Aplicación del modelo

(Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,

Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama)

Seven nations occupy the mountainous tropical isthmus connecting North and South America: Belize (formerly British Honduras), Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Coastal lowlands, valleys, and highlands define the volcanically active and earthquake-prone region. This twister- shaped region located between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean features a variety of ecological zones, including many fertile and not-so-fertile microen- vironments. This ecological variety along with a historical assortment of cultures yields a mixture of cuisines, each contributing to the Central American sweet treats cart. Major regions consist of the central highlands; the lowlands and arid, densely populated Pacific; and the humid, tropical, sparsely populated Caribbean coasts.

Along the Caribbean coast from Belize to Honduras live a unique people known as the „Black Carib‰ or Garifuna. The Garifuna are descendants of the African survivors of two sunken Spanish slave-trading ships and the West Indies Carib and Arawak Amerindian people who gave them refuge in 1635. The Garifuna are known for their unusual language, which has terms used only by men or only by women, the menÊs terms coming from the Caribs and those used by women origi- nating from the Arawaks. This maleăfemale division in language does not affect the entire vocabulary, and when they are talking sweet treats they all speak the same language. And that is about coconut bread, chocolate (in season), a unique sweet coconut dessert known as tableta , and their celebrated sweet potato pone , the „Holy Grail‰ of sweet treats throughout Belize, generally made from grated sweet potatoes, eggs, butter, brown sugar, coconut milk, evaporated milk, cinna- mon, ginger, and vanilla extract·optionally served with a little sweetened con- densed milk and extra brown sugar sprinkled on top.

The sweets of the ancient Mayans, as with their descencents today, highlighted the domesticated and wild ripe fruits especially abundant in the tropical and

semitropical regions, and the celebrated honey of small stingless jicote bees native to the tropical forests of the Yucatán Peninsula. Honey was both a main sweetener and an important long-distance trade commodity of the ancient Mayans of coastal Belize. And the early Spaniards took careful note. The expedition of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba·the first European generally credited both with discover- ing the Yucatán Peninsula in 1517 and having the first European encounter with „advanced civilization in the Americas‰·observed that the island of Cozumel up the coast from Belize and the mainland areas in-between were excellent places for honey production, with bee yards having thousands of hives.

Ancient portraits and even sculptures of jicote bees survive in many parts of Central and Mesoamerica. Mayans called the bee xunan kab , „the Royal Lady.‰ For indigenous people, the bee traditionally symbolized sunlight·and the sun in ancient Central and Mesoamerica was at the center of their beliefs. Bees linked the Mayans to the spirit world. The bee god, Ah Mucen Kab , was celebrated in both daily life and rituals. In the sacred book of the Quiché Maya of Guatemala, the Popol Vuh , the first four men who were created took honeycombs to their women, the first food that sustained them. Maya shamans used honey to sweeten the herbal ceremonial fermented drink balché . Traditionally brewed in a canoe, Mayans made the sacred drink from the bark and fermented honey from the flowers of the balché tree·both said to have given halluciogenic properties to the beverage. The Spanish early on banned balché but later reversed their decision. The Spanish conquistadors introduced anise and took away the tree bark and corn, resulting in todayÊs popular fermented dessert liqueur, Xtabentun . Modern sweet drinks also include boj , a fermented sugarcane drink, and the traditional atol ( atole ), often mentioned by the 16th-century Spanish, a hot maize-based drink made with honey or panela (solid unrefined cane sugar), cinnamon, and their native vanilla, which is pollinated only by the Melipona bee or by hand·local fruits and chocolate are optional. Moderns likewise mix maize, milk, honey or sugar, cinnamon, and salt to make the popular atol de elote , sweet corn atol. Chocolate with cinnamon and vanilla, and honey or panela , of course, continues to be one of todayÊs favorite beverages throughout Central America.

The Mayans were the first beekeepers in the Americas, and as Gonzolo Fernandez de Oviedo pointed out in 1535 in his General History of the Indes , Mayan bee- keeping was much more extensive at that time than apiary practices in Europe. The Mayan efforts were likely characteristic of the transition from „opportunistic honey gathering‰ to early honey production in many parts of the world.

The Yucatán Peninsula continues to be one of the principal honey producers in the world. The Mayans maintained their traditional honey-producing ways well into the 20th century, but with the arrival of „Africanized‰ honeybees in the 1980s, they began more modern apiary management. In Central America, in places like Managua, Nicaragua, street hawkers still often offer two types of honey, one from

the Africanized bees and „white honey‰ from native jicote hives·the latter honey being much preferred even though it is more costly. Jicote „white honey‰ has a lower sugar content than European-type honey, but many consider it better tast- ing, and it is thought to have more medicinal properties. But the sweet treat native honey traditions talked about by the Spanish explorers and enjoyed for thousands of years may soon end; the aggressive Africanized honeybees, widespread defor- estation, and an increase in the use of pesticides are all serious modern-day threats to the survival of the ancient stingless jicote „Royal Ladies.‰

Modern-day Mayans in Guatemala, as did their ancient ancestors, use honey to sweeten cornmeal and other common drinks, including chocolate·but nowadays they prefer their beverages much sweeter. Like their ancestors, they also like their many fruits topped with honey·especially fried plantains·and in sweet treats like their version of honey-flavored custard-like flan . In more recent times, they use honey to flavor breads and cakes, like banana bread ( pan de banano ), banana cake ( pastel de banano ), and buñuelos , a fritter-like deep-fried pastry covered with honey and cinnamon, popular especially for holidays. Also popular for holidays throughout upper Central America are tortitas de yuca (cassava fritters), made with a base of cassava, eggs, flour, and jicote „white honey.‰

Mayans prized squash seeds, with both a large variety and small variety being edible either as they were or ground, and either raw or toasted. They make a type of praline by pouring cooked sugar over roasted squash seeds. All seven Central Ameri- can countries nowadays feature this praline-like candy, nogada , made with honey or sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, sometimes evaporated milk, and pecans or pumpkin seeds. All seven Central American countries, of course, also have sweet treats featuring native and now European honey, sugarcane, white and brown sugar·used on and in such things as baked or fried bananas and plantains; custards and rice puddings; cakes and fritters, often flavored with coconut or rum; ices made with fruit syrups and ice creams; and the praline-like candy nogada , mentioned earlier. Guatemala features coconut candies, while Panamanians especially enjoy plum-like roselle fruit jam and beverages ( aguas frescas ).

The predominantly Mayan native influence on the diets and sweet treats of Central American countries diminishes as one travels south from Guatemala and Belize to Panama, where the customs and cuisines acquire a Caribbean Spanish and international flavor. All modern-day countries, of course, have small immigrant mi- nority groups, and some like the Garifuno strongly maintain their cultural identity through their language, customs, and cuisines.

About three-fourths of the population of Belize·formerly British Honduras· are either „mestizo‰ or kriol (creole). Kriols in Belize·generally descendants of the mixed English/Scottish and black African slaves·speak a Belizean Creole English ( Kriol ). Belizean Kriols are known for their cassava pone flour cake and for small fried cassava cakes dipped in coconut, adapted from the Garifuna. English

is the official language of Belize, albeit that they generally speak the Creole English dialect. Belize is the only country in Central America with English as the official language, being the only country in Central America with a British Colonial heri- tage and currently part of the British Commonwealth. Many sweet treats of Belize take on a British flavor, added, of course to the Mayan, Garifuna, and mestizo base. More generally, Belizeans are known more for their fried plantains and coconut- based sweet treats like coconut cake, chewy coconut fudge, and coconut and coconut-banana ices or ice creams.

And Belizeans are known for eating seaweed. Dulce ·„sweet‰·is what Beliz- eans call their famous „sea moss‰ seaweed that they now use in their milkshake-like drink popular especially in northern Belize·made with milk, sugar, nutmeg, cin- namon, vanilla, and dried red seaweed that has been soaked, boiled, and gelatinized (McDonald 2009). Belizeans have been eating seaweed since ancient Mayan times, although it is not known when the thick drink appeared or whether the „sea moss‰ reputation as an aphrodisiac has scientific or scientological merit.

About 40 percent of GuatemalaÊs 12.7 million people are Mayans and their sweet treats favor the traditional honey-based sweets and sweet fruits long enjoyed in the region. Spanish sweet traditions can be seen in their desserts common through- out Spanish-speaking countries, including flan , torejas (a French-toast-like sweet dessert traditionally popular at Christmas), pastel tres leches (three milks cake), and the classic sweet custard-filled Guatemalan muffins called molletes. And, of course, Guatemalans like their buñuelos and platanos fritos (fried plantains) all year-round.

About 90 percent of El SalvadorÊs six million people are classified as mes- tizo, with only 1 percent Amerindian. About two-thirds are urban. Sweet treats in El Salvador favor local variations of those delights common in Spanish-speaking countries, in general, and especially the inescapable tres leches cake. The small- est among the Central American countries, El Salvador is also the only one with- out a Caribbean coastline, and is thus less influenced by Caribbean cultures and cuisines. Special El Salvadorian sweets include pastelitos , pastry turnovers filled with sweets like custard, jam, or caramelized fruit, and cemita ·a cake made with guava or pineapple, not to be confused with cemita -roll sandwiches popular in other Spanish-speaking countries. Sweet cemita is also popular in Nicaragua and in Hon- duras, where it is more like a light sweet bread, sometimes dusted with the ancient Andalusian favorites, sugar and cinnamon.

Honduras, like its neighbor El Salvador to the south, is 90 percent mestizo but has a larger Amerindian population (7 percent). Only about half of the popula- tion is urban. Historically dependent on the export of bananas, sugarcane, and coffee, it is the second poorest country in Central America. Some of the earliest evidence of the use of chocolate comes from the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Ar- chaeologists date chocolate produced near modern-day Puerto Escondido to about

1100 bc. Chocolate was originally a status drink by-product of beer production. Cacao, a major trade item, was likely exported from here to the American South- west as early as ad 1000·1,200 miles away·where it was consumed by the elite and commoners alike. Today, coconut highlights the Honduran sweets table, even more than in Belize, as is seen in their popular tableta de coco , made with coco- nut, ginger, and molasses. But of course they also like their molasses with cala-

baza (pumpkin). Hondurans use more coconut than any of their Central American

neighbors.

Hondurans take their drink, known elsewhere as horchata , as a beverage known as semilla de jicaro , a thick, sweet drink made from cold milk, ground rice, sugar, spices, and jicaro seeds·seeds from a hard round sweet fruit native to Central America and southern Mexico. Besides jicaro , Hondurans, as their Central Ameri- can neighbors, make plentiful use of native fruits like papaya, pineapple, plums, zapotes, and passion fruit, but unlike their neighbors these fruits are sometimes pre- pared while they are still green. Hondurans are also partial especially to both tres

leches cake and „Honduran rice pudding,‰ the latter being their version of arroz con leche.

Close to the Honduran border, on the Nicaragua side, the women of the small town of El Viejo in the sugar-producing Department (State) of Chinandega create

Special El Salvadorian sweets include pastelitos, which are pastry turnovers filled with sweets like custard, jam, or caramelized fruit. (The Marmot/Flickr.com)

a now-favorite and typical treat of Nicaragua· rosequillas , a corn-based donut- shaped biscotti-like pastry designed to be floated in a hot, strong cup of the local coffee. They also pride themselves on their gofios ·small cookie-like treats made from roasted corn, with brown sugar, ginger, anise, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla ( pinol spices)·another of the corn-based sweets popular in El Viejo and the re- gion, especially on the December 8, Nicaraguan national holiday of La Purísima (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary). El ViejoÊs cuisine, as those of the Pacific coast, in general, revolves around local fruits and corn, while across the country on the Caribbean coast residentsÊ sweet treat preferences lean toward the coconut . On the Caribbean side of Nicaragua, for example, on the opposite coast from El Viejo, one would find sweet treats like cajeta de coco , hard or soft caramel- ized coconut made with dulce ( panela / rapadura hard-caked unrefined whole cane sugar), cinnamon, and clove, and sometimes colored a bright pink.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, but it is still only about 7 percent the size of Mexico. Almost three-fourths of NicaraguaÊs 5.7 million people are mestizo and about 5 percent are Amerindian. So while Pacific-Caribbean pref- erences are evident, Nicaraguans, like Hondurans, are also partial to the common desserts of Spanish-speaking countries, like the ever-so-popular must-have pastel

de tres leches and Nicaraguan rice pudding (a rroz con leche ).

Costa Ricans, Ticos as they respectfully and warmly call themselves, join in the common desserts love fest of the ubiquitous tres leches cake, arroz con leche , dulce de leche , suspiros (meringues), flans of many flavors (especially flan de

caramelo [caramel] and flan de coco [coconut]), and cajetas (sweet milk-base des-

serts of many flavors, including guava, papaya, and other fruits)·all part of their Spanish heritage. About 94 percent of Costa RicaÊs population is white or mestizo; about 1 percent is Amerindian. And, of course, the Garifuna who live on the east coast of Costa Rica, as they do along the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras, provide an important cultural and cuisine flavoring to Costa Rican life. Coastal Caribbean Costa Rica favors coconut·coconut milk as a staple liquid in sweet treat recipes and grated coconut in many cakes and other desserts. Ticos countrywide pride themselves on their „typical dessert‰ queque

seco , „Costa Rican pound cake,‰ a lighter and drier version than the pound cakes

to which American tourists are generally accustomed. Costa Rican queque seco , comes in rum-and-raisin, orange, lemon, and other flavors, with sweet syrup, of course.

Traditionally Ticos eat lots of honey-based sweets during Easter Week, the most important holiday week of the year, as it is in most Central American countries. Unlike Roman Catholic America, where people traditionally „gave up candy‰ and cut out or cut down on sweets during the 40-day Lenten period leading up to and including Holy Week, consumption of sweet treats in predominantly Roman Catholic Central America actually increases.

For the Easter holidays, a week-long family oriented religious celebration ob- served since 1526, Ticos enjoy miel de chiverre , a sweet honey paste made from circular blocks of hard brown sugar and the watermelon-sized chiverre (a squash- like fruit in season at Eastertide). Miel de chiverre , used like jam or jelly, can be mixed with coconut, tamarind seeds, cinnamon, cloves ( clavos de olor ), lemon or orange peel, or whatever one thinks goes well with it. The special Easter treats called empanadas de chiverre are small sweet baked wheat pastries filled with miel

de chiverre . At other times of the year, these favorite little pastries are filled with

miel de coco (coconut honey), dulce de leche , or guava or pineapple jams, or the preserves of the many other local fruits.

Local fruits in Panama, the southernmost of the Central American countries, have been popular since before Vasco Núñez de Balboa with his dog Leoncico ventured across the isthmus from the Atlantic to „discover,‰ name, and claim the Mar del Sur („South Sea‰) in 1513·later renamed the „Pacific Ocean‰ by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Balboa, Columbus, and other explorers found what is now Panama inhabited by a variety of peoples said to be speaking mu- tually unintelligible languages. Today Panama, most famous in the modern era for the Panama Canal, is likewise inhabited by a variety of peoples from a num- ber of ethnic groups, and although most speak Spanish, the official language, many Panamanians are bilingual. Afro-Panamanians have been an important part of PanamaÊs history and culture, due to their presence in the early slave trade, later railroad building, and canal construction in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

When it comes to sweet treats, Panamanians, as others in Central America, enjoy their Spanish-heritage sweets and at the same time enjoy feasting on international fare. In Panama, one finds the ever-popular standards of tres leches cakes ( pastel

de tres leches ), empanadas filled with sweets, flan and other custards, baked and

fried bananas and plantains, rice puddings, a long list of cakes and fritters, fruit- flavored ices and ice creams, and, of course, sugarcane, honey, and white and brown sugar. In Panama City, the capital, one can also find raspadas , Panamanian sweet fruit syrupăflavored shaved ice beverages·pineapple, mango, tamarind, and the like·often topped off with sweetened condensed milk.

Panamanian culture today reflects a predominantly Caribbean Spanish influ- ence, but their cuisine is more international than in other Central American coun- tries largely due to the presence of the Panama Canal with its extended history of foreign involvement, long-standing international trade, and associated continuing worldwide tourism. The Panama Canal dominates many aspects of life, with ac- tivities like agriculture playing a relatively minor part in the economy. Largely as a result of the canal development, and the countryÊs diverse prehistoric and colonial history, Panamanian cuisine ranges from the native and Spanish-colonial familiar cuisine to the „ultra-exotic‰ (Hubbard 2012).

The origin of the name „Panama‰ is much disputed, but all parties agree that the name means an abundance of something· butterflies, fish, trees, or all of the above.