A video on social media has revived the conversation about the decision to ban the sale of corn on the cob during the Independence Day shout in Cuernavaca. The ban has been in place for years, according to Mauricio Villa, a 30-year-old lawyer who has lived in the city since 2015. “It’s an act of protest and, even, just for fun,” the lawyer says over the phone. The protest he refers to dates back to 1994: Governor Jorge Carrillo Olea went out onto the balcony of the Municipal Palace and was greeted by a corn on the cob stuck on a wooden stick, prepared with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili. The City Council made the food ban official until 2022.
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“From 7:00 p.m. until after the shout, only esquites will be sold,” informed Roberto Castrejón Campos, union leader of the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico (Catem), at the beginning of the month. The union leader explained that the snack vendors set up on Hidalgo, Guerrero, and No Reelección streets, in downtown Cuernavaca, on the night of Monday, September 14, and will take down their stalls on the morning of the 16th.
A prepared corn on the cob is a traditional Mexican street snack. The ear of corn is boiled or grilled, a wooden stick is stuck into one end, and mayonnaise, cheese, lime, and a variety of chilies (the spicy one, the mildly spicy one, and the non-spicy one) are added. There is also the option to add crushed chips, árbol chili or Valentina sauces, chamoy, among other things.
Esquites are the kernels of corn served in a broth, usually in a styrofoam cup. The preparation is the same, although some stalls offer to add suadero, pastor, and even bone marrow.
Content creator Welchelass made a video about the ban that has gone viral on Instagram (where it has more than two million views at the time of this publication) and TikTok (with 825,000 views). “And you might say, why ban such delicious food,” starts the influencer. “The reason is that, somehow, here we have the custom of throwing corn cobs at governors on September 15.”
However, after a quick search through local and national media, no information was found to verify any other aggression by residents towards governors with corn cobs in Cuernavaca, or in any other state of the Republic, except for the one in 1994.
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Users who have commented on Welchelass’s video recall another protest act they consider iconic. “In Morelos, it was also where women burned chilies outside the Government Palace to get their attention,” says one. “The real punks,” replies another. “The women rock,” adds someone else. In 2020, members of the Permanent Agrarian Congress stood in front of the entrance to the Secretariat of Agricultural Development, burned flags and dried chilies, and demanded a hearing and the delivery of 500 million pesos for the countryside, and 100 million pesos for a productive boost program for women, according to the newspaper El Universal. The idea was for the chilies to make it unbearable to stay inside and to irritate the eyes and lungs of those inside the building.
At the time of this publication, the ceremony and celebration of September 15 by the local government remain in place, despite the critical situation in the state.
On the night of Saturday, September 12, Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, a Spanish exchange student studying Early Childhood Education at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), was murdered in a stabbing attack in Cuautla, Morelos. This year alone, three other students from the same university have been killed.
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