The International Pasty Festival (Spanish: Festival Internacional del Paste) is an annual festival celebrating the pasty that has been held in Real del Monte, Hidalgo, Mexico since 2009. Pasties (known locally as pastes), were introduced to the region by Cornish miners in the 19th century and are still made by their descendants. Traditional recipes may be followed, but often the ingredients today reflect local preferences. The annual festival attracts thousands of visitors, who may also visit the Cornish Pasty Museum and attend other cultural events.
The municipality of Pachuca has a long history of gold and silver mining, but during the Mexican War of Independence (1810–21) much of the infrastructure was destroyed and many of the mines became flooded.[1] A group named the Real del Monte Company was formed in 1824 and arranged to bring mining equipment and experienced miners from Cornwall. After landing on Mocambo beach, south of Veracruz, the miners took 14 months to struggle 250 miles (400km) through swamps and rain forests to Real del Monte.[1]
The Cornish brought cultural traditions that included football, wrestling and baking pasties. Although the Cornish community shrank after the 1911 revolution, some Cornish names survive. There are buildings and houses with European architecture, including Francis Rule's Methodist Church.[2] In 2008 the Cornish Mexican Cultural Society helped arrange for Real del Monte and Redruth in Cornwall to be twinned.[3]
Today many establishments in Pachuca bake pasties.[2] The growth of shops selling pasties coincided with the decline in mining as residents looked for other ways to make a living. A paste may have "classic" meat, potato and turnip filling, perhaps with additional herbs and jalapeño, and may also be filled with red or green mole, pineapple, shredded pork or chicken in chilli or even fish.[3]
History
Pastes Kiko's, a pastes chain in Pachuca Mexico
The 3-day International Pasty Festival was launched in Real del Monte in October 2009.[3]María Oralia Vega Ortíz, Hidalgo tourism secretary, opened the festival. Richard Williams, president of the Sociedad Cornish Mexicana, was among those present. Thirteen paste companies participated.[4] Commercial stalls sold the savoury snacks on the main streets of the town. Fillings included tongue, brain, sausage, beans and yellow cheese.[5] There were teething troubles, as when customs officials confiscated swedes that were being imported as an essential ingredient for authentic pasties.[6]
The October 2011 festival attracted about 20,000 visitors. In November 2011 Real del Monte opened the first Cornish Pasty Museum in the world, organised by the town's Cornish Culture Council.[6] Before the museum was opened a group from The Regulatory Council for the Cornish Heritage of Real del Monte visited Cornwall on a week-long fact finding mission and met with the Cornish Pasty Association.[7] The fourth annual "International Paste Festival" was held on 12–14 October 2012, supported by the government of the state of Hidalgo. Visitors were invited to view pre-Columbian archaeological sites, mines and the English Cemetery.[2] Eight companies engaged in making pastes participated in the festival.[8]
In May 2013 Juan Renato Olivares, Hidalgo tourism minister, visited Cornwall to try to encourage the people of Cornwall to visit Mexico. He said "The Mexicans are immensely proud of their extraordinary links with Cornwall as so many of the descendants of the original miners live in Mexico – people with wonderful names such as Enrique Pengelly and Raoul Pascoe."[9] In September 2013 Victor Aladro, the president of the Cornish Mexican Pasty Association, was with a delegation that toured Heartlands in Pool, Cornwall, where he was given a Cornish Mining World Heritage Site sign. The sign was to be unveiled at a ceremony celebrating mining during the forthcoming International Pasty Festival.[10]
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited Real del Monte in 2014. They visited the Pasty Museum, where the couple made pasties.[11] The 7th Festival Internacional del Paste was held on 9–11 October 2015 in Real del Monte. The festival had developed into one of the largest in the state, providing an opportunity for marketing products and services of the tourism and food industries. It included artistic and cultural events, and the opportunity to savour the local pasties, or pastes.[12]
A pasty or Cornish pasty is a British baked pastry, a variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, but has spread all over the British Isles, and elsewhere through the Cornish diaspora. It consists of an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetables, baked in a folded and crimped shortcrust pastry circle.
Hidalgo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Hidalgo, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 84 municipalities and its capital city is Pachuca de Soto. It is located in east-central Mexico and is bordered by San Luis Potosí and Veracruz on the north, Puebla on the east, Tlaxcala and State of Mexico on the south and Querétaro on the west.
Redruth is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. According to the 2011 census, the population of Redruth was 14,018 In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also includes Carn Brea, Illogan and several outlying villages, stood at 55,400 which made it the largest conurbation in Cornwall. Redruth lies approximately at the junction of the A393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road, and is approximately 9 miles (14 km) west of Truro, 12 miles (19 km) east of St Ives, 18 miles (29 km) north east of Penzance and 11 miles (18 km) north west of Falmouth. Camborne and Redruth together form the largest urban area in Cornwall and before local government reorganisation were an urban district.
Pachuca, formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the east-central Mexican state of Hidalgo, located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality for which the city serves as municipal seat. Pachuca is located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Mexico City via Mexican Federal Highway 85.
The Cornish diaspora consists of Cornish people and their descendants who emigrated from Cornwall, United Kingdom. The diaspora is found within the United Kingdom, and in countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Samoas.
Mineral del Monte, commonly called Real del Monte or El Real, is a small mining town, and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in the State of Hidalgo in east-central Mexico.
A paste is a small pastry produced in the state of Hidalgo in central Mexico and in the surrounding area. They are stuffed with a variety of fillings including potatoes and ground beef, apples, pineapple, sweetened rice, or other typical Mexican ingredients, such as tinga and mole.
The Municipality of Pachuca de Soto, or Municipality of Pachuca, is one of the Municipalities of the state of Hidalgo, located in east-central Mexico.
Club de Fútbol Pachuca is a Mexican professional football club based in Pachuca, Hidalgo, that competes in Liga MX. It was founded in 1892 by the "Compañia Real del Monte y Pachuca" (CRDMyP), a Mexican mining company which had mostly British miners workers from Camborne and Redruth, who were the first to introduce football to Mexico. Nicknamed "Los Tuzos", it pays tribute and refers to the history and mining heritage of the club and the city of Pachuca. It was the first football club founded in Mexico, and was one of the founding members of the Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association.
Alfred Charles Crowle was a Mexican Technical Director to Selección de fútbol de México. Born in Mexico, he was the son of tin miner Alfred Crowle and Eugenia Augusta Leonora Shaw.
Cornish cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with Cornwall and the Cornish people. It has been heavily influenced by the geography of the county as well as its social history.
The Cornish Pasty Association is a British trade association, based in Cornwall, England. As of 2013 the association included about 50 independent bakers of Cornish pasties. The association successfully sought to have the name "Cornish Pasty" protected as one of the Protected geographical indications. Despite the resolution of the 2012 "Pasty tax" matter, the BBC has reported that some Cornish Pasty Association members are still unsure whether Value Added Tax applies to their baked goods.
The 1766 Real del Monte strike occurred when silver miners in the province of New Spain went on strike for better working conditions. Real del Monte was a prosperous mining city under the Spanish crown, located in east-central Mexico—today a municipality in the state of Hidalgo. The mines were owned and controlled by the Count de Regla, Pedro Romero de Terreros from 1735 until Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. He is considered by many to be one of the richest and most powerful Spaniards in the colonies at the time of the strike, and is noted for his incredible business skill in restoring his bankrupt uncle's estate to one of the most prosperous silver producing regions in the whole of Spanish America (Ladd). The strike in 1766 though, in which miners protested changes in labor and wage practices under Terreros, is considered by many to be the first real labor strike in North American history, as it was not only a work stoppage, which had occurred in many places before, but an organized attempt at renegotiating labor contracts and conditions.
Britons in Mexico, or British Mexicans, are Mexicans of British descent or British-born persons who have become naturalized citizens of Mexico.
Francis Rule was a Cornish miner who moved to Mexico and became immensely wealthy by using pumping equipment to explore previously flooded and abandoned mines. He found and exploited rich seams of silver and use the funds to form various mining companies.
The Cornish-Mexican Cultural Society is a society that tries to advance awareness of the historical and modern links between Cornwall and Mexico’s “Little Cornwall”, the area of Pachuca and Real del Monte in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico.
The World Pasty Championships were an annual event held in Cornwall to celebrate the Cornish Pasty and its variants, with entrants from around the world including Australia and the Americas. Awards were given to amateurs, professionals, juniors and companies. Entries in the Cornish pasty category must be made in Cornwall with traditional ingredients and techniques, but far more freedom was allowed in the "open savoury" category.
The Pachuca Range is a mountain range in the Sierra Madre Oriental of central Mexico, in the state of Hidalgo.
The Comarca Minera Geopark is located in the center-south of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It extends over nine municipalities: Atotonilco el Grande, Epazoyucan, Huasca de Ocampo, Mineral del Chico, Mineral de la Reforma, Mineral del Monte, Omitlán de Juárez, Pachuca de Soto and Singuilucan. These municipalities are articulated by a network of 31 geosites, elected because they express the geological history of the territory and highlight the relationship between mining and metallurgy, and the historical spaces and cultural development of the region. In addition, they are important for science and education and, mostly, have a significant landscape value.
The 1766 Real del Monte strike or 1766 miners' strike was a strike that occurred in the mines of Pachuca and Real del Monte when Pedro Romero de Terreros abolished the workers' party, reduced wages from 4 reales to 3 reales, and increased the workload to gain more profits.
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