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Guatemalan Maya Highland Foodways

Mountain

The ALTIPLANO — Quiché, Totonicapán, Sololá, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango, San Marcos and the Verapaz highlands — is where most of Guatemala’s Maya population lives, between roughly 1,500 and 3,000 m. The MILPA: maize, beans and squash intercropped, with chile, chipilín, hierbamora, macuy and quilete as gathered and semi-cultivated greens. POTATOES, broad beans, wheat and barley from the colonial introduction, and cabbage, carrot and onion as market crops. Tortillas made fresh at every meal on the COMAL, thicker and smaller than Mexican ones. TAMALITOS in husk. The RECADOS. Sheep in Totonicapán and the Cuchumatanes for wool and meat. And the MARKET — Chichicastenango, Sololá, San Francisco El Alto, Almolonga — which is the food system’s actual machinery, not a tourist attraction.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • K’iche’ community documented
  • Mam community documented
  • Kaqchikel community documented
  • Q’anjob’al community documented
  • Ixil community documented
  • Chuj community documented

Languages: K'iche', Mam, Kaqchikel, Q'anjob'al, Ixil, Chuj, Popti', Akateko, Tektiteko, Aguacateco, Sacapulteco, Uspanteco, Spanish

What is recorded

  • The Guatemalan altiplano between approximately 1,500 and 3,000 m holds the greater part of the country’s Maya population across Quiché, Totonicapán, Sololá, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango and San Marcos. The milpa with gathered and semi-cultivated greens including chipilín, hierbamora and macuy is documented as its agricultural basis. Potatoes, broad beans, wheat and barley are colonial introductions now integral to highland diet. Rotating market days are documented as the operative distribution system. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • part of Lake Atitlán Foodways documented

    ⚠ The lake is a distinct ecology from the highland agriculture around it.

  • related to Guatemalan Market Foodways documented
  • related to Petén Foodways possible

    ⚠ EXPLICITLY NOT FILED UNDER THE HIGHLANDS. Petén is a lowland tropical forest system with different crops, different Maya languages and a different history.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.