Lina Fernandez is a poet, writer, herbalist, teacher and chef. She was an artist in the kitchen, always singing, talking and smiling while she cooked. Her restaurant, El Laurel had only ten tables and was in a cool courtyard off of Nicholas Bravo Sadly, it is no more. I remember sitting there, sharing the space with Toledo and Morales, two of Oaxaca's famous painters. I met photographers, poets, film makers, writers and other eclectics as we all came for Lina's delicious offerings.
Her chiles en nogada were famous and when word got out that she was making them, people literally flocked into the tiny space. The video is cut from a longer shoot in which I spent the entire day with Lina as she shopped, chopped and cooked. In the longer version, she talks to me, the camera, and says, "You are to blame for this, Chris. I wasn't going to make them this year, but you gave me a motive."
Little did I know that she was closing the restaurant the next month and this was the last time she made chiles en nogada for her many friends at El Laurel. As I re-watch the tape, I realize now that she was telling that it was over and there is a poignancy to her words. Like watching a movie the second or third time, the things one notices that were there all the time, but missed, caught up in the moment.
Santo Domingo
The view from Corazon del Pueblo
The hereafter re me
- Christopher Stowens
- Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
- Musician, photographer, videographer, reporter, ex-officio teacher, now attempting to be a world traveler
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