In Spanish,
chiquero means “animal pen”. In the 1800s and early 1900s, Punta Chiqueros had a number of turtle pens, where turtles would be held temporarily after being captured. Cozumeleños would travel to the eastern side of the island by foot or horseback (there was no road across the island until the 1960s) and camp out during the turtle egg-laying season. When the turtles came ashore, the people would flip them over on their backs using stout poles as levers and the turtles would be unable to turn back over. In the morning, all the up-turned turtles would be dragged to a pen (also called a
chiquero or kraal).
Once that enough were captured and placed in the
chiqueros, small boats would be sent around from San Miguel to pick them up. Other boats would arrive in San Miguel to pick up the turtles and take them to Key West, New Orleans, Boston, New York, and other far away cities in England and France.
Above: Live turtles arriving in New York in 1909.
Above: In 1947, Moore and Co. Soups, Inc. of New York were using 5,000 Caribbean turtles annually to make 600,000 quarts of turtle soup. The caption to this picture read: “In a crowded storage room cooks walk on turtles to select one. The turtles are put on their backs, with flippers trussed, to keep them quiet” (LIFE, 1947).
An 80 kilo loggerhead
(Caguama) turtle rendered 18 kilos of meat. I remember eating turtle soup in the 1970s in both the New Orleans and Houston Brennan’s Restaurants. Quite tasty. In Cozumel, turtle was served
guisado (fricasseed) in Palmeras, Portal, and other restaurants up until the 1980s, while turtle eggs and turtle meat were on the menu in almost every Cozumel home during the turtle season. To eat the boiled turtle egg, you tore a small hole in the soft, leathery shell and sucked out the contents; the yoke and white don’t “set” like bird eggs. The egg contents had a slightly grainy texture.
From the 1960s to the 1970s, Cozumel sold all sorts of turtle products to visiting tourists. In 1978, the US banned its importation and sales dropped off.
Above: Presidente López Mateos touring Cozumel’s souvenir market with stuffed turtles in 1961.
Mexico finally banned the harvesting turtle eggs and the trade in turtle meat and products in May 1990.
Above: A Mexican poster denouncing the harvesting of turtle eggs.
