By Ana Chavez, WIC Breastfeeding Counselor and Nutrition Technician

When we hear about spices, most people think of food from the cultures of India, the Middle East, and Africa. It’s true that rich spices came from those regions, but today I want to focus on my culture from Mesoamerica. The Mesoamerican civilizations include the Olmecs, Mayans, Incas, and the Aztecs. Nowadays, those cultures are known as Mexico, Central America, and some parts of South America (Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru).

I am proud to be a descendent of Mesoamerican farmers who were very skilled in agriculture. Our diet has many dishes where the main ingredient is corn, and that’s why we have the nickname of  “Los hijos de Maiz” (the Children of Corn).

From early times, the Mesoamericans became farmers and grew corn, beans, squash, sweet potatoes, pepper, and tomatoes. The Mayans had a complex agricultural society and established large city-states with farming and trade. Men farmed while the women turned the crops into food. Farmers paid taxes in food items to support the city-state.

Let’s talk about some specific foods cultivated in these regions:

Cacao

Cacao was first grown in extensive orchards near the Pacific and Gulf Coast of Central America. Chocolate is made from the beans of cacao; in fact, there are four varieties of cacao bean or cacahuatl, as the Aztecs knew them. The corruption of this word or their term for the chocolate drink –xocolatl- is probably the origin of the word chocolate.

So esteemed was chocolate that beans were a commonly traded item, very often demanded as tribute from subject tribes and even used as a form of currency by the Aztecs. In fact, cacao beans were so valuable that they were even counterfeited either to pass as currency or, even more fiendishly, hollowed out of their valuable interior and refilled with a substitute such as sand. As a currency, we know that in the Aztec markets one cacao bean could buy you a single tomato, 30 beans got you a rabbit and, for the more ambitious shopper, a turkey could be bought for 200 beans.

As an expensive import during that time, chocolate was enjoyed by the upper classes and consumed after meals (typically accompanied by the smoking of tobacco). It may have been enjoyed with maize gruel by the poorer classes at important events such as weddings, but some scholars maintain that the pure chocolate drink was an exclusive status symbol of the nobility. Curiously, it could even be given to favored sacrificial victims as a final treat before they departed this world, for example, at the annual Aztec festival of Panquetzaliztli held in honor of the Aztec deity Huitzilopochtli.

Maize (Corn)

Maize, also called milpa, was one of the most important crops. Maize was typically boiled in water and lime and eaten as a gruel mixed with chili pepper (saka’) for breakfast or made into a dough for baking on a flat-stone (metate) as tortillas or flat cakes (pekwah) and as tamales, stuffed and baked in leaves.

One of the most important Mayan deities was the Young Maize God. Typically portrayed with a head in the form of an ear of maize, he could appear in Mayan mythology as the creator god. Descending to the underworld, he reappeared with the world tree which holds the center of the earth and fixes the four cardinal directions. The world tree was, indeed, sometimes visualized as a maize plant. One of the names of the Mayan maize god was Yum Caax (Master of the Fields in Harvest).

Some foods that are made from cacao beans and corn include rosquilla, corn bread, atole (sweet corn hot drink), tortilla, tamales (beans, chicken, pork), pinolillo, indio viejo, meatball soup, beef patty, tacos, enchiladas, pupusas, crazy corns, and many more.

The most popular Central American dishes, ranked from least to most popular

Name	Country	Ingredients
10. Shucos	Guatemala	This dish consists of guacamole, tomato sauce, mustard, hot sauce, white bread, hot dog, or sausage.
9. Mixtas	Guatemala	This dish consists of sausage, corn tortilla, coleslaw, onions, diced tomato, guacamole, and green chiles.
8. Pollo en crema	Guatemala El Salvador Mexico	This dish consists of chicken breasts drenched in a rich, creamy sauce. It is made with loroco, chayote or zuchinni, yellow potatoes, green chili pepper, onions, and cream.
7. Gallo Pinto	Costa Rica Nicaragua	This dish consists of white rice, black beans, coriander onion, bell pepper, and oil.
6. Fiambre	Guatemala	This salad can have as many as 50 ingredients. Some of these ingredients include sliced meat, cheese, vegetables, pickles, and hard-boiled eggs.
5. Casados	Costa Rica Nicaragua	Casado consists of white rice, beans, meat (such as chicken, beef, or fish) and salad or coleslaw.
4. Pupusa	El Salvador	Pupusa is the national dish of El Salvador. It is a stuffed, skillet-cooked corn tortilla, traditionally served with a side of tomato salsa and coleslaw. Pupusas are almost always handmade and sold at numerous street corners in the country.
3. Tres Leches Cake	Nicaragua	Tres leches cake is a dense, moist dessert consisting of a sponge cake covered with three types of milk: evaporated, condensed, and whole milk. Although its origins are quite murky, most sources claim it was invented in Nicaragua. This cake is popular throughout Central America, the United States, and Europe.
2. Baleada	Honduras	Baleada is one of the most famous Honduran dishes. It consists of a wheat flour tortilla filled with mashed fried beans and various other ingredients such as cheese, eggs, avocados, hot sauce, and Honduran-style sour cream (also known as mantequilla).
1.Curtido	El Salvador	Curtido is a flavorful relish from El Salvador. It consists of fermented cabbage and is sometimes affectionately called El Salvadorean sauerkraut due to the similarities between the two dishes.  It is also a welcome addition to savory pancakes.

At Mary’s Center, we know that your native foods are special, and we embrace your culture in developing a healthy nutrition plan for you. Learn more about Mary’s Center’s nutrition services here. To make an appointment, call 1-844-796-2797 or click here.