High up in Guatemala’s Cuchumatanes mountains, lunch is served in the Torres household. Mom Catarina places a steaming plate of empanadas – pastry stuffed with tomatoes, onions and greens – on the dining table in front of her three daughters, whose eyes shine bright in anticipation.
Although the recipe comes from a new cookbook created specifically for the 2 000 or so families from the Ixil Triangle, in the region of Quiché, the recipes are based on ancestral knowledge and native crops. Following 36 years of civil war, recipes normally handed down from mother to daughter were lost and levels of poverty and malnutrition were high. Processed food had replaced locally grown vegetables and herbs.
“When I was a girl I had no idea that these herbs and vegetables that I cook today even existed,” says Catarina, who was 15 when peace was finally restored in her region.
It was not just the people who suffered during the long years of conflict, it was also the Mayan way of life. When peace came to Ixil, it arrived at streets that were silent, fields uncultivated, without flowers, without crops. Mass depopulation, some directly forced, some indirectly through necessity, had led to a knowledge gap and a deep disconnect between generations.
A UN Joint Programme for Integrated Rural Development led by FAO, UNDP and PAHO/WHO and financed by the Government of Sweden is now supporting rural families in the area. As part of its activities, FAO and MAGA (Guatemala’s Agriculture, Livestock and Food Ministry) began a nutrition education programme, to revive the old traditions of cooking with indigenous, nutrient-filled crops. In addition to a cookbook of dishes typical to the region, the programme also offers training on growing native crops as well as lessons on cooking according to nutritional best practices.
“The idea is that the families return to their ancestral cultural traditions,” says FAO nutritional technician, Jonás Colón. “These practices are much easier for the families to adopt because they are familiar with the taste of the food they are growing,” he adds. By following tradition and growing native species, the villagers can save time and money by not using fertilizers and insecticide.