Pupusa

The pupusa is a thick corn or rice dough-based tortilla filled with one or more ingredients, such as cheese, chicharrón, squash, refried beans, loroco, etc. Due to its tradition, versatility and low cost, it is one of the most widespread foods in El Salvador and Honduras, countries that dispute its patrimonial origin. Although its origin is unknown with certainty, it is most likely a mestizo dish, among the native Mesoamerican cuisine and the Spanish culinary tradition that was imported during colonization and subsequent migrations. Several recent scholars claim that the pupusa has a Quiché Mayan origin.

Pupusas have become a symbol of El Salvador. On the streets of Salvadoran towns it is common to find "pupuserías", points of sale for pupusas, and even "pupusódromos", a set of several contiguous pupuserías in the same square. In 2005, El Salvador declared the pupusa its national dish, and the second Sunday of November each year as National Pupusas Day.

The pupusa is eaten with the hands, sometimes folded, and always accompanied by sauce and curtido.

Etymology

It is generally thought that "pupusa" comes from the Pipil or Nahuat language. Nahuat is a language in the process of disappearing, typical of the indigenous community of the Pipils, in western El Salvador. The truth is that its etymology is unknown for sure.

Main theories on the origin of the word pupusa:
Pipil languageLanguage

In certain publications they also indicate that the word is of Nahua origin, puxahua, 'fluffy or sponged thing'; This is stated in the Dictionary of Americanisms of the Association of Spanish Language Academies. Or, from Nahuat or Pipil, pupusawa or pupushaua. In addition, there are theories that trace the term pupusa to Nahuatl. It should be remembered that Nahuat and Nahuatl are two related but different languages, and that Nahuatl is spoken in central Mexico.

For the Salvadoran linguist Jorge E. Lemus, the word is not Pipil. Although it is true that puxawa does exist in Pipil, according to him, it refers to «to black or blackened corn». In his research he contacted native Pipil speakers, who mostly called the pupusa kukumuzin, from kuku & # 39;hot & # 39; and -uzin, diminutive suffix, meaning "warm". Sometimes they use the Spanish loan pupusah. The final aspiration is added to normalize Spanish words, such as pelutah 'pelota,' which shows that "pupusa" went from Spanish to Nahuat and not the other way around. Lemus concluded that there is not enough study to clarify an origin.

For Santiago Barberena, it would come from the Quiché (Guatemalan Mayan language) poputz, from pop, 'petate' or 'sphere', and utz, 'thing well done', something like that "the two lids [of the pupusa] are well joined" or simply "closely united". From poputz it would have evolved to poputza or popuza and finally to pupusa.

History

Details of the Mendoza Codex (1540): girls grinding mass in the metate, comali and tortillas.

Pre-Columbian background

As is the case with many other typical dishes, the origin of the pupusa is not entirely clear. The Salvadoran anthropologist Ramón Rivas cites the work of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain (c. 1585), in which the friar explains the various foods prepared by Native Americans, among them a dish of cooked dough mixed with meat and beans. According to Rivas this describes the pupusa in its primitive form, which is why, according to him, the pupusa dates back to pre-Hispanic times. In other words, it cannot be said that the pupusa originated in a particular country, but rather in the Mesoamerican region. However, the pupusas that might have been eaten at that time must have been different from what Salvadorans and Hondurans consume today., because among other things they were unaware of chicken, cheese, and the frying technique, necessary to prepare refried beans. Tanning, which always accompanies the pupusa, is also a Spanish technique. Therefore, the pupusa recipe is mestizo in nature. Probably, it was common in pre-Hispanic times to fill the corn dough with squash and beans, and flatten it so that it cooked evenly on the stove.

Anthropologist Jorge Ávalos comments that the work by Sahagún to which Rivas refers is not conclusive, and that it could be about tamales or gorditas, and not pupusas. The stuffed corn dough was typical of all Central America in pre-Columbian times, and specifically the pupusa has a Mayan origin, according to Ávalos, among certain Salvadoran scholars there is an attempt to find a Pipil origin to justify the Salvadoran identity of the pupusa.

Modern Pupusa

The oldest written record of the pupusa is in Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, 1892, by Antonio Batres Jáuregui. Three years later it appears in the dictionary of Honduranisms published in Tegucigalpa by Alberto Membreño in 1895. There is no mention of pupusas in Salvadoran books before the 1960s.

According to Salvadoran chef Cipactli Alvarado, Mexican gorditas are the forerunners of modern pupusas. The gorditas are fried or cooked on the griddle (the pupusas only on the griddle). It should be remembered that in the past the borders of Mexico were much more extensive, and modern Salvador was a rural area of the country where the fashionable dishes from the capital area arrived. Instead, according to Ávalos, the pupusas are of Mayan origin, and arrived in El Salvador around 1930:

In Olocuilta there are still elders who remember the arrival of the Pupusa, of Mayan indigenous hands, at the exit of the village, because there they had their base and the workers who built the Panamericana highway, one of the largest construction projects of the period of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. The pupusa was a fast and cheap dish, and with the expansion of the road throughout the country it must have found a mechanism conducive to its arrival to the east of the country, something that must have happened naturally because the sellers were lumping.

Jorge Ávalos (2016)

In 1942, the philologist and colonel Lisandro Sandoval described the pupusa as a Guatemalan dish of Mayan origin consisting of a thick tortilla filled with beans, cheese, lorocos, or squash flowers. Pupusa is made from an ordinary tortilla, but folded, and always filled as has been said, in which case it has the shape of a semicircle". This could be the origin of the dobadas and the baleadas.

Pupusas street vendor, in Apopa (1990)

It is surprising that in the costumbrista literary movement of El Salvador, at the beginning of the XX century, pupusas are not mentioned in a single work. This leads one to think that at that time they were not yet typical, and it is believed that they spread throughout El Salvador during the 1940s, a time when pupuserías did not yet exist. The rise of street food made the pupusa supersede the tamale in terms of popularity. From 1947, we get an article from the United States that says that pupusas are for El Salvador like hot dogs are for the United States. Stuffed and cooked tortillas began to appear in cookbooks from the 1970s, under the names of "corn pancakes", "corn disks", and finally as "pupusas". In 1963, Margoth de Castellanos, owner of the Típicos Margoth pupusería in Santa Tecla, included beans in the recipe and created the " revolt pupusa". The Castellanos family's pupusa is one of the most recognized in the country.

The rice dough pupusa seems to have its origin in Olocuilta, according to local testimonies. During the civil war in El Salvador (1979-1992) and after the war, corn became scarce in the country and the practice of using rice to make pupusas spread. Exiled Salvadorans exported the pupusa to their new countries, especially the United States, and continue to prepare it as a symbol of unity with their native country.

In April 2005, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador published Decree 665 declaring the pupusa as a national dish, and the second Sunday of November each year as National Pupusas Day. then he dedicates himself to marketing it and promoting its preparation and consumption.

Preparation

Pupusa filled with parrot flower.

Ingredients

• Mass: There are two types of mass, corn and rice. The rice pupusa arose in Olocuilta, and was popularized in the 1980s when the motorway to El Salvador International Airport was built. In addition, in Nahuizalco the mass pupusas of yuca are popular.

• Fills: originally, in the 1930-40s, they were filled with beans or cheese, and later, with chicharrón. Even so, pupusa is a recipe in constant change; it has been innovated in the technique and its ingredients have diversified. Typical fillers today are: the parrot flower, cochinito, or pitos, chipilin leaves or purple herb, all of them Salvadoran aromatic plants, spinach, ayote, which is a variety of pumpkin, ham, chicken or beef, fish, shrimp, mushrooms, garlic, jalapeños peppers, or even chorizo, penny or salami. The fillings also depend on the region, such as the pupusa filled with paperwork is typical of the East.

In addition, there are "gourmet pupusas", with quality ingredients such as blue cheese or salmon, or the "pupusa Obama", created on the occasion of Barack Obama's visit in 2011, made from black corn. A One of the most common combinations is the so-called "pupusa revuelta" that includes cheese, beans and chicharrón or bacon. The cheese used in the past was a type of hard cheese, but since the 1990s the pupusas are filled with quesillo, of Honduran origin. In the 2000s, new types of pupusas emerged, such as the colored pupusas and the crazy pupusa, which is the size of a personal pizza and has multiple non-traditional toppings such as bacon, pepperoni, and shrimp. This recipe is registered in the National Center of Records of El Salvador.

Crafting

Each pupusa consists of two tablespoons of dough and one tablespoon of filling. Its preparation can be done in two ways:

• The recommended for people without experience: a spoonful of dough is taken and crushed with any flat object in such a way that there is a circular fabric of about 5 mm thick. It is covered with the paste of the filling, taking care not to fill the edges; then it puts another cap made of the same form and carefully seals the edge.

• The recommended for people with experience: A ball is made with two tablespoons of mass. With the fingers a hole is made in the center of the ball, where the filling is inserted. It closes the hole and pats the ball as if it was applauding, taking care of giving a circular shape to the pupusa.

In both methods, special care must be taken to ensure that the shape is circular, that the filling is well distributed, that the layer of dough is not too thick, and that there are no holes through which the filling can spill. In Olocuilta, they have begun to trade "dollar" pupusas, which are 20 cm in diameter or larger.

Cooking

Pupusas of rice in mud comal in Olocuilta.

Cooking can take place on a clay comal heated with firewood, sheet metal, Teflon or aluminum plates heated with a propane gas flame or electric stoves. The comal must be hot but not over a very high heat. When the pupusa is overcooked it is called "pupusa snatched". In Izalco, pupusas de comal, made on a clay comal and smaller in size, are popular. According to Izalqueños, this gives it a unique flavor.

Complementary ingredients

Curated (izq.) and tomato sauce for pupusas, in a Salvadoran pupusería. (Note: The wooden source on the right has coffee sugar.)

The pupusas can be accompanied by various ingredients:

• Tomato sauce: tomatoes crushed with salt and flavoring to taste.
• Curated: cabbage tanned in vinegar with carrot and onion.
• Chili sauce.

The amount of ingredients used and the components themselves are a reflection of individual taste. Normally, the pupusas are served on a plate and the additional ingredients are placed separately, so that each person can serve themselves as they wish.

The pupusa can be eaten together with drinks such as soda, beer, water, coffee, tea, chocolate, natural juices or milk; the choice of drink depends fundamentally on the time of the meal that takes place and the prevailing climate.

Social and nutritional value

The community eating pupusas in Chalchuapa.

The pupusa is one of the symbols of Salvadoran culinary identity. It is consumed by all social classes, throughout the country, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Going to dinner at a pupuseria is a social act in this country. Each pupusa has an approximate nutritional value of 350 calories, so a couple of them constitute a meal time for an average person. In this sense, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) considers that it is an essential part of the basic Salvadoran diet, being an adequate means of food due to its low cost. In 2004, within the framework of the "International Year of Rice", pupusas were recognized worldwide as a popular food.

On the other hand, considering that El Salvador is one of the Latin American countries that brings the most immigrants to the United States, it is logical to find pupusas outside the national borders. Immigrants take the dish as part of the effort to maintain culture even outside the country, which is why they continue to prepare and eat pupusas.

Debate about their place of origin

Typical dish of pupusas in El Salvador

In the framework of the CAFTA negotiation, Honduran claims regarding the geographical origin of pupusas came to light, since in that country it is also a privileged dish, although not as popular. The origin of the conflict, which included more public opinion than the government, was the negotiation of products of origin; If El Salvador patented the pupusas, it would be the only country that could export said product free of tariffs to the United States, for which it would have a competitive advantage over the rest of the contracting countries of the agreement. In the end, Honduras declared that it would have no problem if El Salvador patented the pupusas and benefited from such action; Despite the above, pupusas were left out of the special regime in CAFTA and are treated like any other product. Nevertheless, Honduras defends the authorship of the pupusa with cheese.

National pupusas day

National Day of Las Pupusas 2016 in El Salvador.

The organs of the State of El Salvador have repeatedly stated that pupusas are part of the country's culture; therefore, on April 1, 2005, by Legislative Decree No. 655, the "National Day" was officially declared of the pupusas":

The pupusas are the "national dish of El Salvador", because of its indigenous origin and popular acceptance, (y) with the purpose of celebrating the belonging of this culinary invention, to the culture of the Salvadoran people, to describe the second Sunday of the month of November of each year "National Day of Pupusas"

Legislative Decree No. 655

The Ministry of Culture of El Salvador holds events throughout the country with the aim of promoting the consumption, production and export of the so-called national dish.

The activities vary between contests in which the winner is whoever eats the most pupusas, exhibitions of studies related to the pupusa, business forums to propose policies in this regard, and initiatives to break records in size and weight of a pupusa.

The champion of the "comelones de pupusas" contest is Genaro Martínez, who in 1996 ate 51 pupusas without interruption.

Guinness World Record

Pupusa 3.15m (2007)

El Salvador holds the record for the largest pupusa, registered in the Guinness book of records. The first was done in January 2007 in San Salvador; which had a diameter of three meters and fifteen centimeters and in which 200 pounds of dough, 40 pounds of cheese and 40 pounds of chicharrón were used. The pupusa was made by 40 people and fed another 1,500.

4.5m Pupusa (2014)

The second largest pupusa record is held by the city of Olocuilta with a 4.5 m pupusa. On this occasion, the Guinness record delegates were not there, but it did count for that purpose. The pupusa was in charge of several people from the Olocuilta pupusódromo.

5.5m Pupusa (2016)

Pupusa of 5.5 m. of 2016

On November 12, 2016, the second Sunday of that month, the largest pupusa in the history of El Salvador and the world was made with a diameter of 5.5 m. The activity took place in the municipality of Antiguo Cuscatlán and chef Carlos Vásquez was in charge of preparing this giant pupusa.^{[citation required]}

Marketing

Market Value

The market value of pupusas depends on their ingredients, their size and especially the place where they are eaten. A scrambled pupusa can cost between 35 and 50 cents in a popular pupuseria, while in more exclusive places it can cost up to a dollar. In the United States, a pupusa can cost up to two dollars, being considered a nostalgic product.

Commercialization methods

Salvadoran Pupusy at night.

Pupusas are usually sold in pupuserías, places that can be found in great abundance throughout El Salvador (especially in Olocuilta and in Planes de Renderos). Pupuserías are a kind of restaurant dedicated especially to the sale of the aforementioned food. On the other hand, pupusas are also marketed through export.

Role in the economy

Despite their low cost in the market, pupusas represent an important element in the economy of El Salvador; According to the Ministry of Economy of El Salvador, between 2001 and 2003, the sale of pupusas generated income of $22.8 billion, with a sustained growth of 20%. It should be noted that along with the pupusas, their ingredients are exported individually; For that matter, in 2005, $604,408 dollars in loroco were exported to the United States alone.

In terms of job creation, the Ministry of Economy reports that the pupusas generate at least 250,000 jobs, which is a significant figure for a population of 6,744,113 inhabitants.