Thanksgiving in Oaxaca (2023)
Tracking down ingredients for an American holiday
It was around a decade ago we decided to skip Thanksgiving for the first time in order to travel internationally, and we’ve never looked back.
Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday, in large part because of how miserable it is to travel on this particular week. But there’s a peculiarity about Thanksgiving: it’s mostly a bad travel day if you’re traveling within the United States. Putting aside the misery of getting to the airport and then making your way through security, if you plan to go to another country it’s essentially the international flight version of doing a reverse commute. While everyone around you looks like they might be just one rude comment away from a Falling Down-style complete meltdown, in our experience, the international departures terminal is a pretty relaxed place to be.
It was over Thanksgiving that we first went to Mexico City, a trip so wonderful we decided that we’d just go back to Mexico City every year from that point on. In fact, we had hoped to do that this year as well but ultimately decided against it due to cost. It turns out this was an unexpectedly beneficial decision, because after nine-and-a-half weeks our stuff finally arrived from the U.S. yesterday. Good thing this holiday isn’t a big deal for us!
How to Prepare Thanksgiving in Oaxaca
Just because we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself a Thanksgiving meal in Oaxaca. Here, and more broadly in Mexico, Thanksgiving is observed either by expats or by people looking to do something more explicitly American. It’s not a recognized holiday here, and most people don’t celebrate. But if you’re dead set on doing it you can find what you’re looking for.
Sadly, the most popular source of information here is Facebook. Google provides very little useful information about Mexico, and Google Maps is even worse. If you need a recommendation for something, be it a hair dresser, a place to buy furniture, or the name of someone selling turkeys, a Facebook group is your best bet.
Over the past week on Facebook I learned a store called Puntos Organico is selling cranberries, pumpkins, and persimmons. The same shop also carries Brussels sprouts on occasion. You can also find cranberries in Mercado Hidalgo, one of the large markets in the Centro neighborhood in Oaxaca City (Oaxaca de Juárez). In San Sebastián Etla, the next village over from us, a young guy named Paco runs a bakery and he’s selling incredibly delicious miniature pumpkin tarts.
The largest, most American supermarket here, Chedraui, carries herbs like sage. One of our favorite shops in Oaxaca, La Miscelánea, carries an assortment of Mexican-made cheeses and charcuterie perfect for an appetizer board. There are also places you can find turkeys, the Oaxaca Lending Library (run by gringos) hosts an annual Thanksgiving dinner you can buy tickets for, and some local restaurants even get on board.
What’s interesting about having access to Thanksgiving food is that these ingredients simply would not have been available in previous years. But when our favorite local restaurant, Frida Libre, began serving fall dishes with butternut squash it was noteworthy, as butternut squash simply was not something you could buy in Oaxaca in past years.
The shift in available ingredients reflects changes in Oaxaca. This is still one of the poorest states in Mexico, and one with some of the greatest income disparity between people. But Oaxaca de Juárez is becoming much more metropolitan. Suddenly Oaxaca is subject to much more travel coverage. It has chain restaurants, which really is a consequence of the death of artist Francisco Toledo, who fought tooth and nail against the Westernification of the city. Oaxaca has $500 a night hotels, more tasting menus, more gringos.
The final time we visited Oaxaca, before our move, someone told us that “Thanksgiving is cool!” simply because it’s American. It’s a sentiment I understand. American things carry a lot of weight here because of the nature of the relationship Mexico has with the U.S., where so many people view the country as being desirable. But beyond the influence America has on Mexico, I also think there is something really fun about holidays which come from outside of your own culture. Having a lack of familiarity with a holiday robs it of the baggage it might otherwise carry. If you don’t automatically associate Thanksgiving with sitting next to a Fox News-watching family member, or spending dozens of hours in excruciating transit, or a lifetime of the other buboes this holiday has hiding just the surface of it’s bronzed, crispy skin, it’s going to be even more fun than it would be otherwise.
I said to Andrea that my normal schedule of sending out my newsletter on Thursday, at least for this week, was a terrible idea. Who’s reading their email on Thanksgiving? She responded “I don’t agree, I think plenty of people are hiding in the bathroom looking at their phone.” I didn’t end up hitting send on Thursday, but if you’re reading this entry this week, whether you’re hiding or just out there in the open, I hope you had a great day, a great meal, and that your travels go smoothly.
From here in Oaxaca, where you can buy a turkey (even if you don’t want to), happy (belated) Thanksgiving!
