Leaving the Vaca Loca

By Carol Amoruso, HAV

The ban on the sale of cow heads, imposed December 31st of last year, went mostly unnoticed in Anglo communities throughout the country, but made news in Latino enclaves nation-wide. "We got lots of calls in the beginning, and lost a few orders," says Alejandro Cantagallo of Carniceria Don Francisco 2000 in Jackson Heights, New York. The ban, which prohibits the sale of skulls, brains, eyes and vertebrae of cows over 30 months old, is deemed an attempt to prevent the spread of Mad Cow Disease (bovine spungiform encephalopathy) to humans. (The disease's human variant is known as Cruetzfeldt-Jacob disease.)

A 6 1/2 year-old cow from a farm in Mabton, Washington, was found infected with the disease upon slaughter on Dec. 9. The region is home to a sizable Mexican and Central American population, perhaps the country's largest consumers of cow heads and its parts. Here it was reported that the normally heightened holiday demand hadn't slackened appreciably.

The heads of calves and steers and of cows younger than 30 months can still be licitly sold, but, truth be told, the ban, and worries over contamination, may be sounding the death knell for these already rarifying organ meats. Dr. Harvey Crowder of the Benton-Franklin Health Department in Washington, was quoted by the Associated Press ("Groceries Hold Off on Selling Cow Heads for Hispanic Holiday Fare"-- Jan. 3, 2004) as saying, "I'm not sure how much longer these ethnic foods will be available. We'll have to watch and see."

Brain and tongue toppings

Tacos topped with cow brain or tongue are an everyday favorite throughout Mexico, sauced with tomato, chiles, white onion, cilantro, lime and salt. In the more northern regions, the whole head is skinned, seasoned with onions, garlic, and cilantro, then wrapped in burlap and slow-roasted: barbacoa. In the Yucatan, whole heads are preferred en pibil, wrapped in banana leaves then cooked in the traditional Mayan pit oven, the pib.

Many dishes prepared all year round in home countries shrink to holiday fare in adopted lands, circumstances of immigration and resettlement making the organization, preparation and gathering together of families and loved ones difficult.

Carniceria in Jackson Heights

In predominantly Latino Jackson Heights, populated in large part by Colombians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians and Argentineans, the demand for cow heads has decreased over the years, and while consumers were alarmed about the safety of beef in general, there were few calls specifically regarding cow heads. Don Francisco's Carniceria hasn't ordered brains in two years, mostly due to decreased demand, but also to their delicateness. Call for tongue has diminished as well: Cantagallo currently orders only 5 or 6 a month.

Carniceria customer, Pablo Ocner, born in Argentina, but living in the area for 27 years, recalls fondly his mother's fluffy cow brain fritters back in Buenos Aires, but says it's been too, too long since he's had them here. Jackson Heights' other Hispanic butcher shop, La Boina Roja, reports they haven't sold heads in years.

Cantagallo attributes this decline to the growing assimilation of the population, noting that his customers are developing Americans' taste for the more prime cuts of beef --rib-eye, shell, T-bone, and sirloin--adapting "to the gluttony of the consumerist American public." Ruefully he notes that Latinos are eschewing the more traditional, less wasteful cuts, such as short ribs, skirt steak, and organ meat. He believes that this practice is contributing to the dangers of Mad Cow as, the more "waste", the more that becomes cannibalized into potentially infecting feed.

Cantagallo is astute; one might call him, oxymoronically, a new age butcher. While not a whistle-blower, he is critical of the industry that is his family's livelihood. "The ban is a bandaid," he cautions. "It doesn't really solve the issues that cause Mad Cow, primarily cannibalization and industrialized farming," continuing, "Who knows what 40 more years of this [factory farming] is going to mean for us?"

Cantagallo's solution is in more humane farming: consuming more of the edible parts from slaughtered animals in greater justification for their sacrifice, raising them in farm- and not factory-like environments, and insuring that farming practices yield healthier meat. " We have to get out of agribusiness and back to the small farmer," he maintains, noting that many of the smaller cattle farmers who have lost their farms to agribusiness have been Latinos, having brought with them to this country the tradition of more humane ways of raising livestock.

Mad cow revelations

The whistleblower in the Mad Cow revelations has been Dave Louthan, the man who slaughtered the stricken white Holstein, her eyes "all white, bugging out," and "fixing to double back in and trample the downers [those lying down]." According to the New York Times ("Man Who Killed the Mad Cow Has Questions of His Own"--Feb. 4, 2004) Louthan, in an email campaign, has been critical of the Department of Agriculture for testing too few cattle, even for lying in maintaining that US beef is safe. It was Louthan, who slaughtered the diseased cow. He was dismissed from his job after telling the press he was sure the cow has already been eaten. He claims that he has been intimidated by agents from the Department of Agriculture for going public with concerns about the safety of beef and his criticisms of the industry.

On the other hand, sipping a glass of soy milk, Cantagallo says he won't put down his cleaver. "There's nowhere to go. If I sold tomatoes I'd be contributing to the impoverishment of Mexican farmers under NAFTA."