In her home in Holyoke, Maria del Rosario Olivas, aka Chayo, shows how to make corn tamales, which use hand-ground corn masa and corn husks. She’s also well known for her traditional corn tortillas. — The Holyoke Enterprise
Mexican cuisine and corn: A match made in heaven
In a small town called Las Varas in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, Maria del Rosario Olivas grew up eating fresh food from her family’s backyard garden. Chayo, the nickname given to her by family and friends, learned how to use these foods in the kitchen with recipes and techniques passed on to her from her mother and grandmother.
Half of the garden was a patchwork of garlic, onions, green beans, cilantro and potatoes.
The other half? Corn.
Some of the corn, which was mostly white and blue varieties with a little bit of yellow, was sold to the local grain storage facility. Some of it was used to feed the family’s animals — cows, horses, goats, sheep, geese, chickens, ducks and pigs. The rest of the corn was used for cooking.
Chayo’s family would grind the dry corn kernels by hand to make a dough, which was used in corn tortillas and other recipes. She remembers learning how to make tortillas around age 13 and is still making them today at her home in Holyoke.
Traditional Mexican food is quite literally built upon corn tortillas and other corn products. Why? Mexicans have used corn for many, many years because that was what was available, said Chayo.
“The relationship between corn and the Americas goes back millennia, as indigenous tribes in the highlands of southern Mexico cultivated and selectively bred the tiny, rock-hard ears into the vegetable we know and love today,” said Brad Japhe in a Forbes article called “A Brief History of Mexico’s Love Affair with Corn.”
“Over time the crop has spread to all reaches of human society, cementing its place as one of the most widespread crops on earth,” he said, noting its versatile uses as animal feed, ethanol fuel, cornstarch, grain alcohol and countless delicious dishes.
Many mythical legends about corn have been passed down, and some people even say that this iconic and symbolic ingredient is “the food with which the gods chose to feed mankind.”
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