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Afro-Venezuelan Foodways

Barlovento

Community

⚠ THE CACAO COAST IS THE BLACK COAST. Afro-Venezuelan communities are concentrated in BARLOVENTO (Miranda), the Aragua and Vargas coast, Yaracuy, the Sur del Lago in Zulia and parts of Sucre — the places where cacao and sugar were grown with enslaved labour. The kitchen: cacao and chocolate; coconut; plantain; fish; CACHAPA and funche; DULCE DE LECHOSA; the mondongo; and the hallaca of the coast. The culture around it is inseparable: the TAMBORES of San Juan on 24 June, when Barlovento drums for three days — a festival recognised by UNESCO as part of Venezuela’s devotional tradition — and the DIABLOS DANZANTES DE CORPUS CHRISTI of San Francisco de Yare, which are UNESCO-inscribed and have their own food.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Afro-Venezuelans community documented

Languages: Spanish

What is recorded

  • Afro-Venezuelan communities are concentrated in Barlovento, the Aragua and La Guaira coast, Yaracuy, the Sur del Lago and parts of Sucre — the historical cacao and sugar zones. The Diablos Danzantes de Corpus Christi and the devotional drumming traditions of the coast are recognised by UNESCO. The correspondence between plantation geography and Afro-Venezuelan settlement is recorded as causal, not coincidental. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to African Diaspora Foodways documented

    Barlovento, the cacao coast and the Sur del Lago are where enslaved Africans were put to work on cacao and sugar; the population and the crop have the same history.

Recorded as relating to this foodway

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.