Jopará

Jopara

Festival

A stew of beans and maize (locro), eaten on 1 OCTOBER to drive off KARAI OCTUBRE, the figure of October scarcity — the hungry gap at the end of winter stores and before the harvest. A household that eats jopará that day is declaring it has food. ⚠ THE WORD IS THE POINT: jopara in Guaraní means MIXTURE, and it is also the name of the mixed Guaraní-Spanish register most Paraguayans actually speak. The dish and the language carry the same name for the same reason.