Juan Cortez

For over fifty years Juan Cortez has been walking the paths of the Helia Bravo Hollis botanic garden. From the entrance to the top of the hill and the viewing platform.  He knows more than anyone, the regional plant’s properties, its animal’s behaviours, the geography of its mountains and the history of his ancestors, that lived for generations in the same place. He survived one of those, so mexican, earthquakes perched at the top of the viewing platform.

He knows which plants can be eaten, which can be used as medicine and for which ailment, and which ones are a good aphrodisiac. He explains to us where in Zapotitlán Salinas we can find the cactus caterpillars that help us maintain our masculinity and most importantly how to eat them so we can enjoy their effects.

From right to left: Silvi Glattauer, Juan Cortez and myself