May 1st Day of the Torta Maker, in Case You Forgot

Poster for Day of the Tortero

Tortas are those rolls bulging with beans, avocado, jalapeño, cheese, meats and pretty much what the imagination allows that you can buy on street corners in Mexico (and that is shown in the bottom right of the poster).  And tomorrow, May Day, is, it turns out, the day of the hard-working torta maker, the tortero.

Or so I learned from this poster on the side of a torta stand a couple of blocks from where we live.  I admit I would be curious to go to Villa de Tezontepec in the mountainous and rather poor state of Hidalgo that lies to the north of Mexico City for this all day affair, beginning with Las Mañanitas (the birthday song), a mass, a procession with the image of the tortero’s patron saint, Our Lord of Humility and then on to the secular part.

First, the dividing up of the SUPER TORTA and passing out of more than 10,000 tortas.

Then competitions and a greasy pole and a greasy pig.

And then the dance.

Instead I shall content myself with walking up to the torta stand to see whether the vendors have treated themselves to a day of rest or whether they are laboring, as usual, in the hot sun.

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