The Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated a global economic crisis, but it has also opened the door to a more sustainable way of living in Real de Catorce, Mexico. This semidesert town located in the stark mountains of central Mexico was badly shaken when tourism – the main motor of its economy – came to a sudden halt last March.
Cut off from their regular income sources, the town’s inhabitants returned to harvesting the wild cacti, flowers and fruits of the desert. One of those falling back on the old ways was 77-year-old Socorro Aguilar, who carries the ancestral knowledge of how to collect wild foods and make agave syrup (or ‘god’s beverage’ as it was known by the Aztecs).
