San Antonio Museum of Art and Mixtli collaborate for La Malinche exhibit, opening Oct. 14

Now this is what we call eating with your eyes.

The San Antonio Museum of Art on Friday launched the largest comprehensive visual exhibit of historical and cultural icon La Malinche, and Southtown eatery Mixtli is providing a small secret menu in honor of the icon’s legacy.

The exhibition, titled “Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche”, examines the life of Malinche — an enslaved Indigenous girl who served as a translator and cultural interpreter for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés — through historical and modern art.

She played a key role in the transactions, negotiations and conflicts between the Spanish and the Indigenous populations of Mexico that impacted the course of global politics, Museum officials said. Mixtli chefs Diego Galacia and Rico Torres aim to harness that impact with their La Malinche menu, which offers their take on foods she likely encountered before and during her time with Cortés.

“The pantry that the Spanish brought with them combined sweet, savory, all these elements … They showed up with these Baroque flavors that completely changed the parts of the world they traversed,” Torres said at a preview of the exhibit and menu collaboration. “The Spanish conquered Mexico for 300 years, and that completely changed that part of the world and our lives in so many ways, including the way we eat.”

The team behind nationally renowned Mixtli Progressive Mexican Culinaria has garnered attention from food writers across the country for its focus on old-world techniques and ingredients as well as its hyper-regional fare, which rotates every 45 days to focus on a different Mexican region. Galacia and Torres have been named Best New Chefs by Food and Wine Magazine and James Beard semifinalists for Best Chef in the Southwest.

Viewers of the San Antonio Museum of Art exhibit, which opens Friday, Oct. 14, can make their way to the bar at Mixtli, 812 S. Alamo St. Suite 103, for a tapas-sized chef’s representation of La Malinche. They’ve prepared a savory picadita, or corn masa cake, featuring confit grass-fed brisket, cooked for 24 hours with clove and peppers, topped with green olive, sweet golden raisins and slivered almonds.

“You’ll get sweet, piquant, spicy. We’ve incorporated these flavors and ingredients that the Spanish would have been carrying with them,” Torres said.

Malinche also inspired a cocktail, featuring mezcal, guava, cherry and citrus, which is also available as a zero-proof tipple.

Mixtli’s La Malinche bites will be offered to Mixtli bar guests throughout the run of the exhibition, Oct. 14, 2022 to Jan. 8, 2023. Other drinks and eats inspired by “Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche” may be added to the Mixtli bar menu, however at this time, it is limited to the picadita and guava cocktail.

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This article appears in Oct 5-18, 2022.