| Chile: The Soul of the Mexicans, Part 1 Original article published by Firey-Foods.com http://www.fiery-foods.com/index.php/chiles-around-the-world/79-mexico-and-central-america/2913-the-soul-of-the-mexicans-part-1 By Dave DeWitt Chile is so ingrained into the culture of Mexico that chile expert Arturo Lomelí wrote: “Chile, they say, is the king, the soul of the Mexicans—a nutrient, a medicine, a drug, a comfort. For many Mexicans, if it were not for the existence of chile, their national identity would begin to disappear.” Early Origins In southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, chile peppers have been part of the human diet since about 7500 B. C. and thus their usage pre-dates the two great Central American civilizations, the Mayas and the Aztecs. From their original usage as a spice collected in the wild, chiles gained importance after their domestication and they were a significant food when the Olmec culture was developing, around 1000 B.C. About 500 B.C., the Monte Albán culture, in the Valley of Oaxaca, began exporting a new type of pottery vessel to nearby regions. These vessels resembled the hand-held molcajete mortars of today and were called Suchilquitongo bowls. Because the molcajetes are used to crush chile pods and make salsas today, the Suchilquitongo bowls are probably the first evidence we have for the creation of crushed chile and chile powders. Scientists speculate that chile powder was developed soon after the Suchilquitongo bowls were invented, and both the tool and the product were then exported. A carved glyph found in the ceremonial center of Monte Albán is further evidence of the early importance of chile peppers. It features a chile plant with three pendant pods on one end and the head of a man on the other. Some experts believe that the glyph is one of a number of “tablets of conquest” which marked the sites conquered by the Monte Albán culture. The Spicy Legacy of the Maya When the Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere, people of Mayan ancestry lived in southern Mexico, the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Mayan civilization had long passed its height by that time, so there are no European observations about their classic culture. All that exist today are writings about their descendants; Mayan hieroglyphics, which are slowly being transliterated; and ethnological observations of the present Maya Indians, whose food habits have changed little in twenty centuries. By the time the Mayas reached the peak of their civilization in southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, around A.D. 500, they had a highly developed system of agriculture. Maize was their most important crop, followed closely by beans, squash, chiles, and cacao. Perhaps as many as thirty different varieties of chiles were cultivated, and they were sometimes planted in plots by themselves but more often in fields already containing tomatoes and sweet potatoes. There were three species of chiles grown by the Maya and their descendants in Central America: Capsicum annuum, Capsicum chinense, and Capsicum frutescens–and they were all imports from other regions. The annuums probably originated in Mexico, while the frutescens came from Panama, and the chinense from the Amazon Basin via the Caribbean. The Mayas also cultivated cotton, papayas, vanilla beans, cacao, manioc, and agave. The importance of chiles is immediately seen in the most basic Mayan foods. According to food historian Sophie Coe, “The beans…could be cooked in plain water or water in which toasted or untoasted chiles had been steeped. Such a chile ’stock’ might be called the basis of the cuisine, so frequently does it turn up. It is in everything from the tortilla accompaniment of the very poorest peasant to the liquid for cooking the turkey for the greatest celebrations. There is even a reference to it in the [Maya sacred text], the Popul Vuh, where the grandmother grinds chiles and mixes them with broth, and the broth acts as a mirror in which the rat on the rafters is reflected for the hero twins to see.” Coe speculates that the first sauces were used for tortilla-dipping. “The simplest sauce was ground dried chiles and water,” she writes in America’s First Cuisines. “From this humble ancestor comes the line which terminates with trendy salsas beloved of a certain school of today’s chefs.” The ground or crushed chiles–sometimes in a thick sauce– were used to preserve and prolong the life of a piece of meat, fish, or other game. Since there was no refrigeration, fresh meat spoiled quickly, and by trial and error, the earliest cooks realized that chiles were an antioxidant, preserving the meats to some degree. “But even the original inventors of tortilla-dipping sauces varied them when they could,” Coe added. “The ground toasted seeds of large and small squashes, always carefully differentiated by the Maya, could be added to the basic chile water, or you could mix epazote with the water and then add ground, toasted squash seeds to the flavored liquid.” As more and more ingredients were added, a unique family of sauces was developed that led to the pipiáns and moles of today. For breakfast the Maya ate a gruel of ground maize spiced with chile peppers, which is usually called atole but is sometimes known as pozól. A modern equivalent would be cornmeal or masa mixed with water and ground red chiles to the consistency of a milkshake. A favorite drink was chocolate mixed with water, honey, and chile powder. For the main, or evening meal, stews of vegetables and meats heavily spiced with chiles were served. One of these was chacmole, which combined venison with chile, achiote, allspice, and tomato–it was an offering to the gods as well as a nourishing entree. Various reports describe sauces made with chiles and black beans being wrapped in corn tortillas and covered with chile sauce, which may be the earliest references to enchiladas. As Sophie Coe noted, “The accepted wisdom was that tortillas and beans were boring; it took chile to make the saliva flow.” The Maya seem to have invented tamales too, as the Spanish chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo reported in 1526: “They brought certain well made baskets, one with the pasticci [filled pies] of maize dough stuffed with chopped meat…. They ate it all, and praised that dish pasticci, which tasted as if it were spiced. It was reddish inside, with a good quantity of that pepper of the Indies which is called asci [the Antillean word for chile, modernized to ají].” Mayan tamales were quite sophisticated, with many different fillings, including toasted squash seeds, deer hearts, quail, egg yolks, dove breasts, squash blossoms, and black beans. The Maya kept domesticated turkeys, ducks, bees, and dogs, and their main game animals were deer, birds, iguana, and wild boar. Armadillos and manatees were considered delicacies. As with the Inca, meat dishes were reserved for Mayan royalty. Chiles are highly visible today in areas with a Mayan heritage. In the Yucatán Peninsula, descendants of the Maya still grow habaneros, tomatoes, and onions in boxes or hollowed-out tree trunks that are raised up on four posts for protection against pigs and hens. These container gardens are usually in the yard of the house, near the kitchen. |
| Part 2, Chile: Soul of the Mexicans By Dave Dewitt Originally published by Firey-Foods.com http://www.fiery-foods.com/index.php/chiles-around-the-world/79-mexico-and-central-america/2916-the-soul-of-the-mexicans-part-2 In 1529, Bernardino de Sahagún, a Spanish Franciscan friar living in Nueva España (Mexico) noted that the Aztecs ate hot red or yellow chile peppers in their hot chocolate and in nearly every dish they prepared! Fascinated by the Aztec's constant use of a previously unknown spice, Sahagún documented this fiery cuisine in his classic study, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España, now known as the Florentine Codex. His work indicates that of all the pre-Columbian New World civilizations, it was the Aztecs who loved chile peppers the most. The market places of ancient Mexico overflowed with chile peppers of all sizes and shapes, and Sahagún wrote they included "hot green chiles, smoked chiles, water chiles, tree chiles, beetle chiles, and sharp-pointed red chiles." In addition to some twenty varieties of chillis, as the pungent pods were called in the Náhuatl language, vendors sold strings of red chiles (modern ristras), pre-cooked chiles, and "fish chiles," which were the earliest known forms of ceviche, a method of preserving fish without cooking. This technique places the fish in a marinade of an acidic fruit juice and chile peppers. Other seafood dishes were common as well in ancient Mexico. "They would eat another kind of stew, with frogs and green chile," Sahagún recorded, "and a stew of those fish called axolotl with yellow chile. They also used to eat a lobster stew which is very delicious." Apparently the Aztecs utilized every possible source of protein. The friar noted such exotic variations as maguey worms with a sauce of small chiles, newt with yellow chiles, and tadpoles with chiltecpitl. Father Sahagún, one of the first behavioral scientists, also noted that chiles were revered as much as sex by the ancient Aztecs. While fasting to appease their rather bloodthirsty gods, the priests required two abstentions by the faithful: sexual relations and chile peppers. Chocolate and chiles were commonly combined in a drink called chicahuatl, which was usually reserved for the priests and the wealthy. The Aztec versions of tamales often used banana leaves as a wrapper to steam combinations of masa dough, chicken, and the chiles of choice. Sahagún wrote that there were two types of sauces called "chilemollis": one with red chile and tomatoes, and the other with yellow chile and tomatoes. These chilemollis eventually became the savory mole sauces for which Mexican cuisine is justly famous. Aztec cookery was the basis for the Mexican food of today, and, in fact, many Aztec dishes have lasted through the centuries virtually unchanged. Since oil and fat were not generally used in cooking, the foods were usually roasted, boiled, or cooked in sauces. Like the Mayas, the Aztecs usually began the day with a cup of atole spiced with chile peppers. The main meal was served at midday and usually consisted of tortillas with beans and a salsa made with chiles and tomatoes. The salsas were usually made by grinding the ingredients between two hand-held stones, the molcajetes. Even today, the same technique is used in Indian villages throughout Mexico and Central America. A remarkable variety of tamales were also served for the midday meal. They were stuffed with fruits such as plums, pineapple, or guava; with game meat such as deer or turkey; or with seafood such as snails or frogs. Whole chile pods were included with the stuffing, and after steaming, the tamales were often served with a cooked chile sauce. It was this highly sophisticated chile cuisine which the Spanish encountered during their conquest of Mexico. Christopher Columbus "discovered" chile peppers in the West Indies on his first voyage to the New World. In his journal for 1493, he wrote, "Also there is much ají, which is their pepper, and the people won't eat without it, for they find it very wholesome. One could load fifty caravels a year with it in Hispaniola." Dr. Diego Chanca, the fleet physician for Columbus on his second voyage, wrote in his journal that the Indians seasoned manioc and sweet potatoes with ají, and that it was one of their principal foods. Of course, both Columbus and his doctor believed that they had reached the Spice Islands, the East Indies. Not only did Columbus misname the Indians, he also mistook chiles for black pepper, thus giving them the inaccurate name "pepper." But he did one thing right--he transported chile seeds back to Europe after his first voyage, which began the chile conquest of the rest of the world. Explorers who followed Columbus to the New World soon learned that chiles were an integral part of the Indians' culinary, medical, and religious lives. In 1526, just thirty-four years after Columbus' first excursion, El Capitán Gonzalo de Oviedo noted that on the Spanish Main, "Indians everywhere grow it in gardens and farms with much diligence and attention because they eat it continuously with almost all their food." Bernabe Cobo, a naturalist and historian who traveled throughout Central and South America in the early seventeenth century, estimated that there were at least forty different varieties. He wrote that there were "some as large as limes or large plums; others, as small as pine nuts or even grains of wheat, and between the two extremes are many different sizes. No less variety is found in color...and the same difference is found in form and shape." The Aztec market in the capital, Tenochtitlan, contained a large number of chiles, and most of those had been collected as tribute, a form of taxation used by the Toltecs and Aztecs and later adopted by the Spanish. The payers of the tribute were the macehuales, the serfs or commoners; the collectors were Aztec officials, or later on, officials who worked for the Spanish. The tribute consisted of locally produced goods or crops that were commonly grown, and the tribute of each village was recorded in boxes on codices of drawn or painted pictographs. According to many sources, chiles were one of the most common tribute items. The chiles were offered to the government in several different forms: as fresh or dried pods, as seed, in two hundred-pound bundles, in willow baskets, and in Spanish bushels. After the chile and the rest of the produce was moved to the capital, it was stored in warehouses and closely guarded, and then sold. Chile peppers were considered to be the most valuable of the tributes. One of the most famous tribute codices is the Matricula de Tributos, which is part of the Mendocino Codex. This codex was compiled for the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, who ordered it painted in order to inform the Emperor Charles V of the wealth of what is now Mexico. Glyphs on the codex indicate the tribute paid to the Aztecs by conquered towns just before the Spanish conquest; the towns on one tribute list (in what is now San Luis Potosí) gave 1,600 loads of dry chile to the imperial throne each year! The Mendocino Codex also reveals an early use of chile peppers as form of punishment. One pictograph shows a father punishing his young son by forcing him to inhale smoke from roasting chiles. The same drawing shows a mother threatening her daughter with the same punishment. Today, the Popolocán Indians who live near Oaxaca punish their children in a similar manner. Wherever they traveled in the New World, Spanish explorers, particularly non-soldiers, collected and transported chile seeds and thus further spread the different varieties. And not only did they adopt the chile as their own, the Spanish also imported foods that they combined with chiles and other native ingredients to create even more complex chile cuisines. (Part 3 will be published soon.) |
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