Indigenous Chef Makes Forbes 100 Powerful Women List

Chef Claudia Albertina Ruiz Sántiz (33) has made it on the Forbes’ 100 Powerful Women list representing Chiapas Mexico and their cuisine. Sántiz who is of Tzotzil heritage was the first indigenous woman to graduate from the prestigious Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas. Usually, if there’s a chef out of Mexico making noise and gaining recognition, it’s Jose Andres who just recently received $100 million dollars from Jeff Bezos for food relief efforts, but this time Claudia is taking the spotlight and bringing her Chiapas community with her!

Her resume includes a long list of firsts including the first indigenous woman to work with renowned chef Enrique Olvera at his Mexico City restaurant Pujol. She has her own restaurant Kokonó where she not only creates some of the best food in the country, but she’s also providing the training, jobs, and skills her local indigenous community needs to be able to thrive. Kokono opened in 2016 in San Cristobal de las Casa. As a proponent of the “slow food” movement, Claudia Albertina has a greater mission to pair with her signature dishes.

About Slow Food

Slow Food is a movement that comes from Italy as a response to the consumerism and wastefulness of fast food. It not only promotes the enjoyment of fine cuisine, but it’s a movement that is meant to empower local communities, promote small businesses and sustainable foods while speaking out about overproduction and food waste.

Beyond her recognition by Forbes, Claudia has also been recognized by the 50 Next, a list of 50 young people around the world who are changing the world of gastronomy. She’s the only Mexican to be included in the hospitality pioneers category.

About Tzotzil

The Tzotzil people are indigenous Maya people who reside in the central Chiapas Highlands and currently number just under 300,000 with just about 10% of that population living in San Cristobal de las Casas where Claudias restaurant is. According to wikipedia,

“The Tzotzil language, like Tzeltal and Ch’ol, is descended from the proto-Ch’ol spoken in the late classic period at sites such as Palenque and Yaxchilan.^[4] The word tzotzil originally meant “bat people” or “people of the bat” in the Tzotzil language (from tzotz “bat”).^[5] Today the Tzotzil refer to their language as Bats’i k’op, which means “true word” in the modern language.^{[6]:I:p.162,234″}