Leyva, Brhyan

Hello, my name is Brhyan and I am a 4th year Business Economics student.

Pozole

This dish can be found around the world and made in different ways but I know it from my Mexican culture and is a common dish in my household.

Pozole The Human Soup

My History with Pozole

One of my favorite dishes has to be the infamous pozole. For those who have had it, they may know that it comes in many forms and there is no correct way of making pozole. There may be an original recipe for the dish but there is a pozole for everyone. This dish was introduced by the Aztecs in Mesoamerica. It was often used in rituals and helps us connect to the South American past. I have a rendition of this dish from time to time, especially in times of celebration or during the holidays. Therefore, I have a personal connection to this dish. The way pozole is made has changed from the time of early Mesoamerica to the present world.

Green Chicken Pozole

Here is an example of how to make my favorite rendition of the dish and it's not too difficult. Once you finish making the dish the reward is being able to eat it!

Background

As depicted by History.com editors, “The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century” (Aztecs, History.com Editors) They quickly became the most well-known Mesoamerican tribe and established the most powerful and magnificent city of Tenochtitlan. Here they developed one of the most convoluted social, political, and religious organizations that South America had ever seen. The Aztec empire would often use humans as a sacrifice in order to please their Gods and influence the Gods to gift them with joys that would help their civilization. The father of all their Gods was Ometecuhtli who had the four main Gods that the Aztecs worshiped. These consisted of Huitzilopochtli (God of War and Sun), Quetzalcoatl (God of Civilization and Order), Tezcatlipoca (God of Destiny and Fortune), and Xipe Totec (God of Rain). The rituals or human sacrifice often incorporated the offering of the human’s heart to please the Gods. The heart was used for offering and the rest of the body was used in different forms of food that celebrated the ritual. The ritual was done to ask the Gods to bless their civilization with multiple things. They could have been asking for a great year of triumph against the surrounding nations that they deemed enemies to the Aztec empire. They could have been asking for a blessed year with no illness plaguing their society. The biggest one would be asking for a year full of rain to grow their crops which fed their entire nation. When the Spanish colonizers, led by Hernan Cortez, overtook the empire the Aztec forms of sacrifice were seen negatively and were banned. The Aztec Empire crumbled in the hands of the Spanish and the Aztec people disappeared. There are some individuals in modern-day Mexico who still hold on to Aztec traditions and heritage but the numbers continue to decrease throughout the years.

Homemade Pozole

Pozole was an integral part of my childhood and I was so excited to get out of school on a Friday and start the weekend with a big hot bowl of pozole. Having pozole was very often in times of celebration, whether it be a birthday party or Christmas there was always a large pot of pozole ready to be served. I often associate pozole with family or family time. During these events of celebration or holiday, we would all sit together at a large table, oftentimes putting together multiple tables, and eat as one big family. At these gatherings, there would always be two pots serving different types of pozole, one red pozole and one green pozole. There are three main types of pozole, green pozole, red pozole, and white pozole. Most pozoles have a protein incorporated that usually consists of chicken or pork. There are even new vegan pozole recipes being made and released daily. I believe there is a pozole out there for everybody.

Pozole is famously thought to have included the human flesh of the human sacrifices that the Aztec empire often participated in. The flesh was cooked with crops that the Aztecs were notorious for growing such as corn, beans, squash, etc. A lot of these crops are still used in the modern recipes for pozole. Obviously, human flesh has been substituted with other forms of protein but we continue to use corn or maize in today’s recipes.

Pozole Making

With my mother’s recipe, we take it a step further and use hominy which comes from corn. “True hominy (the term is often misused) is dry corn that has been soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution to remove the hulls. The process is known as nixtamalization and it: improves the nutritional value of corn” (The Basics of Making Hominy, Anonymous) I have never tried to make my own hominy at home but it doesn’t seem super difficult, and would love to try it one day. We then incorporate the hominy with the broth that consists of tomatillos or the little green tomatoes. As a side note, tomatillos are very good for making green salsa which is my favorite. Chicken is used for our green pozole but I know individuals that use pork and even new recipes that use tofu.

Aztec Farming

Farming was one of the Aztecs’ specialties as they had some of the best state-of-the-art farming technology that was known. The farming lands were split among the Aztec communities, “In Aztec society, land could be owned by communities (calpolli) and parceled out to individual families for cultivation, or farmers could be resident tenants (mayeque) on large, privately owned estates. Rent was paid in kind to the landowners who were either Aztec nobles (pipiltin), warriors given the land as a reward for services rendered, or the king himself (tlatoani), who all managed their estates through intermediary administrators.” (Aztec Food and Agriculture, Mark Cartwright) These farming lands were crucial for the sustainability of the empire and for their expansion. If there wasn’t enough food to feed their people and no surplus, then they wouldn’t bother expanding their great nation. The Aztecs invented chinampas or floating islands that made an expressway for crop growing and harvesting. “Chinampas were artificially raised and flooded fields used for cultivation, and they covered large areas of the Chalco-Xochimilco basin and greatly increased the agricultural capacity of the land. In fact, as many as six crops a year could be grown on the chinampas; no wonder then, that they continue to be used in the present day.” (Cartwright) The Aztecs’ diet consisted of fruits and vegetables which were mainly maize (which was famously used for tortillas, tamales, and gruel), amaranth, sage, beans, squash, and chile peppers.

Spanish Conquest

As many of us know, the Aztec empire was brought to destruction by the hands of the Spanish colonizers in which Hernan Cortes was the leader. “After three months of fighting, Cortes defeated the capital city of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan. … The surviving Aztecs were highly susceptible to European diseases previously unknown to their culture, such as smallpox and typhus.” (What Was the Effect of the Spanish on the Aztec Empire?, Kristine Tucker)

Even though the Spanish ultimately destroyed the Aztec empire there were some positive effects but they definitely don’t outweigh the negatives. “The Spanish had a positive effect on Aztec civilization because they helped modernize the society. They introduced the Aztecs to domestic animals, sugar, grains, and European farming practices. Most significantly, the Spanish ended the Aztec's practice of human sacrifice” (Tucker) The Spanish did put an end to the cruel and negatively seen rituals that would be socially frowned upon in today’s world. Since consuming human flesh was banned, the original dish for pozole had to be altered. Since the Spanish introduced pork to the New World, this made the switch an appealing one. Many had stated that the substitution of pork was perfect as it had a close resemblance to the taste of human flesh.

Leyva Surname

After submitting my project topic for review and getting feedback on my PowerPoint presentation, Prof. Fortier brought up an interesting topic that I hadn’t thought of before. Up until recently, I believed that my last name Leyva was of Mexican descent since my parents are both from Mexico and my ancestors are all from Mexico. Due to this, I believed that my origins dated back to the time of the Aztecs. I have never done any type of ancestry or DNA test but my second cousin did. Her parents are also both from Mexico and most of her DNA came back with a high percentage of Mexican Native American with some sprinkles of Asian and African descent. After Prof. Fortier mentioned that my last name has more of a Spanish origin, I began to research and just like the professor mentioned, there is a connection to the Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal. “The name is allegedly of Sephardic origin, and the Sephardic people were descendants of Jewish settlers. Which is one of the reasons why there are great variations in the spelling of the name: Levi Leiva Leiba Leyva Those that had any of those names were originally part of the Tribe of Levi and were from Israel. But the Tribe of Levi had been scattered following the history of what happened in Spain with the Catholic Church and the Jews. During this time the Jews had mixed with the Spanish as well as the Portuguese and Italians too.” (History of the surname Leyva, No Author) Since my background seems to be of Old World descent this would also make sense as to what goes incorporated into the signature pozole recipe that is often made in my family. We incorporate a number of spices and vegetables such as tomatillos, jalapenos, garlic cloves, salt, cabbage, onion, radishes, lime, etc. Many of these spices and vegetables are of Old World descent that were introduced into the New World. Our protein of choice is always chicken as opposed to the popular pork. We mainly make the green pozole instead of the red which would be the main reason for the protein preference.

Conclusion

After looking into and doing research into my central topic of pozole, many other topics were presented and caught my eye. My topic for this delicious dish sparked the research of the Aztec background and taught me plenty about the Aztec empire and how advanced they were in early South America. I then went back and talked about my memories and the importance that pozole is for me and my family. Not only is it a great dish but I believe it connects me to my ancestors in both the indigenous background of Mexico and newly found ancestors of Spanish descent. This topic made me realize how much of my ancestry I don’t know but also how much I feel connected to it with the foods that I eat. There may be other dishes that I grew up eating that resemble and connect with other parts of my ancestry that aren’t just Mexican as previously believed. The original recipe for pozole has changed throughout the years but it still carries the Aztec origin with complementary additions from the Spanish and many other possible nations. That is why I believe everybody should partake in researching where their favorite dish as a child originated from or where their current favorite dish came to be. By doing so, we can see how different cultures and backgrounds connect with just one dish. There may be an original recipe that was altered to adapt to the living conditions of those who prepared that dish. I am a firm believer that food connects us to the soul and therefore the sharing of food or communal eating connects us all. We should all be proud of the foods our families eat no matter how others may perceive them because all dishes are beautiful and they connect you to your past.

Special Thanks

I want to give a special thanks to Prof. Fortier and James for such a fun class. I’ve never taken an anthropology class before and this was such an awesome introduction to this field. What really helped the introduction was the main topic of the course, FOOD. I love food and I love experiencing new food whenever I can. Now when I try new cuisines, I will strive to do some research on the dish and how it came to be. Thank you for a great quarter!

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