Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Matanza plus perfect day equals sheer enchantment

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

Belen As matanza revelers entered the fairgrounds, they were pleasantly assaulted by the scents of wood smoke and sizzling pork. Thousands of people made their way to the Valencia County Fairgrounds this past Saturday to enjoy the food and friendship of an old valley tradition at the ninth annual Hispano Chamber of Commerce Matanza.

Mary Gallegos and her husband traveled up from Española to make a second trip to the matanza. They drove up the day before and spent the night with their daughter-in-law.

"My husband grew up on a farm, so this brings back a lot of good memories," Gallegos said. "I think this is wonderful, keeping the culture alive."

The annual pig cook is definitely a family affair, as proved by Suzan, Liz and Fred Lucero of Las Cruces. The trio left at 5 a.m. to make their third matanza. "I cooked on one of the teams the year it rained," Fred said.

The three roamed from booth to booth as they waited for other family members to make it up from El Paso.

"We do matanzas at home," Liz said. "It's something my dad has started."

Word of the appetite-whetting event had made its way north to the ears of Alex Sanchez and Phillip Alderete of Albuquerque. "We have heard about it and been wanting to come down," Sanchez said. "The food is very good. And we're here to get ideas."

Alderete said they do their own matanzas, but cook the pig in a pit. "Everyone does it their own way," he said. "It's interesting to see how they do things down here."

Ron Morris of Bosque has been to just about all of the nine matanzas, he estimated. "I come for the food," he said with a laugh. When asked which was his favorite dish, his response was simple - "the food."

Laura and Charles Fletcher of Albuquerque brought their friend Loretta Myers for her first matanza this year. "I asked where we were going," she said. "They told me we were going to eat chicharones at 7 a.m."

Laura said in addition to the great food, everyone they met was extremely nice. "They have just been so considerate," she said. "I am really impressed."

Some folks came by train, some by car, but Valeria Gonzales and John Lucero relied on the oldest transit system known to man - their feet. "We live just over there," Gonzales said, pointing south of the fair grounds. "We walk over every year."

The happy friends then turned their attention back to their piping hot sopaipillas, trying not to burn their mouths as they waited for a plate laden with carne adovada.

Dignitaries from all levels of government came out to enjoy the county's hospitality. Lt. Governor Diane Denish and husband, Herb, made a stop, and it wasn't their first.

"I think the last time we were here was the year it rained," Herb recalled. Diane said she first attended the event in either 1999 or 2000. "I've been back several times," she said. "It's a great place to meet a lot of people. I always get the chicharones first though."

According to chamber president Georgia Otero-Kirkham, the lieutenant governor wasn't the only dignitary to attend the matanza. She said State Sen. Michael Sanchez, Secretary of State Mary Herrera and U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich also came out for a taste of the matanza.

Up all the way from Pecos, Texas, Ginny Vigil stopped by the matanza based on a recommendation from her brother-in-law, who is also from Pecos.

"This is awesome," she said, holding a homemade tortilla. "A repeat for sure."

While Don and Lois Brumbaugh from Las Maravillas had plates loaded down with carne and potatoes, they were on the look-out for posole. "Somebody usually has a little pot going somewhere," Don said.

The matanza went off without a hitch, according to Otero-Kirkham, who called the people behind the scenes a well-oiled machine.

"Every board member was on one of the committees," she said. "Everyone had a job to do. They knew what their job was, and they delivered."

Otero-Kirkham said the chamber is still tabulating the final attendance numbers, but she felt confident enough to say she personally thought this was the biggest matanza of all the nine.

"Magistrate Judge Danny Hawkes provided free coffee and hot chocolate like he always does, and he gave out 4,000 cups," she said. "And we know there were many more than that.

"Our teams made an abundant amount of delicious food. We had enough food for everyone. The teams cooked all of the meat, used all of their chile and potatoes. Nothing went to waste."

After nine years of hosting the large-scale feast for the senses, Otero-Kirkham said, the chamber board is getting things such as ordering the food supplies down to a science. "We had one team that was short a box of potatoes and another who needed one more," she said. "So, we did really well with our ordering."

The board also got a jump on ordering the pigs for this year's matanza. "Last year people said the pigs were too thin," Otero-Kirkham said. "They said there was not enough fat for chicharones. So we ordered them in September this year to give them more time to fatten up."

As the crowd roamed and ate, music poured out of the tent in the center of the fairway. "The entertainment was wonderful. We tried something different by putting it outside, and the day was great, so people could enjoy the music without freezing," Otero-Kirkham said. "We might have a larger tent next year, so more people can enjoy the music."

With 25 teams plus the two title sponsors competing fiercely, the board decided to try out another competition - the Iron Pig. "It was our version of an Iron Chef challenge," Otero-Kirkham said. "We gave eight team members a box of ingredients that they had to use in a dish with a pork loin. We put in things like pineapple, peanuts and red peppers. Then each of the eight teams nominated a judge."

Now that the grounds have been cleaned up, the board has another year to plan for their 10th anniversary and learn from this year. "There are some little changes we are probably going to look at. This year we had three people ask if they could park their RVs and spend the night," Otero-Kirkham said. "We said they could, so we might look at doing something to accommodate more people wanting to stay overnight in the future. We also had a lot of teenagers out on Saturday to help, but we didn't tell them to come back on Sunday to help clean up. So it was just us old guys out there."

Otero-Kirkham said that so far it looked like everyone enjoyed the day and got their money's worth.

"I did get an interesting call from a man in California, who's from Belen. He and his brother were going to bring their kids to the matanza, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't a barbeque," she said. "I told him what we did and he said, 'OK, it's like I remember it.' I didn't see him Saturday, but I hope they enjoyed themselves."

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version