150, xiii pp. cookbook for working Mexican men and women, table of contents, a few scattered illustrations throughout. Octavo (7 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches). Original publisher's red illustrated wrappers. Loss to wrappers along top portion of spine, minor edgewear, some dampstaining to both front and back covers, consistent toning to interior pages, old bookseller's stamp to title page, overall very good. Chihuahua, Mexico: Imprenta Modelo, 1934. Second edition, "corregida y aumentada."

This rare cookbook was written for Mexican laborers and farmworkers by Ana María Hernández, a former teacher who taught night classes for laborers and served under the Secretary of Public Education as a government inspector in rural schools and factories. Hernández included her own photograph and biography in the introduction to the book, and wrote that she hoped that "my effort, made from the heart of a revolutionary woman, will be for the good of my country and my race."

The cookbook is divided by ingredients or course, and are representative of the typical food of Mexico, including: tamales; moles; salsas; antojitos (small plates); sopas; cereales; chiles rellenos; chalupas; tostadas; buñuelos; traditional preparations of beans, chayotes, nopales, rice, and corn; and notes on how to prepare various meats and fish. There are also food safety instructions and tips on how to prepare food on a tight budget and a worker's schedule.

Hernández also adds her own advice for working women on how to improve their lives. She recommends that women engage with unions, and seek out rural schools to learn to read and write. At the time of publication, Lázaro Cárdenas had recently been elected president of Mexico and had begun to institutionalize many of the reforms and demands for workers' rights made by revolutionaries over the preceding 25 years. Hernández released this cookbook at a time of patriotism and political activity among the working class, as well as a time of hardship as the Great Depression hit Mexico.

A rare and mouth-watering Depression-era Mexican cookbook; as of December 2025, OCLC locates three holdings of this edition in North American libraries.

Book ID: 53580

Price: $1,250.00