In an effort to rescue and preserve traditional recipes that are made with chocolate, vanilla beans and corn, Oaxacan indigenous groups from members of the Centro Binacional Para el Desarollo Indígena Oaxaqueña (CBDIO) will be coming to downtown Los Angeles on March 8 and sponsoring the event “El Sabor de Nuestras Raíces.” Learn how to cook rabbit legs with hoja santa and watch the documentary Alma Raiz — for free.

The documentary portrays the story of eight indigenous women, their migrant life and their fight to rescue the traditions of their cuisine — be it drying, grinding and cooking masa for their tortillas vs. buying industrial roof shingles of corn, or buying premade mole paste as opposed to making it from scratch.

As if you needed any more reason to attend, March 8 is International Women's Day, so you can follow up the documentary with the Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Food Fare event in Santa Monica that evening.

Showing at L.A. City Hall Rotunda, 200 N. Spring St., downtown, 5-8 p.m. RSVP by phone at (213) 359-0264 or by email at cbdio.la@sbcglobal.net.

Event is free with RSVP.

Follow Squid Ink at @LAWeeklyFood and check out our Facebook page. Follow Javier Cabral and his beaner coverage on Twitter at @theglutster. 

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.