Mycotourism Blooms in Mushroom-Rich Mexico

Mexico’s mushroom diversity has become a tourist attraction, offering indigenous experts an opportunity to conserve the environment — and their own ancestral knowledge — for the next generation.

Published November 3, 2022

Miguel Ángel Reyes and his brother, Jorge Reyes, hadn’t visited their hometown, San Miguel Canoa, in several years. Working as chefs in tourist sites throughout Mexico, the brothers decided in early 2019 to return to the small town nestled at the foot of La Malinche, or Matlalcuéyatl, volcano, in the eastern state of Puebla.

They were shocked to find that a fire had devastated the ancient forest surrounding the town. The smoke darkened the air “like a movie,” Miguel Reyes recalls. In the aftermath of the disaster, the brothers had an idea: They would use their ancestral and culinary knowledge of wild mushrooms to organize a Wild Mushroom Festival, which they hoped would attract tourists and garner support for reforestation.

Little did they know, they were jumping headfirst into a growing industry: mycotourism, or tourism centered on finding, identifying and learning about wild mushrooms.

But the young chefs have a secret ingredient for success. They are nanacateros, a word from the Náhuatl language to describe a select group of Náhuatl speakers who possess ancestral knowledge of wild mushrooms. As interest grows in protecting forests and mushroom habitat, scientists and the general public are increasingly recognizing and valuing that expertise, cultivated by indigenous communities in Mexico over centuries.

Read more […]