Quintina Ayvar de la Cruz is the dwelling embodiment of the setting that has been her residence for 97 years. She has a brightness that matches the inexperienced mangroves close to her home in Juluchuca, Mexico and he or she sparkles just like the salt that has been the main target of her life’s work—and a terrific supply of her life’s pleasure, too.
“I began from a younger age, once I was about six years previous,” says Ayvar de la Cruz, recalling her earliest experiences of harvesting salt from the world identified within the neighborhood as Las Salinas. “I started with my dad and mom, then continued with my brothers, then with my kids from after they had been eight.”
Quintina Ayvar de la Cruz. Images by Leia Marasovich.
The work of harvesting often begins in February or March and carries on for 3 or 4 months, relying on the climate. The members of the Ayvar de la Cruz household are the one remaining residents of the area to proceed harvesting salt within the conventional means, which is finished fully by hand with the assistance of instruments made solely from native, pure supplies, reasonably than counting on trendy tools. It begins by mixing a country concrete from sand and clay to kind shallow sq. basins on the fringe of the lagoon. These lagoons are then stuffed with each freshwater and saltwater, earlier than lime (in its mineral powder kind) is added to the small swimming pools to assist separate out the salt from the water. A particular rake known as a tarecua facilitates this course of. There, the combination dries within the solar over the subsequent 5 or so days and the salt is collected as soon as the water has evaporated.
“We begin at six within the morning,” says Ayvar de la Cruz. “We begin early as a result of when it’s cool, you possibly can transfer ahead with out getting so drained. At noon, the warmth turns into very robust.” A break is taken from round 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. When the solar is much less intense, the work continues till all the sunshine is gone, round eight within the night.
The times are lengthy and the work is difficult, however Ayvar de la Cruz focuses on the expertise of being on this extraordinary setting. “You are feeling the contemporary air and funky water of the mangroves. It’s a feeling of freedom and tranquility.”
The salt swimming pools the place Quintina Ayvar de la Cruz harvests. Images by Leia Marasovich.
At a distance of 90 years or so, she will nonetheless describe with spectacular readability the sensations of that first encounter with the salt flats—the sensation of being carried in her father’s arms and on the again of a donkey as they made the journey there and, later, to the closest city, Petatlán, to promote the salt, in addition to its dazzling whiteness when organized right into a mound throughout mats made from palm fronds after harvesting.
During the last decade, all different salt producers within the space have modernized the method. One of the crucial important adjustments has been the implementation of plastic sheets as the bottom for the drying areas, which makes manufacturing go extra rapidly.
“Salt made utilizing plastic will be offered for less expensive and it hurts our native market,” says Ayvar de la Cruz’s son, Don Alejandro. “We don’t market our salt as artisanal, however everybody is aware of round right here that we’re the one ones doing it the pure means.”
Don Alejandro (left) holds the salt his household produces. Images by Elena Valeriote.
Ayvar de la Cruz laments that the salt flats at the moment are permeated with a “plastic scent” and her son notes that employees typically go away their tools within the lagoon out of season and, when hurricanes hit the coast, plastic items can find yourself elsewhere, endangering native wildlife. The encircling mangroves are a key habitat for a various array of vegetation and animals, together with shrimp, fish, crabs, pink herons, deer and coati (a form of badger), in addition to a sort of tree identified colloquially as salado (“salty”) as a result of it survives in saltwater.
In 2006, the Ayvar de la Cruz household was contacted by a brand new hospitality enterprise known as Playa Viva. Its proprietor, David Leventhal, was planning to assemble a resort close by based on the rules of regenerative tourism, and he was enthusiastic about studying concerning the native ecosystems and neighborhood. Playa Viva hoped that collaborating with residents corresponding to Ayvar de la Cruz may assist create an area that may enable guests to expertise the great thing about this stretch of the Mexican coast, whereas additionally having a optimistic social and environmental influence that may linger longer than they’d.
In 2013, Playa Viva instituted the Regenerative Belief, with environmental and social objectives that vary from restoring ecosystems to elevating endangered species for launch and donating faculty provides to kids. Two p.c of all earnings from visitor reservations are channeled into these native applications.
Salt on the market. Images by Elena Valeriote.
One of many major applications funded by the Regenerative Belief is as ReSiMar—quick for “Regenerating from Sierra to Mar”—which refers to its space of focus, between the Sierra Madre Mountain Vary and the Pacific Ocean. By way of ReSiMar, Playa Viva goals to regenerate the complete ecosystem of this watershed. Sourcing substances from sustainable fisheries and different small companies that rely on the watershed, like that of the Ayvar de la Cruz household, is a part of this effort.
Playa Viva dedicated to purchasing the salt for its restaurant completely from the Ayvar de la Cruz household and, when it began welcoming friends to Juluchuca a number of years later, it additionally supplied excursions of Las Salinas collectively in the course of the salt harvest season. This relationship with Playa Viva has been an important supply of help within the household’s efforts to hold on harvesting salt as their ancestors did and it has given them an opportunity to share their work with foreigners for the primary time.
A mural of Ayvar de la Cruz in her hometown. Images by Elena Valeriote.
ReSiMar additionally information important details about the watershed to grasp the scope of their influence and decide which facets want probably the most consideration. In 2023, the ReSiMar group tracked water high quality, specializing in air pollution within the type of plastic packaging and glass bottles. From there, they recognized a necessity for improved ecological training and recycling applications, so that they targeted on bringing college students to the watershed and establishing a city neighborhood heart. “Water research present important baseline knowledge on the standard and amount of water throughout each the wet and dry seasons,” says Levanthal. “We then evaluate this knowledge 12 months after 12 months to watch adjustments.”
With practically a century of reminiscences to attract on from dwelling on this a part of the Guerrero area alongside the Pacific coast, Ayvar de la Cruz additionally holds inside her the historical past of this place. She is aware of the vegetation and animals which might be at residence on this distinctive tropical ecosystem, the pure rhythms of the seasons and work with them to reap salt in a means that the area people has practiced for lots of, if not hundreds, of years. For that reason, it’s all the extra putting that, in 2024, for the primary time in Ayvar de la Cruz’s lengthy life, uncommon climate patterns brought on a rupture within the timeline of this historic custom.
“Yearly, there’s a wet season and the lagoon fills. Then it empties and the salt flats are left dry, able to be labored. It’s a pure cycle that all the time occurs,” says Alejandro Ayvar, the youngest of Ayvar de la Cruz’s six sons. He and his brothers, together with their three sisters, have assisted their mom with the salt harvest on and off since their childhood. “This season, the lagoon didn’t empty adequately and the areas the place salt is produced didn’t get dry sufficient.”
Ayvar de la Cruz and household. Images by Leia Marasovich.
The unseasonably late rains that brought on the native estuary system to overflow and Las Salinas to flood in the course of the regular harvest time is only one instance of the results of the local weather disaster as they’re being skilled on this a part of the world.
“It’s not the identical anymore,” Ayvar de la Cruz says of the native local weather in recent times and the way this impacts the salt flats. “The temperature of the water has modified so much and it takes extra time to reap the salt.”
Because the local weather adjustments and the youthful generations of the Ayvar de la Cruz household discover extra financially steady prospects in different fields of labor, the way forward for this custom stays unsure, however Ayvar de la Cruz’s legacy is not going to quickly be forgotten. Her singular reference to this native setting and her dedication to this historic means of harvesting salt is commemorated in a mural on a constructing close to Las Salinas, painted by a visiting artist about six years in the past.
There’s worth, too, in merely having a dialog about salt, contemplating its place of birth and the individuals who harvested it. For as difficult as it may be to create methods that protect our historic meals practices, it’s simple to a minimum of protect the reminiscence of them.
“Thanks for coming to make me pleased,” Ayvar de la Cruz says on the finish of the interview. “To recollect is to stay once more.”
All interviews have been translated from Spanish into English with the help of Ximena Rodriguez, Juan Carlos “Johnny” Solis and David Leventhal.
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