Puebla Tehuacán

The Mesquite (Prosopis Laevigara) has been a very important tree in the life of the People of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Being a species that grows naturally in this arid territory it has assured them for century's heat, food, shelter and protection. Without Mesquite it would have been very difficult to survive in the times of the dry season, it is precisely during this time when the mesquite blossoms and provides their juicy fruit.

Some scholars have found evidence indicating archeological antiquity of this kind in Mexico. The Chichimecas who inhabited part of the territory Mesquite is natural to, used it as food and the gatherers who roamed the mountains of San Luis Potosi, harvested pods of Mesquites' and ate it as fresh fruit, They also stored as a sweet juice. Bernal Diaz Del Castillo says that pre-Columbian Mexican healers, or "Ticit", used the bark of mesquite to cure irritation of the eyes.

The Misquitl (Nahua language), is a crooked tree that is well planted and has a short stature (approximately 12 meters). Despite the fact that on many occasions the tree has been considered harmful to flora, (it is often logged in pastures), mesquite is a tree so ingrained in Mexico that it usually grows very spontaneously, thus affirming its membership in its territory, correcting man in nature.


In other countries where this species has been introduced it has been exploited commercially, generating economic wealth that could produce similarly for Mexico. Unfortunately in Mexico the species is scorched or used as an edible livestock, or at best, as fuel. It has many uses, one can take from the pods (which contain large amounts of sugar), seeds (with high protein content) to its wood (one of the most remarkable of all those in North America).