Mexico: Machine-made tortillas.

Record ID: 1099414

  • Title: Mexico: Machine-made tortillas.
  • Date: 11th June 1958
  • Summary: 1. GV. Street in MEXICO CITY. 2. Top V. Woman mixing the dough by hand for "TORTILLA". 3. CU. Woman shaping tortillas, places them on hot plate over open fire. 4. LV.PAN Woman cooking tortillas pan up to man taking and eating one. 5. CU. Man eating tortilla. 6. CU. The dough for tortilla being emptied into machine. 7. CU. Mixing mechanism. 8. CU. Mixed dough being taken from machine. 9. SV. Man places dough into machine. 10. SV. Shaped tortillas leaving machine on conveyor. 11. CU. Cooked tortillas coming out of machine. 12. CU. Notice giving price of tortillas. 13. SV.PAN Man weighs up tortillas wraps them and takes money from customer. Initials VL WWS/VCW Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th June 1958 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Access Restrictions:This media cannot be downloaded as there may be copyright restrictions. Please contact us for more information
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Reuters ID: LVADOPJDTEX6IFLSIJAJ18ZZQ61P
  • Story Text:Yes, the machine is taking over -- even in the back streets of Mexico City and in the making of the senor's staple diet, the tortilla. Traditionally, the famous (but often indigestible) tortilla has been made by hand. In little shops and on the sidewalks, Mexican woman have slapped the corn-meal dough called masa on to a wood-burning grill, the bracero. Within a minute or so, a piping hot tortilla has awaited the eager customer.

    Now there is an automatic tortilla maker -- a machine that grinds the corn, rolls the dough, cuts it into the required, round, pancake shape, -- all untouched by hand. Out of the other end comes a procession of hot tortillas.

    There are five of these machines in Mexico City already and, if the experiment proves a success, the whole of the city's tortilla industry is likely to be mechanised.

    The Mexican Government points to the lower price (35 centavos), to its hygienic aspect. But the older Mexicans, proud of their back street tortilla tradition, say they don't taste as good. Lack (perhaps in more ways than one) that personal touch...
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS - SOURCE TO BE VERIFIED
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register