Their Handiwork Helps Families Locate Their Missing

The women of Torreón, Mexico make tortillas to help fund their search for their loved ones

Photography: Chantal Flores

The trick is to roll the dough into round balls that all weigh the same. It’s only the fourth day since the tortillería opened in the city of Torreón in northern Mexico, but Viviana Hernández and Guadalupe Castellano have already found the secret to making the perfect, round tortillas de harina.

Making tortillas de harina with a machine is not the same as making them by hand. Our abuelas, their hands glowing from the lard, flattened the testales (the small dough balls) with a wooden roller, and threw them on the comal. We little ones would ask to flip them — without burning our fingers — as if doing so was one of the most important rites of passage. With the machine, it’s definitely easier, but reaching the right size of the testales is key.

Once they figured out the process with the machine, tortilla production surged up. The first day, Hernández and Castellano prepared 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of dough — around 500 tortillas — but high demand motivated them to add 5 kg (11 lbs) the second day. For the coming week, they will aim for 20 kg (44 lbs), about 70 packages with ten tortillas each. If production swells, and sales increase, then the group, Victims…