuffs? This is the goal of the MAMAZ Collective (Mujeres Artistas y el Maiz/Women Artists and Maize) who brought the El Maiz es Nuestra Vida / Maize is Our Life exhibit to the Austin this spring. This traveling contemporary art exhibition features art from women who are concerned about Mexico’s native maize seeds, and through their artwork narrate the history of maize throughout the Americas, demonstrating its fundamental role in providing nourishment to innumerable societies. The fact that maize is in danger of extinction due to the arrival of genetically modified seeds and the global economy’s demand for maize for uses other than nutrition are alarming, as are their effect on cultural memory and biodiversity. This important, groundbreaking exhibit will travel to San Antonio in the fall.In order to help MAMAZ's various initiatives, including funding for El Maiz es Nuestra Vida / Maize is Our Life, El Sol y La Luna Restaurant (600 E 6th St. 444-7770) will host a fundraising dinner for on Monday, June 14th, 6-9 pm with proceeds benefiting MAMAZ outreach programs. The dinner's highlight is the authentic menu by guest Chef Pilar Cabrera, Executive Chef and co-owner of the highly acclaimed downtown Oaxaca's Restaurante La Olla and Casa de Los Sabores cooking school. Cabrera, of indigenous Zapotec heritage, learned the basics and many of the secrets of the Oaxacan cocina from her maternal grandmother, and has been featured in such prominent publications as Bon Appetit and The New York Times among many others. To compliment her menu there will be a cash bar, featuring Mexican beer and El Sol y La Luna's signature margaritas. In addition, a raffle will include items donated by the women in the collective such as a jewelry from Luisa Restrepo, woven pillow from Lourdez Perez, cookbooks, greeting cards by Austin's Blue Corn Press, t-shirts, MAMAZ market bags, and other unique items. MAMAZ will also have small graphics, bags, aprons, quilts and tortilla cloth holders, made by indigenous Oaxacan women, for sale. This is sure an opportunity not-to-be missed and it's all for a worthy cause. Tickets are only $35 (cash bar not included) and are for sale at El Sol y La Luna, Tesoros, and La Peña. 


About MAMAZ Collective

Headquartered in Oaxaca, Mexico, its members span across Mexico, United States and Canada. Members include artists, curators, cultural promoters, chefs, craftswomen, writers, and scientists, all working together to disseminate the mission statement. For more information or to join in their efforts, contact Marietta Bernstorff, Director of MAMAZ Collective: oaxmaiz@yahoo.com

Succesful day for MAMAZ

support team

As part of the fundraising activities aimed at maintaining and developing the collective, we celebrated December 5th with an elaborate corn-themed meal. The objective was to raise funds in order to establish the collective as a not-for-profit organization.

Renowned chefs Susana Trilling (who created the menu), Reyna Mendoza, Teresa Garcia, y Pilar Cabrera (from La Olla Restaurant) collaborated on this occasion and generously donated not only their talent, but also their ingredients. The incredible meal consisted of corn fungus empanadas, fresh corn tamales with poblano sauce, cornbread, corn pudding with passion fruit mezcal and corn ice cream among many other dishes. Needless to say, the lunch turned into a unique culinary experience with regional flavors interpreted by these ingenious chefs.

Martha Toledo 

The event took place at the Casa Colonial Bed and Breakfast thanks to the unwavering support from Jane Sax and Amado who also conceived the idea. More than 70 people attended the event, providing the money necessary for covering the next stage of the MAMAZ Collective—our principal objective for 2010 of achieving non-profit status.

A special thanks goes out to Roberta Neiman, Lynn O’Hare, Noel Chilton, Lauren Beam, Luisa Restrepo, Nadja Massun, Mari Olguin, Edith Morales, Marisela Flores, and Aurora Cabrera without whom the event wouldn’t have been the same. Thanks for your support and time! Martha Toledo, with her beautiful voice closed the event with a selection of unforgettable songs from the Isthmus region.

We also extend our gratitude to Hotel Bugambilias, la Olla Restaurant, and Amate Books.

Marietta Bernstorff

Harvest Meal

Join us for a Harvest Meal in which you will be able to enjoy a series of corn-related dishes created by renowned chef Susana Trilling and tamales by Pilar Cabrera and Reyna Mendoza (also highly qualified chefs in their own right). Singer Martha Toledo will also be joining us on this day of celebrating nature’s fruits.

The MAMAZ cooperative is organizing a lunch event to raise funds. The funds will go towards covering the legal fees involved in establishing the group as a non-profit organization. In this way, we will be able to receive tax-deductible donations, which will help us to train members of the cooperative and cover administrative costs. MAMAZ has two objectives. The first is to raise consciousness about the loss of our native crops and hence our cultural identity. The second is to promote often-unseen women artists and train them to continue improving their creative and promotional skills.

Los boletos están a la venta en Amate Books en Alcalá #307 o en Casa Colonial en Miguel Negrete #105.

Market Bag

Casa Lamm, 2008

The Market Bag, which complements the “Maize is Our Life” project, is an additional itinerant exhibit of art-objects. Other women artists residing in the area in which the exhibit is being hosted by a cultural institution Women from the collective are joined by other women artists residing in the area in which the exhibit is being hosted by a cultural institution. The institution holds workshops, which invite and integrate these women into the project. The two-day workshop includes some of the original artists, guest curators, and other invited locals who are working in this subject matter. At the end, the participants create two pieces for the market bag.

The first day, the women participants view a brief DVD about the history of corn. They discuss the difference between native seeds and genetically altered ones, the situation in which native seeds find themselves around the world, and ultimately the flavor of food made with native corn which brings us back to our cultural memory. This is the most important reason for keeping the seeds and our memory alive. During the second day, the women begin creating a piece while they examine other pieces already in the exhibit. They also observe other related pieces that have been exhibited in other shows as examples of what kind of artwork can be considered for the Market Bag exhibit.

Casa Lamm, 2008

These workshops are free of cost to interested women. They are given in the cities in which the exhibit is being shown, allowing the art-object exhibit to grow and raising consciousness of the global predicament. The women work with the same concept as that which inspired the “Maize is Our Life” exhibit. The themes are directly related to corn, the seeds and cultural memory. The women generally have some craft experience. They range in age and represent various cultures, economic status, and social levels
As the women create their objects, they tell their story about what corn as a symbol of globalization and worldwide strife means to them. These stories are documented for the following show, which serve to give future women an idea about what other women think about corn and what they are doing to save native seeds and their cultural memory. This project was exhibited in Casa Lamm in Mexico City and in the Santo Domingo Museum in San Cristobal, Chiapas in 2008.

Curtiduría, 2008

Green Corner, Mexico City. 2008
Special thanks to Armando and Gabriela, from Itanoní restaurant, Oaxaca

Green Corner, Mexico City. 2008
Special thanks to Armando and Gabriela, from Itanoní restaurant, Oaxaca

San Cristobal de las casas, 2008

San Cristobal de las casas, 2008

San Cristobal de las casas, 2008