Fire Talk With Me

Although most of the young and adult women I have spoken with do not call fire “kojkol,” they do have a special relationship with the fire they light or with the firewood stove they built, compared to their gas stove. Juana, a 40-year-old woman, said she does talk with her firewood stove while making tortillas; she talks about her problems. I asked her if she did the same thing with the gas stove and she answered laughing:

No, I do not talk to it.