In a small restaurant with a sunlit patio, just outside Oaxaca’s historic center, locals come to have their mid-morning memelas, an open-face tortilla snack with traditional Oaxacan string cheese, refried beans, and a meat of their choice. Plaza 8 Regions, as the restaurant/cooperative is called, gets its name for the eight communities that comprise this very young cooperative.
In business for just two years, Plaza 8 Regions has already branded several of its products, which it sells to three other states in Mexico. Nutrivida, one of the group’s lines of products, made in San Sebastián de Etla, is natural and “more healthy than store-bought items,” according to Clara Ramírez, Plaza 8’s coffee representative, who also sits on the board of directors. “We sell only local and natural Oaxacan products,” says Clara proudly. All of the Nutrivida granolas, cereal bars and cookies are made with natural honey instead of sugar. There is also a separate granola for diabetics with a crushed spinach powder that gives it a zesty flavor.
The region of Santa María Ocotepec provides the restaurant with fresh organic vegetables, meats, and tortilla products. Clients can enjoy tasty local favorites like memelas, chicken tamales with a chili-based sauce (known as amarillo), soups, empanadas and tlayudas—a larger crispy version of the memela.
Tlayudas are one of the typical snacks served in Plaza 8 Regiones.
Products from the other six communities of Plaza 8 are sold and displayed around the restaurant. On one display table, colorful bottles of mescal from San Dionisio Ocotepec are sold. Adorning each lunch table are black ceramics from Mije, and organic honey and marmalades from the Ithsmo region are displayed in the doorway. Traditional Banda and Marimba CD’s from a local production studio in Oaxaca city are also for sale, and clients can even buy a wool rug from the traditional weaving community of Teotitlán on their way out the door.
Plaza 8’s main objectives are to maintain the traditions of its communities by selling solely local products. “It’s sad because sometimes Oaxacans grow up in the United States, and they forget what an empanada is, but everyone knows Coca Cola,” Clara admits. You can’t get a Coca Cola in this place, but Clara’s daughter Nisa, 20, who prepares beverages for the restaurant, will squeeze you a fresh Creole pineapple juice, which has a distinct tart flavor. “Our goal is take care of the client. It’s not only about making profits, but about maintaining health,” she says. Clara, a third generation coffee grower, grew up in San Gabriel Mixtepec, and is proud that Plaza 8 sells coffee from her region. Next year, its members hope to achieve the organic stamp, and begin selling internationally. Right now, their coffee is sold within Oaxaca, the state of Quintana Roo, and the Federal District, as well as Mahatlan.
Other members of Plaza 8, Enrique and his wife Enima, prepare appetizers for the restaurant. Enrique describes the process of making the unique tamales from their community of Sierra Juárez Chinanteco, prepared with a rare banana leaf that grows in water, which not only gives their tamales a special flavor, but also maintains customs. “They don’t teach our language any more in the schools,” explains Enrique, adding that Chinantec is one of the hardest indigenous languages to learn in the state of Oaxaca. “We want to show clients that our culture is still alive.”
Members of Plaza 8 Regiones shining in their regional costumes and displaying some of their products.
This year Plaza 8 has received a donation from the Oaxaca Community Foundation, which they will use to make the restaurant more attractive. Clara plans to create a bigger sign for the store, purchase wooden tables and chairs, hire new workers and even provide both employee training on customer service and pottery courses to improve ceramics sales. Clara also wants to provide a better living to not only her primary employees, but also to the hundreds of family members behind the team producing and distributing the food for Plaza 8. “We want to be one of the businesses trying to rescue the Oaxacan culture,” she says with a smile.
