Store

Wayuu Foodways

Wayuu

Indigenous

⚠ A DESERT FOOD SYSTEM, NOT A COASTAL ONE. The WAYUU of La Guajira are the largest Indigenous people in Colombia and also live in Venezuelan Zulia — one nation across a border they did not draw, and Spanish rule never fully subdued them. The peninsula is arid: the food system is built on GOATS and sheep, which walk where cattle cannot; maize, beans and the fruit of the cactus (iguaraya, the pitaya of the cardón); fish and sea turtle on the coast; and FRICHE, goat fried in its own fat and offal, the dish that marks a celebration. Water is the binding constraint — the drought years and the diversion of the Ranchería river are a documented food-security crisis with documented child mortality. ⚠ RECORDED WITH THE COMMUNITY’S OWN PUBLIC ACCOUNT; nothing ceremonial appears here.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Wayuu community documented

Languages: Wayuu, Spanish

What is recorded

  • Wayuu foodways are recorded as an arid-zone system built on goat and sheep herding, maize, beans, cactus fruit and coastal fishing, distinct from Colombian Caribbean coastal foodways generally. The Wayuu are one people across the Colombia-Venezuela border. Water scarcity in La Guajira, including the effects of drought and of diversion of the Ranchería river, is a documented food-security emergency with documented child mortality. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Venezuelan Cuisine documented

    ⚠ One Wayuu nation across the Colombia-Venezuela border. The geographic relationships are kept distinct; the people are not divided.

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • related to Wayuu Foodways in Venezuela documented

    ⚠ One Wayuu nation across a border it did not draw. The same people, distinct geography.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.