A woman makes tortillas in a market in Mexico. Long a part of the diets of native peoples in Mexico, the tortilla has become familiar to many Americans through the growing popularity of Mexican cuisine.
5 Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean
From the Amazon rain forest to the plains of Mexico to the high peaks of the Andes, Central and South America were home to many native peoples. Each tribe or culture developed cooking traditions that incorporated the foods it hunted, gathered, and grew. Ancient cultures, such as the Aztec, Maya, and Inca, cultivated important foods that are now eaten throughout the world.
The Valley of Mexico was the birthplace of agriculture in the New World. From these early farmers sprang the great civilizations of the Aztecs and Mayans. The staple crop was corn, but the native people also grew beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili peppers. Many varieties of fruits were cultivated in this region. These included mangoes, papayas, avocados, and cacao beans. Meat came from wild game, but ancient Mexicans also ate domesticated turkeys and dogs.
In addition to cultivated foods, the ancient peoples of Mexico cooked foods they gathered from the wild. They used spirulina, a type of dried green algae, as a condiment. They ate frog legs and tadpoles, which were prepared in a kind of stir-fry, mixed with cornmeal and spirulina. Fried grasshoppers were eaten as a snack, like chips.
The people of Mexico still prepare and eat much of the cuisine of their ancestors. Many of these dishes are based on corn, their traditional staple food. Tamales are made from corn dough topped with meat and wrapped in corn husks before being steamed. Many other corn dishes, such as posole, a kind of corn soup, and atole, a hearty drink made from cornmeal, are still part of the Mexican diet.
These ancient cultures ate a highly flavored menu, often spiced with seasonings that are now used throughout the world. The Spanish brought these New World flavors to Europe, where they became part of the cuisine of the Old World. Allspice, for example, is used in condiments, sauces, and desserts. The Spanish called it allspice because it imitates the smell and flavor of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Vanilla, which comes from the fermented seeds of an orchid, adds flavor to all sorts of sweets. The Aztecs also used it as a perfume. Cacao is the source of chocolate. Cacao seeds come from large, fleshy beans with thick husks that grow on a tree. The seeds are fermented and roasted for flavor. The ancient peoples of Mexico usually drank their chocolate in a spicy mixture that included vanilla and chili peppers, but Europeans mixed their chocolate with milk.
A woman makes tortillas in a market in Mexico. Long a part of the diets of native peoples in Mexico, the tortilla has become familiar to many Americans through the growing popularity of Mexican cuisine.
In the jungles of Central America, the native diet included a variety of birds and small animals, such as the anteater.
To the south of Mexico were the tribes of Central America and the Caribbean. Like native peoples everywhere, they ate fish, game, and wild plants. They also ate meat from domesticated animals, such as ducks, dogs, and turkeys. Most of their meat, however, came from fishing and hunting. They ate all sorts of animals that lived in their homeland, including rabbits, iguanas, tapir, deer, peccaries (small wild pigs), turtles, caimans (a kind of alligator), anteaters, rats, and birds.
This mostly tropical area supported agriculture, so the ancient peoples domesticated important crops. Like the staple crops of Mexico, the plants first cultivated in this region spread along trade routes in South and North America. Then, European conquerors dispersed the seeds throughout the rest of the world. These ancient crops included yams, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and manioc.
In this region, manioc, a starchy tuber, was the staple food instead of corn. However, bitter manioc contains hydrocyanic acid, a deadly poison. The women of the tribe removed it by shredding the manioc root into pulp. They put the pulp into a long, tube-shaped basket called a tipiti. Then, they pulled the tipiti into a long narrow shape. This compressed the pulp and squeezed the acid from it. The dried pulp of the manioc root was then baked into cakes or dried into flour known as farinha. Native women made cassava bread from manioc flour.
However, the most important crop of the Incas was quinoa, a plant that has the highest amount of protein of all grains. Quinoa was the staple cereal food of the Andean highlands. The Incas called quinoa chesiya mama, the Mother Grain. Quinoa was usually prepared like rice. The seeds were processed to remove the bitter coating, then boiled or parched. It could also be ground into meal, like corn. Not only the seeds, but also the leaves of the quinoa plant were eaten.
Potatoes were more important than corn as a source of food in this region because they grew better than corn in the colder climate.
Like their neighbors to the north, the people of this region got meat from some domesticated animals, like ducks and turkeys. They also raised guinea pigs to eat. Guinea pigs are still considered a delicacy in modern Ecuador.
Like tribes in North America, the peoples of Central and South America were affected by the coming of European settlers. The island cultures of the Caribbean, for example, were nearly wiped out, along with ways of preparing foods unique to that region. In Mexico and much of South America, the occupation of traditional lands by Europeans had a different effect on native food culture. In these areas, native cooks combined traditional foods and European elements. This produced highly flavored cuisines that are now part of the mixed, or mestizo, cultures of Latin America. §
In parts of Mexico with a large Indian population, fried grasshoppers are still eaten today and sold by vendors at public markets.
Europeans made tapioca from manioc and spread this crop to Africa, where it is now a staple crop. Manioc was eaten by the African slaves who worked on the plantations in the Caribbean from the 17th century to the 19th century.
Seviche, considered a classic Latin American dish, emerged from the contact between Spanish and native cultures. The Spanish imported fruit trees, especially lemon, lime, and orange trees, to Latin America. Natives began marinating raw fish with juice from these fruits, which contains citric acid. The acid “cooks” the fish, making it solid and white. Seviche is usually served thinly sliced, with fresh lime.
Native Americans fish for salmon along the Columbia River in Washington. Adult salmon return to the streams where they hatched to lay their eggs, ensuring Indian fishermen a reliable supply of the delicious fish.