From Thursday, April 11 – Sunday, April 14, the nonprofit Tucson City of Gastronomy (TCoG) hosts the third annual international Pueblos Del Maíz festival, which celebrates the gastronomies, histories, and food cultures of maíz (corn) in Tucson and three other UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy.
Participating cities this year include Tucson, San Antonio, Mérida MX, and Bergamo-Gandino IT.
Pueblos del Maíz in Tucson will be a four-day celebration of the major role of maíz in Southern Arizona’s food heritage, gastronomy, and culture. Centered in downtown Tucson, it will also extend to Mission Garden, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Kennedy Park, and other venues across the city.
It will feature a free fiesta at Kennedy Park with street food and bands, cooking demonstrations by visiting chefs, a white-cloth dinner collaboratively prepared by visiting and local chefs, live musical performances, interactive art installations, and free educational tours, demonstrations, and presentations on the theme of maíz.
Full List of Pueblos Del Maíz Events
Pueblos Del Maíz Beyond Tucson
Each year this international event starts in Tucson, where maíz has been cultivated for more than 5,000 years, then moves through each of the other participating cities.
The four Pueblos Del Maíz cities will exchange chefs and share live streams of cooking demonstrations. Craft brewers in each city will make a special maíz beer under the Pueblos Del Maíz label: Viejo Pueblo. The popular Tucson version of the beer made with Tohono O’odham 60-day corn, will be offered by Borderlands Brewing Company for the third year in a row.
Launched in 2022, the Tucson Pueblos Del Maíz festival grew last year to more than 5,800 attendees at 11 events over four days across seven venues. It featured 21 local vendors, 11 regional musical performers, and two visiting chefs from other UNESCO Cities of Gastronomy.
A total of 85 local businesses, the majority minority-owned, directly benefited from the festival.
Attendees included visitors from 15 states and Sonora, Mexico, and the estimated total economic impact was more than $850,000.
The non-profit Tucson City of Gastronomy (TCoG) was formed in 2016 to manage the 2015 UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation for metro Tucson and Southern Arizona. TCoG works with stakeholders in the local food system and food economy to leverage the designation to increase appreciation of our food heritage, culinary assets, and food system innovations, promote them on a global scale, and link them to heritage foodways preservation, culinary tourism, and economic development.
Tucson Foodie Insiders Perk
Insiders, stay tuned to the Tucson Foodie Member app for exclusive presale access to the Noche de Maíz Chef’s Dinner.
Stay tuned for more details on the four-day event and visit pueblosdelmaiz.com for more information. Learn more about Tucson City of Gastronomy at tucson.cityofgastronomy.org.
Article written by:
Matt Sterner
More about MattAt a very young age, Matt Sterner was gifted with the artistic ability to masterfully roll a burrito to the highest of standards, but the wrapped medley of delicious innards wasn’t his first love. Matt’s first true love was a combination of reading, writing, and creating. He grew up reading comics, the ingredients list of his shampoo and conditioner bottles, choose-your-own-adventure books, and the Scrabble dictionary — something he found useful when challenging his grandmother to a game.
He attended college at New Mexico State University and graduated with a degree in Digital Filmmaking. One of his favorite classes was screenwriting because he became responsible for the story’s birth before it came to life on-screen. After school, Matt took on numerous positions at a local television station in Tucson. From dealing out stories about heartbreak to producing “fluffier” content for a lifestyle broadcast, he learned what it takes to adapt to the many emotions the world of media can stir. Since 2017, Matt has dabbled in the culinary world of Tucson as well as San Diego, California from time to time.
If you’re in the mood for strange stories, head over to his pride and joy, wonkytimes.com. And in case you’re curious — yes, after all of this time, he still manages to roll a killer burrito.
