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El Cheese Ritz: 1939

November 24, 1939. Washington, D.C. "Noted in the diplomatic set for his expertness in concocting new salads, Mexican Ambassador Senor Dr. Don Francisco Castillo Najera is now teaching his daughter, Ermita, this culinary art. The Ambassador is especially adept at mixing salad with Mexican ingredients." Ritz Queso among them. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

November 24, 1939. Washington, D.C. "Noted in the diplomatic set for his expertness in concocting new salads, Mexican Ambassador Senor Dr. Don Francisco Castillo Najera is now teaching his daughter, Ermita, this culinary art. The Ambassador is especially adept at mixing salad with Mexican ingredients." Ritz Queso among them. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

 

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Turning over a new leaf?

One year earlier, the Tuscaloosa News of Aug. 28, 1938, reported that Ermita (misspelled as Erma), the ambassador's daughter, was presiding over the annual National Tobacco Festival in South Boston, VA. It states that she "has been chosen to head the court of 'Lady Nicotine.'"

Now the Mexican Cultural Institute

This photograph was taken inside the Mexican Embassy which has since moved downtown. The old embassy building is now the Mexican Cultural Institute and is open to the public. It has charming interiors, and beautiful murals.

Creepy

This guy gives me the creeps. Not sure exactly where he is staring so intently, but it does NOT appear to be at the salad.

Guess you can expect that from a guy with a lit candle coming out of the top of his head.

Hooda Thunk It?

That tantalizing, yo no se que ingredient in the best Mexican salads is evidently candle wax.

Cheesed Off

The people who open boxes from the bottom are the same people who put the toilet paper roll on backwards. They
really bother me and I believe there should be some sort of fine or punishment involved.

Lovely Lady

Very pretty girl!

No no my dear

You put the Lime in the Coconut, then you drink them both up.

Is that an asp on your arm?

In addition to the spider broach, she's wearing a coiled snake bracelet. Life must have been very interesting at their house, not just on Halloween.

Lift up thine eyes from la preparación de la ensalada

Here's the mural they'd see, most likely one of the embassy works of Roberto Cueva del Río, a Mexican artist who in 1930 had been recommended for the job by muralist Diego Rivera, who possibly was busy frying bigger fish.

The Ritz

It was well known at the time that the best crackers are at the bottom of the box.

I don't know about you

But I am primed for salad lessons.

Ermita

Is quite a lovely girl, and my guess is she and her mother taught Señor Najera how to mix salads, not the other way around.

Fancy That

All right -- the three small ruffled bowls are by my favorite glass company, Hazel-Atlas, in a pattern now known to collectors as "Fancy," though "Item #730" was good enough for H-A at the time. Would love to ask the Ambassador whether Diego Rivera had any hand in that mural above the food prep table, what with its minimalist-but-interesting images of a woman's legs and then a cat and dog.

Dr. Don and Ermita

First the canaries (seen here), now the salads. This strange father and his icy, subservient daughter with the spider brooch at her neck are really starting to creep me out.

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