The last two days here in Antigua had a common thread among the program, which was Maize! On the 23rd, we had the opportunity to meet Doña Lucrecia (Lucky) Morales, accompanied by her good friend Doña Victoria (Vicky) Mixtum. Doña Lucky and Doña Vicky arrived to Casa Herrera in order to teach us a cooking class on Chuchitos.
Doña Lucky started by explaining the different ingredients we were going to be working with as well as highlighting the differences between her friend Vicky, who is an indigenous Maya woman from Santa Maria de Jesus, who prepares a traditional Guatemalan tamale variant, Chuchito. Doña Lucky also discussed the differences in identities as a mestiza woman and the different ways Antigüeños eat with Chuchitos like a sweet snack and chocolate! Vicky mentions that Chuchitos are usually made on special occasions for important people in her pueblo. The list of ingredients here are bell pepper, Roma tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, allspice, peppercorn, maize, and chili peppers.
We had the chance to see a brief demonstration from Doña Vicky and Doña Lucky on how to begin making a Chuchito. While it may look easy at first, getting the dough to a decent size and thickness can be tricky.
With sounds of dough smacking on our palms, our group got to work preparing what would be our dinner! We got to work together to make ourselves dinner and chocolate, a special occasion on this trip so far with my peers <3.
Our lecture on the San Bartolo Murals also tied into this week’s activities very well as we learned about the role of Maize starting with the Pre-Classic Maya mural from San Bartolo. It was fascinating learning about how these themes of corn, tamales, and storytelling highlight the esoteric themes of milpa farming and the resurrection of the Maize deity also found in the 17th-century K’iche’ origin story of the Popol Vuh, where contemporary Maya and scholars can follow the thread back to the Pre-Classic period.
Our professor, Dr. Runggaldier had a role in recovering and excavating the mural fragments from this site. We had the chance to also listen to a lecture by Dr. Heather Hurst who also worked at the site and explained in more detail about the murals. This also made me think about the research I’ve been doing during my time here in Antigua with looting practices as this structure had already been visited by looters. Luckily though, the looters tunnel did not bust through the main portions of the actual mural but could have and was close to destroying the main mural in order to find the prized tomb caches looters are after.
Illustrations done by Heather Hurst (2001)