[javier10e6]

Good tortillas are moist, soft, pliable and chewie. It was in 1978 when I stumble for the first time at corner store in Monterrey, MX with tortillas bagged in a plastic bag for sale. What in the world? They were cold, and crumbly and stale. Until then I was accustomed to get my tortillas from the tortilleria in Coyoacan (Mexico City) where I had to stand in line after school (12:30) with for "medio kilo de tortillas" which I carried in a dry cloth. The tortilleria was a hole-in-the-wall building with a large oven with a conveyor belt. In the far end on top was the when burly sweaty guy dropping the nixtamal, masa and in the opposite end was the "tortillera", a girl also in sweaty clothes catching the tortillas from the end of the metal wire conveyor belt. She would grab the tortillas with her bare hands, of course, and place them on the scale that had two counter weights, one for medio kilo and another for kilo. I would giver her the cloth, she would put the tortillas on them and wrap them for 3 pesos. On my way home I would roll tight one tortilla and snack on it as a "delivery fee". I remember in school some girls throwing the slur "tortillera" to her enemies. I couldn't disagree more. The tortilleras of my childhood dispensed with the most delicious staples of my existence.