This document discusses the evolution and adaptability of bread in Mexican culture. It provides several examples of how bread has changed forms and uses over time to better suit cultural and practical needs. Bread has been remixed with new ingredients and fillings. Traditional recipes have been adapted by being molded into new portable shapes or stuffed to create convenient meals. Mexican pan dulce and tortas in particular have experienced evolutions, with pan dulce gaining new global influences and tortas being retooled and upscaled by chefs. Overall, the document illustrates how bread is a continually evolving food in Mexico that reflects changes in the moments and needs of the people.

1. Framing and Reframing
Cuauhtémoc Rivera Loaiza

2. Bread, the ever evolving item
• Although the assignment asks us to work on a
loaf of bread re-use, I decided to put a spin on
bread.
• You see, in my culture, everything seems to be
remixed: culture, history, food!
• Bread (not including flat-bread like tortillas), has
been, since its introduction to Mesoamerica, a
continuously evolving item
• What amazes me the most is how a piece of
bread morphs; it’s never still. It changes to reflect
the very moment people is living.

3. Bread Adaptability.
These breads are baked on sardine tin cans,
hence the shape. They are called Pan de Caja
(Bread Box)
They are a traditional recipe for orange bread,
that found its way into a pocketable piece,
meant to be carried by miners. The perfect
mold size turned out to be the tin cans where
the sardines were kept.

4. This is a very good example of bread
evolution.
The meal-in-a-bread piece to the left is
certainly an evolution of bread. When
you don’t have enough time nor space
to have a whole meal, why don’t stuff it
all in a warm roll.
The bread on the side is sold from some
vendors in front of my office, and they
deliver it straight to our desks.
Not messy. Totally fulfilling. Awesomely
tasty. 100% convenient for modern
times.

5. Mexico’s Pan Dulce is another great
example of evolution.
A Spanish tradition, remixed with
new ingredients gave form to a
whole food culture. And this has
only become richer as we are more
exposed to global tendencies.
Nowadays you can find the usual
pan dulce, but with new fillings like
kiwi or leechee. Or the other way
around, non-mexican pastries but
with localized fillings or shapes.

6. The mexican torta is experiencing
a renaissance as un upscale item.
This bread based meal had
become passé, but some chefs
have retooled it and changed the
way is presented.
This photo on the left is from a
great joint in my hometown. They
present a carefully made torta in
a new way, dissing the plate for a
wooden table, and adding
branding to it.