Guatemalan Pacific Lowland Foodways

Coastal

⚠ HOT, FLAT AND NOT THE HIGHLANDS. Escuintla, Suchitepéquez, Retalhuleu, Santa Rosa and Jutiapa: the BOCACOSTA coffee and cacao belt on the volcanic slope, then the sugar and cattle plain, then black-sand beach. SUGARCANE dominates — Guatemala is among the world’s largest raw sugar exporters and the cane estates of Escuintla are the country’s largest agro-industry, with a documented history of seasonal migrant labour drawn from the highlands. Also CACAO, rubber, oil palm, banana, plantain, mango, and cattle. The food: PACIFIC SEAFOOD — corvina, robalo, dorado, shrimp from the estuaries and farms, and the mangrove of Sipacate and Monterrico; CEVICHE and caldo de mariscos; TAPADO on the coast; ARROZ CON MARISCOS; and CHIRMOL. And the XINKA homeland runs through Santa Rosa and Jutiapa.