Enjoying Sunday delicious cachapas (one of the typical dishes of Venezuela). The step by step in the preparation of one of the favorite dishes of Venezuelan cuisine.

The month of August is also conducive to enjoying foods that are part of Venezuelan traditions. August is known as the month of corn.

Before telling them about the process of making the traditional Venezuelan cachapa. I find it convenient to refer to its raw material, corn.

From the school age I remember that we were taught the American origin of this oilseed. Reviewing on the web I found an FAO material in which different places of origin of this cereal were indicated, which were supported by several researchers. Despite the foregoing, the thesis of American origin is the one that manages to be imposed on the rest, Mexico being the epicenter of its process of introduction to Europe during the colonial period; and from there, to the rest of the world. All this has led to the fact that corn is currently the cereal with the highest production worldwide, surpassing crops of greater history such as wheat and rice.

The thesis on the Mexican origin of corn focuses on the research of the American anthropologist Richard Stockton MacNeish. During his research, the anthropologist mentioned managed to find remains of corn plants whose age was estimated at eight millennia, this was possible thanks to the dry conditions of the Tehuacán climate that made it difficult to decompose the ears of young corn (xilotes) grown in area. Evidence of the cultural importance of corn has remained in this area that was the epicenter of the Aztec culture. In the galleries of some pyramids, you can see sculptures, paintings and allegorical engravings to the cultivation of this product.

The ancestral importance of corn for another pre-Hispanic culture, in this case the Maya, was masterfully embodied by Miguel Ángel Asturias. This Guatemalan writer and Nobel Prize for Literature, refers in 1949 to the myth of Popol Vuh (one of the sacred books of Mayan culture). Corn men was a mandatory reading book in our high school a few years ago. At present, Venezuelan students of that level have no idea of this work in their Spanish and Literature classes, a real shame that the current political regime that prevails in Venezuela has undermined our educational system so much.

_{The corn men one of the great works of the Guatemalan writer Miguel Ángel Asturias, Nobel Prize for Literature}

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_{Sample of some of the cobs that were used to make the cachapas}

_{Cleaning waste from several dozen ears of corn, a very laborious process}

_{My nephews feeding the cattle the remains associated with the corn used in the preparation of this rich dish}

_{A beautiful rainbow seen on the hot Sunday afternoon}

_{My sister-in-law spinning the mill crank quickly}

_{My two nephews also contributing to the processing of corn through the mill}

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_{Corn paste along with the other ingredients used}

_{Preparation of the first cachapas using a budare}

_{And so a good number of cachapas were cooked progressively}

_{Preparation of “corn rolls” or leaf cachapas}

_{The cachapas ready to be tasted. I tell you that they were delicious}

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