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Mexican Food in Lakeside


Apachewoman

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12 hours ago, AngusMactavish said:

I was shocked when I found out that corn was not the main staple in their diet.

"Known to the Aztecs as huāuhtli, amaranth is thought to have represented up to 80% of their energy consumption before the Spanish conquest."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth

Amaranth, a primary source of protein (the "energy consumption" you quote) was the staple in the ancient diet prior to the domestication of corn.  Amaranth was a weed, prior to its own domestication, and was gathered by the then hunters and gatherers of this ancient land. 

There was no agriculture in what later became Mexico, until corn was domesticated--somewhere between 7 and 10 thousand years ago.  And those ancient folks weren't Aztecs, but I don't have the energy to go there tonight.  Just take my word for it for now.

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On 12/25/2018 at 4:45 PM, MtnMama said:

food based on indigenous rather than Hispanic influences.

No on both counts. 

A.  Prehispanic refers to the time  prior to the arrival of the Spanish in this land we now know as Mexico,.  Hence, it also refers to food that was eaten prior to the arrival of the Spanish.  Indigenous people today eat a primarily mestizo diet: i.e., Mexican food.
B.   Indigenous people still populate Mexico.  "Indigenous" basically means from original stock--natives.  The Huichol you see in Ajijic are indigenous.  The Pu'repecha whom you see in Michoacán are indigenous, as are the Cora, the Yaki, the Zapotec, the Huave, etc.  Each of these native groups of people speaks its own language--not a dialect, a LANGUAGE that is unrelated to other languages although they may share some characteristics.  Pu'repecha, for example, is a totally pure language (except when its speakers use Spanish words for which there is no translation to Pu'repecha, for example Coca-Cola).  It is unrelated in any aspect to any other language in the world.  
C.  There are no Hispanics in Mexico.  Hispanic is a word invented in the United States as a USA census demographic identifier for anyone from a Spanish-speaking New World country.  "Hispanic" came into use in the USA in the 1970s.

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On ‎1‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 11:56 PM, More Liana said:

Hispanic is a word invented in the United States as a USA census demographic identifier for anyone from a Spanish-speaking New World country.  "Hispanic" came into use in the USA in the 1970s. 

Not true. In 1967 I earned a certificate in "Estudios Hispanicos", Hispanic Studies, from the University of Granada, Spain. The courses I took were all about Spain, not the New World. These included Spanish History, Spanish Geography, Spanish Art, and Spanish Literature.  

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I know the pre-conquest inhabitants ate a lot of animal protein sources that we would turn our noses up to today. Had a spirited dicussion with our friend/gardener (not our regular gardener) who is a many generation mountain man - the discussion was about wire snares and how to use them - he was surprised that a Canadian would know so much about this topic. And that if you ate nothing but conejos (rabbits) you would eventually get sick - easy to catch, but poor protein source.

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11 hours ago, El Bizco said:

Not true. In 1967 I earned a certificate in "Estudios Hispanicos", Hispanic Studies, from the University of Granada, Spain. The courses I took were all about Spain, not the New World. These included Spanish History, Spanish Geography, Spanish Art, and Spanish Literature.  

Yes, you're correct.  The USA pretty much stole the word to apply it to the demographic as a catch-all for anyone from Latin America.

In the sense of "pre-Hispanic", it means prior to the arrival of the Spanish.  Sounds better now than "pre-conquest".

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6 hours ago, CHILLIN said:

I know the pre-conquest inhabitants ate a lot of animal protein sources that we would turn our noses up to today. Had a spirited dicussion with our friend/gardener (not our regular gardener) who is a many generation mountain man - the discussion was about wire snares and how to use them - he was surprised that a Canadian would know so much about this topic. And that if you ate nothing but conejos (rabbits) you would eventually get sick - easy to catch, but poor protein source.

See, you use "pre-conquest" rather than pre-Hispanic.  But why would you think the ancient peoples here only ate rabbit?  There were many protein sources available, even without domesticated animals (except turkeys).  Think of the abundance of fish and seafood near our extensive coastline.  Amaranth, as correctly mentioned by AngusMcTavish.  Wild birds.  Insects, tremendous sources of protein.  Chía, native to Mexico and about 14% protein, including all the necessary amino acids to nurture human beings.  And once corn was domesticated from teocintle (see photo), people here (and only here) began nixtamalizing it, which made the amino acids in corn available to human digestion.  Those amino acids combine with the amino acids in beans--another native here--to make a perfect protein, which became the basis for the ancient diet and is still that today.  

La Lagunilla Teocintle Dije.jpg

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My view was tempered by "Wildlife in Mexico", which is an in depth study of Mexico in the early 1960's. He has many pictures of the young boys hunting with ancient small bore rifles, to bring home such specialties as Iguana, Possum, birds of all types - all for the family stew pot. As a dreamer, I thought what a great book that would be of that time, when wildlife was abundant, and sometimes, they were able to bring home something more substantial, like a Javelina. Rabbits were prodigious in a calde valley, near Mexico City - it took years before they were overharvested, and died out.

The Spanish banned the cultivation of Amaranth, because many made pagan religious figures using, Amaranth, corn mush, and blood.

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14 hours ago, More Liana said:

Yes, you're correct.  The USA pretty much stole the word to apply it to the demographic as a catch-all for anyone from Latin America.

 

Hispanic is one from a Spanish speaking country and that includes both the Americas and Europe.

Latino is one from Latin America specifically.

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Recently, you have been unclear (well, completely wrong) on the definition of socialism, and now you don't seem to get what constitutes a minority.

So, I was hoping you would LOOK IT UP, but since you can't grok dictionary, I hereby give up.

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