Reflections, challenges, and opportunities in the significance of the Gastronomic Heritage of the Rarámuri Community
Opportunities in the Gastronomic Heritage of the Rarámuri Community
Abstract
The Rarámuri, or Tarahumara, are an ethnic group from the Sierra Madre Occidental in Chihuahua, Mexico, known for their traditions and clothing; their diet was based on corn, pinole, local vegetables (potatoes, zucchini, chiltepín, pinto beans), and game. However, their dietary habits underwent drastic changes due to social, economic, cultural, and climatic factors, forcing them to migrate to the cities of Chihuahua and Ciudad Juárez. Given this situation, this research aims to analyze the causes of the loss of their culinary culture and the issues affecting their quality of life. The objective is to explore tourism proposals linked to the Rarámuri culinary heritage that can generate sustainable alternatives to improve the socioeconomic conditions of their communities
References
Armendáriz, A. G. M., Fuentes, G. Á., Housni, F. E., & Cervantes, V. G. A. (2025). Prácticas alimentarias en una comunidad rarámuri de la Sierra de Chihuahua, México. Anthropol. Food, S18.
Cárdenas-Carrión, Blanca María. (2014). Construcciones culturales del sabor: comida Rarámuri. Anales De Antropología 48 (1): 33-57.
Creel. https://www.creelsierratarahumara.com/profile/contacto/profile (consultado 20 de junio de 2026).
Diaz, Selene, & Esquivel García, Paul E.. (2026). I’m Not an India, I’m a Tarahumara: Images and Narratives by Rarámuri people in Ciudad Juárez. Frontera Norte, 38, e2433.
Fournier-García, P and Mondragón-Barrios, L. (2012). Las bebidas mexicanas. Pulque, mezcal y tesgüino. Arqueología Mexicana, 114, 53-59.
Indigenousmexico. https://www.indigenousmexico.org/articles/indigenous-chihuahua-a-war-zone-for-three-centuries-2 (consultado 2 de junio de 2026).
Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas. https://www.gob.mx/inpi/articulos/etnografia-del-pueblo-tarahumara-raramuri (consultado 5 de junio de 2026).
Lieberman, D. E., Mahaffey, M., Quimare, S. C., Holowka, N. B., Wallace, I. J., Baggish, A. L., Ijäs, M., Levi, J. M., Liebenberg, L., Martin, D. Q., Morneau, J., Cortina, A. P. P., Willems, C., & Wyndham, F. S. (2020). Running in Tarahumara (Rarámuri) Culture: Persistence Hunting, Footracing, Dancing, Work, and the Fallacy of the Athletic Savage. Curr. Anthropol., 61(3), 356–379.
Martínez-Armendáriz, A. G., Álvarez Fuentes, G., and Ezzahra-Housni, F. and Virginia Gabriela Aguilera Cervantes, V. G. (2025). Prácticas alimentarias en una comunidad rarámuri de la Sierra de Chihuahua, México. Anthropol. Food, S18.
Moreno-Calles, A.I. Casas, A. Rivero-Romero, A.D. Romero-Bautista, Y.A. Rangel-Landa, S. Fisher-Ortíz, R.A. Álvarado-Ramos, F. Vallejo-Ramos, M & Santos-Fita, D. (2016). Ethnoagroforestry: integration of biocultural diversity for food sovereignty in Mexico. J Ethnobiol. Ethnomed., 12, 54.
Piedepagina. https://piedepagina.mx/farm-to-table-a-celebration-of-raramuri-gastronomy/ (consultado 20 de junio de 2026).
Sabores de Méxicoy el Mundo. https://lossaboresdemexico.com/comida-raramuri/ (consultado 1 de julio de 2026).
Scholar archive. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1309 (consultado 14 de junio de 2026).
World cultures. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/cultures/nu33/doc (consultado 25 de mayo de 2026).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
1.The works published in this magazine are subject to the following terms: Tourism Research Association (the publisher) preserves the patrimonial rights (copyright) of the published works, and favors and allows the reuse of them under the license of use indicated in point 2.
© Investur, 2017
2.The works are published in the electronic edition of the magazine under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative 3.0 Spain (legal text) license. They can be copied, used, disseminated, transmitted and publicly displayed, provided that: i) the authorship and the original source of their publication (journal, editorial and URL of the work) are cited; ii) are not used for commercial purposes; iii) the existence and specifications of this license are mentioned.
3. Self-file conditions. Authors are allowed and encouraged to disseminate electronically the pre-print versions (version before being evaluated) and / or post-print (version evaluated and accepted for publication) of their works before publication, since it favors their circulation and earlier dissemination and with it a possible increase in its citation and scope among the academic community.
