History of pozole, the pre-Hispanic soup that carried human flesh

With the arrival of September and the celebration of national holidays, the time of year also comes when one of the most popular stews in Mexico, the pozole, is served.

This soup is made with cacahuacintle corn kernel, pork, chicken or even seafood, accompanied with radishes, lettuce, onion, chili and oregano.

Green, red, white ... we can find as much variety of pozoles in Mexico as there are regions and tastes in the country.

Like many dishes of Mexican cuisine, pozole has a Mesoamerican ancestor.

In this case, and according to the chronicles and documents of the early 16th century colonial period, - such as the Florentine Codex or the

- the ancient Nahuas ate human meat in a stew with corn grains called

, which in Nahuatl means "corn from man ”, according to archaeologist Enrique Vela, editor of the magazine Arqueología Mexicana, explains.

Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, in the General History of Things of New Spain, relates it: "they cooked that meat with corn, and gave each one a piece of that meat in a bowl or caxete, with its broth and cooked corn, and he called that soup tlacatlaolli ".

“A warrior captured an enemy of his own rank on the battlefield.

That moment was like going to the market to get good ingredients ”, explains the gastronomic historian and chef of the restaurant El Jolgorio Rodrigo Llanes a

.

And then in “a ritual that was carried out in the Templo Mayor, they took out the heart of the warrior who had been taken captive, either in an ordinary war that had to be subjected by the Mexica Empire, or, in a special war, exclusively to obtain captives for sacrifice, known as Floridas Wars ”, explains Llanes.

A human sacrifice by extraction of the heart, Codex Magliabechiano, BR 232 fol.70r.

Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy / bridgemanimages.com

Etymologically, sacrifice means reaching the sacred, and the sacred for the Aztecs was probably in the heart.

"Once the heart was removed, a kind of essence came out, which was what finally fed the gods, according to the Nahua cosmogony," says Rodrigo Llanes.

In her book

, the archaeologist Ximena Chávez concludes that the main sacrificial channel of the Mexica was the cardiectomy: “the priests made an incision below the rib cage, and through there they introduced the hand to take out the heart. "

When that part of the ritual where the heart was extracted was finished, “the body was thrown and rolled down the steps of the Templo Mayor, while the warriors were always on the other side to retrieve the corpse of the captive.

Then, they took him to an area where the body was prepared in pieces.

We know, from historical testimonies, that the most common recipe to prepare this sacred meat was cooking it in water with corn, then it was crumbled and used to make tamales or what we now know as pozole.

This ritual meal was shared between the warrior's family and the residents of the neighborhood, ”adds chef Llanes.

In March 1530, the conqueror Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán entered Tonalá where “he was received by [the leader] Itzoapilli Tzapontzintli and his courtiers with dances and a succulent pozole.

As Don Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán approached the pot of pozolera, he saw that there were unmistakable human remains in the corn, so angrily he reached for his sword and smashed the pot from top to bottom, ordering the queen and the Tonaltecas to no longer eat human flesh, ”explains the book Sabor que somos, the popular cultures of Jalisco.

“The connotation of eating the flesh of the vanquished was not only ritual, but not a subtle and passive ritual, but it made you feel that you were a powerful warrior and all those who ate this meat did so from privilege.

It gave a feeling of power and strength ”, says Rodrigo Llanes.

Over the years and in colonial times, the historian says that the recipe was modified and began to be prepared with the animals that the Spaniards brought from Europe to adapt to the saints and liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church.

The current tradition of eating pozole in September is linked to the corn harvest, which is normally sown at the beginning of the year and which already has fresh corn by this date.

It is the only date of the year where you can find the cacahuacintle corn - a variety of white, large and floury grain grown mainly in the center of the country.

To prepare this corn for the pozole requires a series of operations (not suitable for beginners) such as cooking the corn with lime, which causes a white foam.

Red pozole accompanied by radishes, lettuce and oregano.

Getty

The brief dictionary of Mexicanisms from the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua explains that the word pozole comes from the Nahuatl pozolli, which literally means: "sparkling".

The first step in preparing this dish is to cook "a kilo of corn with two tablespoons of lime", this process is called nixtamalization and it serves to "eliminate the raw fiber from the grain and the lignin, which is toxic", Arturo Lomelí explains in his book The Wisdom of Popular Food.

Then, the corn is cooked in water with pork, it can be head or leg, and the bones of the spine are usually added, to give the broth flavor.

In central Mexico it is served white and the diner decides whether to color it with a sauce made from chile de arbol or chile ancho, which turns it red;

in Guerrero it is prepared with green seed mole and it is a tradition to accompany it with toasts.

Now creativity and innovation make us find pozoles for all tastes.

"It is known that for the harvest festivities and, in the rainy season, pumpkin flowers were added, and this made it a special food and in honor of Tláloc, god of rain", says Rodigo Llanes, who affirms that the antecedent of adding more things to this ritual broth is also of pre-Hispanic origin.

In fact, the chef and historian has identified a special characteristic of Mexicans when it comes to eating and has named it “the mestizo sweet tooth”, that part in which we love to add more and more ingredients to the dishes - cream, cheese, Chicharrón, avocado - so that at the end, everyone has their own personalized and delicious pozole.

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