17 January 2008: Story time...

17 January 2008: Story time…

After my Spanish grammar class every day, I have a course on the history and culture of Mexico and, more specifically, the Yucatan. Recently, I came across two interesting stories about Yucatan culture that I thought you might find interesting. The first is about panuchos, a glorious combination of tortilla, beans, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and either chicken, turkey, or hard boiled egg that was invented right here in the Yucatan. Legend has it that one day, a starving customer stopped at a small restaurant and asked the cook what he had. The cook apologized to the customer as he explained that he had only leftovers from which he could make nothing. But the customer insisted on having something and so the cook finally gave in and decided to throw something together. When the customer tried the cook’s creation, he immediately fell in love with it and asked the cook what he called this dish. The cook replied that there was no name for it, it was just something he had put together on the spot. After hearing this, the customer decided to name the dish after the cook. Since the cook’s name was Jesus, the creation was named pan de Chucho. In Mexico, Chucho is the nickname for Jesus and so pan de Chucho translates to bread of Jesus. Over time, the name pan de Chucho was shortened to panucho. So, what exactly is a panucho? It’s pretty simple really. To make one, you first stuff a tortilla with beans and then fry it. Then, you top it with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and your choice of meat or a hard boiled egg and there you have it, a panucho.

I also learned another piece of cultural history today that was incredibly interesting. It turns out that Mayan women used to adorn their blouses with a type of jewelry known as a makech. A makech is essentially like a brooch but consists of jewels studded onto the shell of a live beetle. Also studded onto the beetle’s shell is a small chain attached to a safety pin, which ultimately attaches to a blouse. Since the beetle is alive, it does walk around on the blouse but it cannot wander very far since the chain is very short. Legend has it that the very first makech was the result of a forbidden love. It goes something like this…Once upon a time, there was a couple that society forbid from being together. The woman cried day after day because she could not see her love. But eventually, a shaman heard her cries and decided to turn her lover into a makech so that she could wear him close to her heart. Although the legend is obviously fictitious, makeches are certainly not. I spotted some in the market place today and I’ll post some pictures of them soon.