Hate-Music Songbird Takes Issue With Our Review
Charity Pendergraft to our earlier post about her white-power sister act.
Pendergraft鈥檚 verdict: 鈥淚 found the article very amusing.鈥�
She didn鈥檛 intend it as a compliment. Pendergraft, 18, and sister Shelby, 16, singing as Heritage Connection, have released two CDs and perform at white nationalist events. Among other things, Charity Pendergraft took umbrage at of the sisters鈥� 鈥渢hin, quavering voices.鈥� 鈥淸T]hose who have heard us sing live would agree that our music, lyrics and vocals are anything but 鈥榪uavering,鈥欌�� she wrote on the sisters鈥� blog.
She also didn鈥檛 like the way we poked fun at her fondness for Mexican cuisine. (Charity had written in an earlier blog post that she鈥檇 eaten enchiladas for dinner and loved "Spanish" food.) 鈥淒oesn鈥檛 she [the author] know the difference between Mexican food and Spanish food?鈥� she sniffed. 鈥淥r for that matter the difference between Mexicans and Spaniards? First Spaniards are white and second Mexicans are a mix of indian, white, and negro. I believe she needs to do more research. True native food in Mexico was a mixture of roasted and/or boiled lizard, rat, and boiled root vegetables. No, I鈥檓 not trying to be mean, just telling the truth. It took the creativity of the white Spaniards to make the food of 鈥楳exico鈥� edible.鈥�
We took Pendergraft up on her suggestion that we do more research and contacted Jeffrey Pilcher, a history professor at the University of Minnesota and the author of 隆Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity.
Here (in part) is what he had to say about the origin of enchiladas:
鈥淭he claim that anything valuable in Mexican culture must have been introduced by the Spaniards is an old and pernicious myth. In this case, it鈥檚 presumably a reference to the cheese on top. But the word 鈥榚nchilada鈥� means something that has been put in chile, and that something is of course a corn tortilla. Needless to say, both chile and tortillas were eaten for at least a thousand years before the Spaniards arrived. The Florentine Codex written in the sixteenth century by indigenous scribes under the direction of Fray Bernardino de Sahagu鈥檔 describes ancient Aztec enchiladas. The Mayas still eat an entirely pre-Hispanic dish called Papadzules, meaning 鈥榝ood of the lords,鈥� which is an enchilada made with two different sauces, one of pumpkin seeds and the other with tomato and habanero chiles. Instead of cheese, it is garnished with boiled and chopped turkey eggs. Delicious.鈥�
