Received: 13/03/24 Reviewed: 27/04/24 Accepted: 14/07/24

Introduction

Food in the Mexican territory dates back to the constitution of the original peoples in what is now the Mexican Republic. Each ethnic group has adapted its food culture to the socio-environmental conditions of their own regions, where their food systems depend on the availability and diversity of natural, biotic and ecosystemic resources, but also on the productive and socio-political systems in which these social groups operate.

Ramírez (2023) states that beans and maize, to mention just a few seeds, are historically important for the diet and culture of Mexico, Mesoamerica and the peoples that formed it. The presence of corn, beans and chili has been able to guarantee food security in our country. Therein lies the geopolitical importance of food sovereignty and the scope that food culture has for the promotion of the recognition and reappropriation of the biological and cultural wealth of what surrounds us, including what a social group feeds on. According to De la Barrera (2016, 2020), food represents one of the strongest links people have with nature. In the same way, local biodiversity has become part not only of the flavors, but also of the knowledge and culture developed in this multicultural region of the country, such as the Papaloápan region, establishing that the ingredients are not only typical of the community, but also its flavors, which are recognized by those people who recognize them as their interconnection with the ecosystems that shelter the species and the cultural context of the preparation in which they are prepared and are immersed in the food culture that is inherited from the exchange of knowledge and flavors built in the kitchens and homes with their own meanings and practices in which they develop.

Through the passage of time, the native groups have been introducing new food and medicinal variants, identification of plants, consumption of animals and fishery, forest and non-timber products, such as mushrooms, among others, which has led to the establishment of new ways of preparing food for consumption. These processes around food culture have been influenced by dynamic natural, socio-political and economic phenomena and involve territorial trajectories, which force them to adapt or adopt certain ingredients and species to their food depending on the situational context resulting in food culture, which is defined as the set of representations, beliefs, knowledge and inherited or learned practices associated with food and which are shared by individuals of a particular culture or social group within a culture (Contreras and Gracia, 2005 in Pérez-Gil, 2009). 

According to Pérez (1988), it was not until the Spanish conquest that food and food culture was significantly transformed. The effects of this historical milestone, beyond the various approaches to the phenomenon of conquest domination, is that food changed, which leads to the inference that probably no native people today retain their food culture identical to the original one. Pérez (1998) mentions that two things changed. On the one hand, the inputs or ingredients and on the other hand, the diversity of indigenous recipes, which previously did not have such a diversity of cooked sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, aphrodisiac, etc. foods. An example associated with the transmission of preparation processes and the use of ingredients in the historical context of the Spanish conquest is vanilla. Ramírez (2023) mentions that the first Europeans to describe it were Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Bernardino de Sahagún. And just as the ancient Mexicans did, the Spaniards learned to flavor chocolate with vanilla, but unlike them they did not succeed in making the pods produce their exquisite flavor and smell because the Indians kept the process a secret: they withered the pods and then heated them to accelerate the production of flavor and to prevent fermentation and decomposition. When the pods turned brown, they were dried at room temperature and stored for about three months. 

On the other hand, Gómez and Velásquez (2019) analyzed Mexico's diet by establishing four stages: 1.- Prehispanic, which was based on ingredients such as corn and beans and foods associated with the milpa. 2.-Colonial, which contains a crossbreeding of new ingredients from Europe and Asia 3.- Independent, in which the creation of typical regional dishes arises and the 4.- Modern stage, in which there is a change in the traditional diet due to the high consumption of industrialized foods and in which the present research delves into.

The global present in the local has had different consequences than the phenomenon of the Spanish conquest. Derived from globalization and its impact on food culture, two assumptions arise: first assumption, if the society is intentionally educated regarding its food culture by making inroads with new external cultures that could result in a beneficial and equitable enriching adaptation, or second assumption, if the society is not intentionally educated in its local food culture, it could become extinct (Cruz, 2024). Thus, this research does not intend to propose a resistance against globalization or its overvaluation, but rather to delve into the processes of valuation and intergenerational transmission that exist in the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca, which may lead to the design of proposals for strengthening social educational practices through local communication strategies, in which the intergenerational transmission of food culture is maintained as intangible cultural heritage.

In a comparison of territory and cultural groups, a mosaic of diversity can be seen from multiple angles, and this reality is represented below.

Figure 1

Context of territory and ethnic groups

Note. Source: https://culturacienciasdelacomunicacion.blogspot.com/2012/12/culturas-y-tradiciones-en-el-estado-de.html 

In the southern part of the country of Mexico is Oaxaca, which in turn is divided by territories, the Papaloapan region is in the northern part of Oaxaca and includes the cultural spaces of Chinantec, Mazatec, Zapotec and Mixe. The research considered four municipalities with one community per municipality as shown in Figure 1.

It is considered that the Oaxacan context to delve into these aspects is relevant, since according to Altamira and Trujillo (2017) there are few studies in contexts of the state of Oaxaca, since there is only the study of a municipality in the state of Oaxaca of which a "Register of Oaxacan Traditional Cuisine as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mexico" has been made. Thus, the continuation of this work in the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca would be a great contribution given the diversity of the food culture that exists in this region.

In turn, Castro (2000) establishes that in a case carried out in Guadalajara there is a great lack of knowledge and little appreciation on the part of the inhabitants of their food culture, due to the preference for industrialized products, in the Papaloapan region this phenomenon is similar.

An approach that contributes to the analysis of food culture from the individual and collective experience of the people who reproduce food culture is the intersectional approach, which is an approach that stems from gender theory to explain, analyze, characterize and deepen the unequal and differentiated systems by social, racialized, age, historical, dynamic and situated aspects (Viveros, 2016). This approach has been basic to this research in the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca.

The selection of this approach to analyze the intergenerational transmission of food culture is proposed to identify forms of social interaction associated with the subjective implications from the life cycles and their stages of development, as well as the socio-cultural contexts expressed in the various territories in which the collective subjects appropriate (Pérez-Paredes and Sosa-Martínez, 2022) and transmit their food culture and their territory.

In this sense, it has been identified that food culture is also associated with the stages of the life cycle, hence the intergenerational perspective proposed in this research from a local communication strategy.  Derived from the investigation of food culture in the context of the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca, Cruz (2024) identifies that people go through twelve stages during their lives, which imply changes in their cultures conditioned to the place where they were born, where they currently live and with whom they interact from their life cycle conditioning factors in the various stages of their development, such as: 

1.- Gestation and Lactation

2.- Exploration 

3.- Taste formation 

4.- Captive consumption 

5.- Consumption in the process of independence 

6.- Independent consumption 

7.- Consumption in couple 

8.- Agreed consumption in pairs 

9.- Consumption by couples and more family members

10.- Voltage consumption 

11.- Conditional consumption 

12.- Dependent consumption

Derived from the stages that are established, the practices that favor the valuation and transmission of the local food culture arise, considering that each stage is different and since the food culture is a social construction, each stage of life implies that this culture is carried with itself either individually but also collectively as a member of a social and/or ethnic group. Therefore, at each social stage, depending on whether one is dependent on one's parents, has a partner or lives in a family on a daily basis, there will be a social interaction where education, food, moments, memories, values and meanings will be shared, which will intrinsically reproduce the food culture. 

Another contribution to the recognition of the multicultural perspective in food culture was made by Gonzales (2013) who focused on disseminating the gastronomic heritage of ethnic groups with the objective of heritage rescue and exchange with visitors to the localities. Thus, this research establishes that local communication strategies are relevant for the reinforcement of the food culture in the region of Papaloápan, Oaxaca.

Finally, it is important to recognize that food culture is also a product of the incentive of public policies related to intangible cultural heritage, in which the State, from its National Development Plan 2019-2024 and heads of sector, plays a relevant role for the recovery of local agri-food production, the safeguarding of endemic products of the region and the promotion of healthy eating based on habits and consumption of local products, as stated in the National Survey of Cultural Habits, Practices and Consumption (CONACULTA, 2010), the National Survey of Cultural Habits, Practices and Consumption (INEGI, 2012) and the National Survey of Cultural Consumption in Mexico (UNAM, 2020), which have been able to recognize and correlate the current situation of food culture from the consumption of various foods in different regions of Mexico. 

Method

The research design considered eight social groups belonging to the Papaloápan region of Oaxaca. A mixed methodology was used in which in the first stage of the quantitative research a diagnosis was made through a survey instrument, and in the second stage through qualitative research was developed through a case study of the Papaloapán region (See Table 1) using instruments such as focus groups, participatory observation and in-depth interviews.

Table 1

Participants disaggregated by gender and age in the Food Culture research 

Age groups	Survey		Interview		Observation		Focus Group		Subtotal		Total
	H	M	H	M	H	M	H	M	H	M
Older adults	45	38	0	0	0	4	0	0	45	42	87
Adults	101	140	0	0	1	5	3	0	105	145	250
Youth	33	43	1	4	1	5	3	0	38	52	90
Infants	0	0	0	0	2	8	0	0	2	8	10
Total	179	221	1	4	4	22	6	0	190	247	437

According to the table above, 400 people participated in the survey, the remaining 37 people participated in the second stage. It is important to note that the research was conducted over a period from 2020 to 2022 and that, due to the pandemic, various tools were used to obtain information.  A physical survey was administered to older adults to determine the conditions of technological accessibility. On the other hand, a telephone survey was applied to adults, and a virtual survey was applied to young people using the Google Form instrument. The same instrument was applied to all the groups and this article highlights one of the questions that was explored in relation to their practices in their food culture, as well as the intergenerational transmission of the same and the involvement of the various local subjects.

In the second methodological moment, three tools were used to deepen the case study through in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus groups in various families from different ethnic groups.

The research design considered multicultural diversity and the intersectional approach, since of the 100% of the 437 participants, 52% were Spanish speakers, 23% Chinantec, 6% Afro-Mexican, 5% Mazatec, 4% Mixe, 4% Zapotec, 3% Mixtec, 3% Nahuatl. Regarding age groups, of the 100% of the participants, 18% were older adults, 57% were adults, 22% were young people, and 2% were children. The latter were not approached directly, but through participant observation, it was possible to analyze the participation of children in the preparation of traditional food and practices associated with food culture. Regarding the selection of people based on gender, the study sample was considered to be homogeneous, with the participation of 44% men and 56% women out of the 100% of the total population.

Results

Table 2 shows some relevant data on the transmission of food culture and, in particular, the mother tongue in which it is transmitted.

Table 2

Transmission of food culture

Age group	% of people who transmit their Food Culture.			% of transmission in mother tongue
	Yes	No	Total	Yes	No	Total
Seniors 60 years and over	62	38	100	89	11	100
Adults 30 to 59 years old	35	65	100	22	78	100
Young people 18 to 29 years old	12	88	100	2	98	100

It was reported that in the survey those who mostly transmit food culture are women, in all age groups there is transmission, 62% of older adults transmit and 89% of those who do so orally in their mother tongue, 35% of adults transmit with practices in family kitchens, but only 22% of those who transmit do so in their mother tongue and 12% of young people also transmit recipes and photographs of traditional food through social networks, although only 2% say they do so in their mother tongue. 

An important sector that was included both in the surveys and in the interviews was the sector of agricultural producers, with whom it was found that in most of the communities there are practices of resource conservation and food culture, and that through the conservation of the diversity of flora, fauna, mushrooms and native crops, the food culture is maintained, thus expressing the valuation of these considered as the necessary inputs and used in traditional cooking. It is considered that these resource conservation practices should be taught and replicated in other regions to favor their conservation, because if these resources were lost and had to be cooked with inputs from other regions or countries, the taste, consistency, smell and appearance of traditional food would change and generate higher costs.

Figure 2

Regional assessment of food culture by gender

Regarding the valuation of food culture disaggregated by gender, it is women who value food culture the most, since, as shown in the figure, 57% of the women surveyed expressed the positive value that food culture has for them. Meanwhile, in the male population, 23% stated that the food culture was rated as good.

These results show that a recurring cross-cutting theme in the area of food culture is to assign the responsibility for food culture to women (94% of respondents stated that throughout their lives, issues related to food culture are always delegated to women). In all the families of the ethnic groups considered and in all the communities, women are the main actors in the practices, maintenance, production and transfer of the food culture who, in turn, do not have the conditions to teach the new generations, consciously or unconsciously, the existing ancestral knowledge in their minds and affectively value it from a vision of positive cultural valuation.  Thus, the strategic role of women as the bearers of practices, valuation and intergenerational transmission, should be reflected in the recognition of this role, translated into the economic sphere, in their economic benefit, and decision making on the management of economic resources and food production processes, the new generations should be included to multiply the greatest number of food culture practices.

Similarly, a variable that also influences food culture, particularly the consumption of traditional foods, is the ethnic origin group to which one belongs.

Figure 3

Consumption preference of traditional foods by social origin group

As shown in Figure 3, of the 8 groups selected in the research, the Afro-Mexican group shows a greater preference for the consumption of traditional foods (80%), in contrast to the Zapotec (43%) and Nahuatl (38%) groups who reported a lower preference for the consumption of traditional foods and a greater preference for industrialized products.

One of the results of the research associated with the existence of multiculturalism in the region of Papaloápan, Oaxaca, is that it is not homogeneous in its cultural food constitution, since in each community there are two to eight social groups interacting, including the Afro-Mexican group. Consequently, the practices of transmission of the food culture to the new pluriculturalities and generations have changed and have been enriched due to the permanence of the knowledge of the culture and valuation of its reproduction within the families of the various cultural groups with whom it was deepened. For this reason, it is now necessary to intentionally modify the forms of intergenerational transmission and recover the mother tongue (as shown in Table 2) as an intrinsic element of food culture. 

The research found that in the case of informants from the Mixe ethnic group, the transmission is more complete, fluid and reliable because in the transmission of food culture, according to the survey, 92% of those who transmit their knowledge do so in their mother tongue, this is a practice that is manifested in the kitchens and that is perfected daily. 

According to the informants in the research, 83% mentioned that they are aware of isolated efforts on the part of the government or society regarding food culture: such as gastronomic fairs, exhibitions, demonstrations, special days of some dish, and less frequently kermes or community festivals, in which traditional food is rarely prepared in town festivals. It was identified that these actions are not systematic with the municipal agendas, do not contain a clear objective associated with food culture, nor planning, nor public resources directed to the transmission of food culture. 

Proposal for the promotion of social educational practices for the transmission of food culture (PESTCA) from its dimensions and scenarios in the region of Papaloapan, Oaxaca

In order to promote social educational practices for the transmission of food culture from an intersectional approach in the Papaloápan Region, Oaxaca taken up in the doctoral work of Cruz (2024), it is necessary to recognize and identify the various stages of life of social groups and their cultural references in the community and regional-cultural family environment. In the proposal designed by Cruz (2024) based on the diagnosis and exploratory analysis of the food culture in this area, he establishes that the approach of three social dimensions is very relevant to consider for any initiative: gender and its role and deconstruction in cultural reproduction, intergenerational as the interface between generations and age groups, and multicultural as it is identity that articulates the values and cultural transmission. In this sense, it is proposed that intersectionality allows the participation of actors that are not traditionally visible as cultural reproducers such as: boys, girls, young women, men and non-binary gender, adult men and homosexual adults.

The following is a description of the (PESTCA) in the three areas of the different practices of food culture:

Food culture from family practices 

For gestation and lactation stages: The beginning of a person's food culture is intimately related to maternal feeding practices, so that everything that the pregnant and lactating product depends permanently on what the mother eats. This is accompanied by the infant's observation of the food consumed by the mother and in this way he/she can associate shapes, colors, flavors, smells, etc. At the same time, it is the moment in which a mother can incorporate different habits by the requirement to eat as varied and complete as her resources allow, vegetables, fruits, and of course her traditional food, because through the mother the baby will receive all the food from the context in which she is. Their sense of smell will identify smells and their sight will identify colors and shapes, dishes, behaviors, which will serve as the basis for the formation of their food culture. At the same time, this is the ideal and recommended moment for mom to transmit her mother tongue and in her language explain to the baby what she does: what she eats, how she knows what she is eating, why she does it, what she does it for. 

For the exploration stage: babies are in the stage of explorers with both mother and father and all those who eventually live with him or her and who should set a common goal to teach through the senses: touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight, all senses should perceive the food culture. As far as possible, it will be important to have natural fruits and vegetables in the baby's environment, always supervised by a responsible adult. He can see his parents and family eating, he can smell the smells, he can touch the food, if possible, he can only taste it, not eat it, such as hot and spicy dishes.

For the formation of tastes:  if the two previous strategies have been done correctly, in this strategy the senses will already be identified with the food. Your sight, touch, smell and hearing identify foods, now it is time to work mostly with the sense of taste. Encourage him to eat rationally as variable as possible according to resources, give him to taste and explain what food it is, how it serves him and explain that he will eat it during his life. The mother or father should eat first in front of the baby and make it easy for him to eat either boiled or scraped or blended, avoiding everything processed, unlike the previous stage where he was only given a taste, here he will be able to eat some moderate and varied quantities.

For captive consumption: Dad and mom should agree to maximize the cultural usefulness of this stage, far from being a bad experience for the infant, so that the best memories of life are precisely those of childhood.  In an environment of love, care, and respect, it must be instilled in the minds of infants that what they eat is theirs, just as their name, their personality, their nationality, their mother tongue, and their food culture will identify them for the rest of their lives. Parents should frequently talk about the value of their food culture, which is not worth more or less than others, and that it cannot be bought with money, being an individual treasure. Practices at this stage should be encouraged to enjoy consumption rather than by obligation. Encouraging as many activities together, picnics, family dinners, campfires, culture hours, and any other activities where the family is united and shares its experiences will allow the values towards food culture to be positive and remain for adulthood. 

For consumption during the independence stage: At this stage, the food culture for the rest of life is determined. If the previous strategies were done correctly and timely, this one will not imply a major problem, given that at this stage the children begin to eat outside the home, therefore, a greater frequency in the consumption of traditional foods and a reinforcement in the transmission of food culture should be intensified at home in a consensual manner, so that at this stage practices that transmit knowledge of food culture and its positive and systemic valuation should be insisted on, emphasizing that traditional foods are healthier, nutritious and healthy, and that they are part of their cultural identity. You should not impose or try to eliminate the curiosity of children to try other foods or prohibit fast food, but remind them frequently, however, that these foods are not proper of the community and although they can consume them as a craving, they should never replace what is proper.

For independent consumption: When people are young and single, they cannot influence much what they eat outside the home, so when they eat at home, they should try to prepare the traditional dishes they like the most, in order to pamper their palate. For their part, it is important that mothers and fathers reinforce the importance of food culture in their daily practices. At this stage, communication will be the most important thing and will serve as a reminder and, as can be seen in some cases, inputs can be sent to consume prepared traditional foods of their preference, or guide them through a virtual medium so that they can prepare their own traditional meals.

For consumption as a couple: from the engagement stage, the consensus and adjustment of both required to share a food culture should be foreseen. From the first days, both spouses should discuss their tastes and preferences regarding food and make equitable agreements to continue preserving their culture and enriching it. Arrangements could work by alternating days to eat one day according to the tastes of each partner and so on. This will not only preserve the food culture of each one but will enrich it now as a couple and in which the agreements for the conservation of the culture would have to be equitable and respectful between both parties.

They must also assert them against third parties in sporadic visits to relatives or friends. Exceptions may be made for social events, or other events where the couple has no influence on the choice of food.

For consumption by the couple and other members of the family: as soon as the wife is pregnant, the couple should reach agreements to modify their diet according to the needs and tastes of the mother and the unborn child. After childbirth, nutrition should also be taken care of as a couple, thus taking care of the baby and the mother. The first years of a child's life may provoke alterations in the eating culture of adults, but this should be normalized as soon as possible as the new member of the family is able to understand the explanations of why, how, when, with whom, and how to eat.

For consumption in tension: intergenerational balance must be sought, without imposition by adults, but also without adults totally yielding to new tastes. It is a good opportunity to eat new things and during this act to highlight the benefits of one's own food such as nutrition, health, taste, as well as the value of one's own. Family events should be intensified to transmit knowledge of food culture.

For conditioned consumption:  based on the work of the above strategies both parents and children have similarities in their food culture but their tastes may vary. The consensus that eating should include the opinion and respect the tastes and responsibility for participation of all members of all generations. A calendar that considers all tastes and participation in the preparation will influence the reproduction of the food culture in the family unit.

For dependent consumption: older adults generally at this stage no longer have decision-making power due to their physical, economic, etc. limitations. Therefore, those who are responsible for the care of older adults, dependent on their food, should, as far as possible, ask them about what they want to eat and evaluate what they want to eat and what they can eat, since there will be foods that are no longer recommended due to their advanced age. They should also, if possible, recreate the environments where they ate in their lives, periodically bringing people with whom they ate such as children, relatives, friends. It is suggested to implement a program where these older adults train younger generations, and if possible be paid for it, so they will feel useful and also transmit the richness of their food culture and mother tongue to the new generations.

Food culture from community practices

If it is assumed that the majority of local families adopt the practices described in the previous section, inclusive education actions should be promoted for the intergenerational transmission of culture, aimed at:

•        Multicultural community gatherings of cooks, aimed at local families

•        Multicultural gastronomic samples and tasting sessions with the presence of visitors of all ages, aimed at tourists

•        Cooking contests, through social networks, opening voting by the general public, aimed at young people and children of all ages.

•        Involve schools, churches, productive sectors, government programs and social organizations in these strategies.

These community practices should be promoted in the best known and most visited communities with a multicultural presence, so that they can be replicated in as many local communities as possible.

Food culture from regional practices 

Derived from family and community practices at the regional level, as a second stage, work must be done to educate society regarding the transmission of food culture in a scheme of inclusion and identification of production, marketing and economy based on the regional food and socio-environmental system. To this end, the following strategies are of utmost importance: Regional food culture fairs focused on educating everyone

•        Traditional cooking contests, opening the possibility of participation to both men and women, it is suggested to make categories to award prizes by gender, by age.

•        Regional multicultural meetings on inclusive education in traditional cuisine.

•        Broadcasting by the community cultural radio that exists in the cultural regions present in the Papaloapan territorial region of Oaxaca. 

•        Dissemination via social networks of all activities carried out at the three levels: family, community and regional.

Working intentionally in the three dimensions of society in parallel gender, intergenerational and multicultural, ensures that working in an inclusive manner all: men, women, as well as people of all ages and all ethnic-multicultural groups are part of these practices that guarantee the transmission of food culture and that the State has to assume to promote it from public policy and the promotion of intangible biocultural heritage.

Discussion and conclusions

By way of discussion, similar studies are analyzed and compared with the results of the present research in the regional context of Papaloapan, Oaxaca.

Altamira and Trujillo (2017) who have conducted similar studies in the Valles Centrales region, do not report similar studies in the Papaloápan region of Oaxaca. For this reason, it is now necessary to involve the main actors of food culture, particularly elderly women who are knowledgeable about traditional foods and food culture in general, in the design of public policies aimed at promoting food culture at the local level and from their own identity referents of each social and ethnic group. 

On the other hand, it will be relevant to concentrate for the academic sector and those interested in food culture, a compendium or collection of all scientific works related to the topic of food culture that provide methods, processes, strategies for the knowledge, valuation and transmission of food culture for new generations.

According to Castro, (2000) it will be enriching to replicate the strategies for the promotion of food culture with the pertinent adjustments in other contexts in which the people of the communities of all generations learn to value biological and socio-environmental diversity through food culture, since the inclination in a capitalist and postmodern context is to value the new and the foreign, devaluing the own and the ancestral. In the Papaloapan region there is a small number of elderly people, who are the agents that most value the local biocultural diversity and who could transmit these values to the new generations through strategies aimed at this objective.

As stated by Gonzales (2013), the approach to the gastronomic heritage of all ethnic and multicultural groups should be rescued in order to rescue it. However, it is worth being careful to avoid cultural appropriation that generates inequality and cultural dispossession that is not accompanied by ethics and the proper search to find relevant and lasting solutions aimed at promoting the local economy from a perspective of preserving the heritage of food culture.

The official surveys conducted by CONACULTA (2010), INEGI (2012), and UNAM (2020), do not consider food culture in their consultations, so it is necessary to join efforts by government agencies, national and local universities, as well as all rural actors to make a joint multidisciplinary, intergenerational and multicultural work, which has as a transversal axis to know more about food culture from the practices of the subjects living in a territory and from there, to build finance and promote programs of transcendence of food culture. 

It is necessary to educate the whole society about the local food culture, in order to value it as intangible heritage.

The intergenerational transmission is intended from the public policy and at all times to be inclusive with respect to gender, age, ethnic-cultural groups, hence the relevance of the intersectional approach in these strategies.

Previous generations did a good job of teaching their knowledge. However, their methods are no longer valid and reactive to the digital and globalization context to continue teaching new generations in the same way. Thus, the proposal of the (PESTCA) in the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca proposed by Cruz (2024) could be a strategy that strengthens intergenerational education and should be promoted from a local, regional and national public policy.

There are still enough natural inputs in the communities to continue with the preparation of traditional food and thus, to transcend the food culture, but it is still necessary to take care of all this biological diversity, continuing with the good traditions from the economic and identity benefits that the food culture can provide.

Women are the main actors of the food culture, so in each family they should be delegated more authority that includes their own benefits in the promotion of the food culture as political and economic subjects, having the power to manage economic resources so that they are the ones who make the food culture transcend to the new generations.

Intergenerational knowledge exchange projects should be promoted: adults can teach young people and young people can teach adults. 

The mother tongue is directly and inseparably linked to culture, so that all people who transmit knowledge of food culture must do so in their mother tongue and in their original environment, their kitchens, their homes, their natural endemic resources, their environment and the utensils that characterize them.

In the south of the country of Mexico there is no ethnic or native group that is totally isolated; the whole territory breathes an atmosphere of pluriculturalism, so all programs, plans, projects, fairs, workshops, exchanges, etc., should be done from a pluricultural approach, as shown by the information obtained in Cruz's research (2024) in the eight selected social groups.

             The gender and intersectional approach must also be incorporated and from a local-regional perspective, considering the different spheres described above, such as family, community and regional, in order to be successful and achieve the objectives from a regional and sustainable perspective, considering identities as a key element for the sustainability of the strategies. 

It is considered necessary to seek funding or subsidies for the design, implementation and dissemination of a multiscale and coordinated strategy in this and other regions of the country to further deepen the practices of food culture from the approach of intangible cultural heritage, which needs to be fed back to the communities and the State itself

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