Grandma's holidays

I look back with longing on those beautiful holidays at my grandmother's family home in the village of Magdaleno.

More than a celebration of gifts or drinks, it was a gathering full of peace, togetherness and traditions.

But it was also steeped in magic; my grandmother would prepare her signature dish: chile colorado with pork.

While we delighted in its flavour, she shared ancestral stories that seemed to evoke other times.

Very early in the morning he would start the preparations, taking out pans and ‘secret’ herbs to give it the perfect touch, in a ritual that was repeated generations ago.

No one dared to assist her, respecting her wisdom after more than a century of life, it amused us to imagine her as a guru with all the knowledge, and she often told us stories whose veracity only she knew.

As the colorado boiled permeating the atmosphere, she would tell us the age-old method: grind chilli and onion, let the spices cook and then add pieces of pork marinated calmly so as not to burn and attract bad luck.

I never knew if it was true, but what I do remember is that no one left that home without trying his culinary art, engraved forever in my memory.