This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food Mexico
This critical turning point relates to a radical change happened in Slow Food Mexico in the last two months of 2012 and that continues until now. The CTP consisted on the renovation of the Slow Food Mexico leadership, internal governance and goals. Such change started with the election of a new person in charge of the coordination of the Mexican branch of the Slow Food movement that introduced new ways of doing and organizing that altered the organization. This process has been named by Mexican activists as “Slow Food 2.0”.
In 2012, everything changed. Actually, everybody in the organization say that, in that year, Slow Food turned into Slow Food 2.0 due to the radical changes we introduced in the structure of Slow Food Mexico
The interviewee explains the extent of such transformation. Until 2012, Slow Food Mexico had remained attached to its roots, as an initiative oriented to promote and enjoy high quality food. However, according to the interviewee, only a reduced group of high-income well-educated people were members of the network, which seemed closer to be a "selected club" than a branch of a global movement with transformative ambition. Contrasting with this situation, a new generation of food activists enrol the movement and introduced new discourses and new ways of managing local chapters that they expanded across the national context. They aimed to increase the acknowledgement of the Slow Food Movement in Mexico as well as to enlarge the initiative in number of members and convivial across the country. Since 2012, the new leaders made a great effort to disseminate the discourse of Slow Food in Universities, educational spaces, Internet etc. Besides, they adapted the goals and mission of Slow Food Mexico to the renewed environmental and social discourse adopted by the movement in the Slow Food International Conference (hosted in Turin in October 2012). As a result, Slow Food Mexico initiates a process of modernization and transformation:
The number of members grows from 200 in 2012 to almost 800 people in 2014. We are about 400 people now, because we must remind everyone that they need to renovate their affiliation, which sometimes people forget. However, we never come down to the low rate we had in 2012. It is important to remark that most of the people who participate in our activities are young people, between 20 and 30 years
Currently, the national association counts with 400 associates, most of them are 25 or 30 years old and 50% are women:
Thanks to these changes, by opening the association to everybody, I would say that now almost 50% of the Slow Food Mexico associates are women. There are even two or three women who are leaders of indigenous food communities, which did not exist before 2012. There was no one convivium in an indigenous community, no one led by a woman in any case
The new leaders were able to extend the movement to new territories and rural (in special indigenous) communities. In 2012 Slow Food had over 18 convivium in Mexico. Nowadays, a total of 33 local manifestations are part of the Mexican organization. Besides, one of the goals of the new leaders was to increase the diversity and plurality of the movement in Mexico, in concrete, involving Mexican indigenous communities:
We have contacted with almost 550 food communities. Before 2012, only 9 Mexican products belonged to the Ark of Taste catalogue. Now, 40 have accepted and other 40 are in process to be accepted. We aim to reach to 250 Mexican products in the Slow Food catalogue in 2016
The “Slow Food 2.0” process was started by a reduced group of highly motivated young Slow Food leaders who took the responsibility of running the initiative and were able to persuade and convince other young people to join the movement. The role of the young chef Alfonso Rocha is highly relevant in terms of dealing with internal contestation and face existing barriers and challenges. Also, other local leaders and volunteers have been mentioned by the interviewee as co-producers of this critical point. Eduardo Correa, Horacio Torres and other convivial leaders helped Rocha to conduct the needed change within the organization, assuming responsibilities in the coordination of new projects:
I am a formal partner since 2010. In 2012, I contact to Slow Food International Association to start a convivium in Puebla, where I live, with the aim to support food producers and farmers in my area. I was accepted as leader of the local convivium and I tried to apply the Slow Food methodologies in my locality. We grew up a lot. We started with a group and quickly we were about 140. When Slow Food held its international conference, I was proposed to be a member of the board. I was still a volunteer but I started to implement the methodology developed in Puebla in the Mexican national context. Of course, in a more gradual way
The Slow Food International Association plays also a key role in this critical turning point. Since the beginning of 2010 decade, Slow Food leaders are aware of the necessity to engage young generations within the movement and gaining social influence worldwide, shifting its focus in order to respond global societal issues. The Slow Food International Association moved towards to a strategic organizational restructuration worldwide also named “Slow Food 2.0”, as Slow Food leaders stated and repeated during the VI International Congress (2012).
The Slow Food informal “Indigenous Terra Madre Network”[1] also has contributed to change the vision of Slow Food Mexico. The situation of indigenous communities became a topic of discussion within the Mexican organization. Young leaders are aware about the necessity to increase their participation in the movement, giving them support and enhance public acknowledgment of their role in biodiversity conservation.
Besides, since the VI Slow Food International Conference (Turin, 2012), the network constitutes a new permanent organism in change of the coordination of the Slow Food projects. This Executive Committee collaborate with Slow Food Mexico providing them support and advice along these years. Even, some Slow Food international leaders travelled to Mexico (Carlo Petrini, Joris Lohman, Paolo Di Croce, etc.), which enhanced the acknowledgement of the network.
[1] N.A. This network connects a diverse range of Indigenous peoples’ networks, communities and organizations around the world http://www.slowfood.com/what-we-do/themes/indigenous/indigenous-terra-madre-event
The interviewee mentioned a number of events related to the critical turning point. The first of them is the celebration of the VI Slow Food International Conference, hosted in Turin in October 2012. During this conference, Slow Food approved a strong renovation of the formal structure of the network, increasing the number of the members of the International Board and proposing the Mexican young leader, Alfonso Rocha, to be the coordination for the Mexican, Central America and Caribbean territories, for the period 2012-2016:
I was given the opportunity to be the international advisor for Mexico and Central America in the Slow Food International Board. They entrusted me to empower the organization. We tried to remove the exclusive or posh perception that the movement used to have in Mexico. We, the young people, perceived Slow Food as an association oriented to fancy people, food experts that love eating in good restaurants and taste good and organic cuisine. This was the general perception we aim to change since 2012”.
The second related event mentioned connects with creation of the Mexican Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) in 2013, which coincides with the travel that the President of Slow Food, the charismatic Carlo Petrini, and the coordinator of the Slow Food Youth Network, Joris Lohman, did to Mexico on May 2013. Both international leaders encourage young food activist to engage the Slow Food Movement, to transform the network in a more informal but more attractive initiative to the young people.
The third event related with this critical turning point is the constitution of the non-profit association “Comida Lenta” in August 2014. According to the interviewee, the increasing number of people and responsibilities compelled them to transform an informal movement into a legal organization a non-profit civil association able to receive public and private funds that should also respect Mexican laws. Slow Food Mexico founded this formal entity with the object of increasing their capacity of networking and gaining in autonomy and self-fundraising capacity.
Now we are 4 people working in the Slow Food office. We took the responsibility to create a civil society, and the support of one member, who had previous experience being part of other civil association, was very helpful. Being an association provides us a physical space, an office, Slow Food supported in writing projects... we can work with people who are older than us. That is good. Other colleague, who is still a volunteer, helps us with our external communication, Website, Social networks… With the help of external fundraising we can support them. Now we collaborate with few foundations like Ford or Kellogs.
All interviewees refer to this CTP as a critical period that caused strong reaction and contestation from the experienced members, people who had been member of Slow Food Mexico for a long time. The radical transformation that the new leaders aimed to introduce within the movement was not easy to carry out. They had to deal with the opposition and distrust by, at least, the half of the associates, who did not feel comfortable with the new vision of the movement. Experienced people preferred to preserve Slow Food as a gastronomic organization (where to meet friends and enjoy quality food) while the new leaders aspired to achieve transformative impact and becoming a relevant actor in Mexico. Both alternatives were perceived as exclusive and, as a result, many pioneers abandoned the movement.
In second term, the CTP also involves a matter of power. Power relations are important, even in social organizations without profit aims. Contestation remained for a while, and some of the former leaders left the organization or decided not to be involved anymore. New leaders tried to deal with this resistance engaging more members, maintaining face-to-face meeting with many associates, organizing some general assemblies to discuss internal issues and propose new goals and challenges, according to the network ambitions.
Some people were not happy with the change, but the international network supported us, because they could see the benefits, the positive outcomes of our work. There are always people who want to maintain their power, it is normal, it is human- being thing. Social relations are the most complicated issues within any organization. At the end, there were people who resign, left the organization, but others perceived the positive side, as something that was necessary to be done. Many people joined us. Gradually, people could see the bright side of this new structure
According to the interviewee, personal issues were also involved in the negative reaction against to the new leaders, power relations and personal egos are behind internal crisis:
Now, in only four years, we count with 33 convivia. But in 2012 only 17 or 19 local convivia exist in Mexico. We had to cancel some of them, because they were inactive, they were leaded only by one person or few people who did nothing but they liked to be the leader of Slow Food in their city, to maintain that position but nothing else. That happens in many countries, not only here in Mexico. This is a network where everybody can be a member, but sometimes personal interests are involved. I have also taken great care to see what kind of people was entering in the network. We welcome people who seek a collective benefit to its neighbours, consumers, people who do not pursue personal, economic or even ego interests. In the culinarian context, certain egos could be a problem, at least for me
Despite the opposition of a number of members, Slow Food associates learned to work together and respect each other, overcoming social struggles and prejudices:
We have a successful case of applying the Slow Food methodology in a more holistic or multidisciplinary way, focused on something that is not usually spoken in these movements, which is the class struggle. Slow Food is one of the few movements where if you talk about this. We empower young people do not dismiss older associates, but we want to work well. We have been able to work together, young and old people, which institutionally have strengthened us
According to the interviewee, Slow Food leaders were able to anticipate, in certain way, this critical turning point. Both, international network and the young local leaders in Slow Food Mexico shared the opinion that the Mexican branch needed a change and the generational renovation of the structures was the better way to do that. The international network proposed the change of the coordinator of the Mexican organization, endorsing Alfonso Rocha as a member of the International Board for Mexico, Central America and Caribbean.
However, the capacity for foreseeing the positive change that the CTP introduced seems to be limited to the international network and a reduced number of local leaders who supported Rocha since the beginning. On the contrary, most of the experienced members abandoned the organization and only few members remain from those days.
The perception that this event means a critical turning point in the timeline of Slow Food Mexico is shared by the majority of the associates, although most of them did not belong to the initiative in those days:
People who knew the movement before the change had the intuition that change would be radical. Those who joined us later, they have been told about that but they unknown the real situation in those days. Newcomers are learning how we organize ourselves, how we work day to day and they don't perceive what this change consist on. But I can say you that It really was very different a few years ago
The CPT involves a change in the Slow Food Mexico discourse, in its mission and the ways new leaders approach and engage with society, in special with rural and indigenous communities. The interviewee acknowledges that similar processes were conducted in other countries. The need of renovation was shared by other colleagues even from European national associations. Their support and previous successful experiences augmented Mexican leaders confidence in their capacities to change the organization:
We turned from a generation of convivium leaders and members about 50 or 60 years old into an organization where decisions were taken by new young leaders. It is something that also happened in other countries. For example, we were told that Slow Food had the same issues in the Netherlands. Slow Food was an association of older people that shared the vision that the movement had in the beginning. When the youth network was created, boosted by a man of my age, the movement grew up
Slow Food leaders had the confidence had the confidence in their own capabilities to obtain external funds and become more autonomous. From the beginning, the interviewee aimed to transform Slow Food Mexico in a formal organization leaded by a group of committed people full-time dedicated to work for the network. This goal was achieved in 2015:
We are not volunteers anymore; I am now the director of the organization. Thanks to the agreement with Ford Foundation, we can hire some of these young people, who have spent several years as volunteers, and later, we can provide local chapters and project managers with financial support
According to the interviewee, the radical change introduced within the organization of Slow Food Mexico provided meaningful learning opportunities to leaders and associates in terms of how to start a grassroots social initiative and how to engage young people in the movement. The CTP permitted practitioners to enhance their leadership and team-working skills. They also focused on develop their communication abilities in order to build a comprehensive and inclusive discourse capable to reach to the wide public as well as to communities not accustomed to work with Slow Food (or other international networks) before.
Since 2012, I have met many people who want to participate, at least supporting the network, because now we have a clear, inclusive message which, perhaps, Slow Food has had for many years, but the key is to know how people approach to it
The interviewee is concern about the possible processes of “co-optation” or pervasive leadership that global movements like Slow Food are susceptible to suffer. They learned from this CTP that groups should be plural, diverse and inclusive, to everyone feel welcome:
It is necessary to avoid individual leaderships. Also, we need to avoid certain prejudices or bias against certain groups. I think that all our activities and projects should be multidisciplinary and transgenerational, too, because elderly people also want to work with young people. We must involve everyone. Sometimes it is hard, it is quite difficult, but I think the outcomes are very positive. In this term, social and ideological ties or barriers should be overcome
Working with rural communities permits Slow Food associates to overcome certain “urban” prejudices or misunderstandings and eventually learning from each other. This also occurs between two different generations of people. Everybody has meaningful knowledge to share and mutual respect is the basis to work together.
I have learned that there are people interested in leaving the "mexicanism", an exaggerated nationalism that considers that all Mexican products are the best; it is a kind of chauvinism. Sometimes, we lose the sensibility to belong to a global community. What it is surprising for me, and I learned about that, is that people from indigenous communities often experience the feeling of being part of a global community. They are attached to nature. In the city we are not connected with nature, we do not understand that everything is related, food, nature and biodiversity
Learning has to do with inclusiveness and empowerment. Slow Food Mexico stands for a change in food system, which also involves a change in power relations, regarding minorities’ rights:
I had to talk about food stories in a conference in USA. I talked about what exactly means food sovereignty, sustainability and agriculture corporatization. I have learned that we has to be truly inclusive, we need to reach people, we should give voice to the voiceless, to people who are not within the movement. Few years ago there were not convivia in Slow Food Mexico formed by peasants, which is basic in our organization
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