February 13, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode Eva and Maite talk Guatemalan comfort foods with Guatemala born and raised actor and host of the new podcast, Greatest Escapes, Arturo Castro. They talk about the rich history of the region and uncover how some staple ingredients - like bananas and coffee - have been tied to political instability and conflict. Maite visits the Guatemalan Night Market in Los Angeles with food writer Bill Esparza.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I love La because it's filled with all walks of life.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I know, I feel so fortunate to live in the
city such a diverse community.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So today we're going to talk about Guatemala.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
My name is Eva Longoria and I am my.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
And welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores
our past and present through food.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So make yourself at home. Have you been to Guatemala?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I have, Oh my god, it's so yeah, I held you.
I've only I've been once. I went to well to
Antigua and to Lake at Ittland and it was it's phenomenal.
Were you there for vacation or were you there for work?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was there for charity work, so I was there
with the with the farmers and farm workers, and yeah,
it was really it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It's really.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I wish, you know, Honduras was having a better moment
because it's also really beautiful. But Nita Awa stunning. That
just Central America is really I get sad in that
it's plagued by so much violence or problems and that
because it really really is a lush place and filled
(01:30):
with culture and amazing food and really beautiful, beautiful people.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, it's really amazing. And that whole area Central America
has multiple microclimates and there's volcanoes and mountains and valleys
and lakes and oceans and it's just and the land
is so rich and and agricultural and this really long
Mayan history. I mean, we've talked about nixtimalization and chocolate
(01:58):
before and that originated there, but I remember when I
went and just how the Mayan culture is still so strong.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's interesting because it's it began around two thousand BC.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And you know that the Mayans were the or not the.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Only, but one of the indigenous populations that were never colonized.
They weren't they they weren't conquered by by the Spaniards.
That's why they're thriving today.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. Still yeah, still, they were never fully conquered. And
I think it's partly because of the because of the
the topography, right, because of the dense jungle. They could
just go. But they were amazing. They built, and we've
talked about this before, super impressive city states, the ball courts.
They developed this writing system, the concept of zero and
(02:51):
the Book of Creation, the po which we've mentioned before,
that was also Guatemala.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well it's funny because, yeah, because you know, huge trap
of Mayan land during this time, you know, during the
eighteen hundreds that were stolen for a cultivation of tobacco,
sugar cane, and a lot of the Mayans were enslaved
to work that land. But in the eighteen seventies, coffee
became a very important crop. And when I went to Guatemala,
that's where I went.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I went to the.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Coffee fields and they were having a huge crisis because
there's a disease called rust and it was really destroying
all of these coffee crops. And so we were there
to try to, you know, help help with farm worker needs,
like is it equipment, you know, is it you know,
(03:39):
not pesticides, but is there some sort of preventative things
we can do because once they lose their crop, they
lose their money for the year. So that's why I
was down there. It was because I was helping the
Guatemalan farm workers.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
That's fascinating. I mean, it's such a small country and
it's it's basically their main crops are banana and cardamom
and this is it's all these cash crops and they're
so dependent on the climate and so yeah, with climate change,
what are they going to do? I mean this was
(04:14):
one example with the coffee.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, but also like you know, their food and traditions,
you know corn. We talked about this that the nix
demalization came from Guatemala.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They were the first to do it, right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
The first evidence of the niximalization process dates to Guatemala
around fifteen hundred BC, so it's definitely from that area.
The first visual references to corn God's date to around
one hundred BC from also Guatemala. They were discovered in
two thousand and one, not that long ago, in San Bartolo.
(04:48):
And there were these murals in the jungle depicting the
birth of the cosmos, and one of them shows a
corner of God floating with a pair of birds tied
to his hunting basket. He's letting blood and offering a
sacrifice turkey before one of the five cosmic trees. So
the soul of meso America is corn. And and I
(05:09):
guess we could say that the belly button is.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You guys, don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
My dear friend Arturo Castro, who has a podcast called
Greatest Escapes, is coming on to talk to us about
growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
What I can't wait stay with us?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Do you know that might be that?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And I did a did a not a movie, a
TV show.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Quibi was a TV show. Yeah, yeah, there's a I
was confused and thank you for coming on. I did
not know you were Guatemalin. Oh yeah you didn't, do
you think? I thought you were a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
That yeah, yeah, those act yes, I do one of those.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yes, one of those Nordic places.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Because when we met, I was like, if a long, Guordio,
it's so nice to me to you, And was like,
oh no, she's now confused.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Ya.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
No, you know why. You know why because we're in
LA and Mike and I are Mexican, and so I
was like, he's obviously Mexican.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
No, but I played Mexican a bunch and nobody knows
where what them all is more. When I started so,
I remember me and my buddy were single dudes back
in the day in New York and we met these
girls from Oklahoma. They're like, so, where you guys from?
And we're like, oh, what Tema And they're like, oh
my God, we love Wadalajara and I looked at him.
We looked at each other like is it worse whatever? Man, Yes,
(06:42):
we love being from Wadalajara. We could not be more
if we tried. Did you grow up here in La
No No? Born and raised till I was nineteen, I
moved to New York City. I had a bit of
a thick accent from one all.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yes, straight, what you went an accent? You?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
One?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Really?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Not only did I have an accent as Hispanic accent,
but my stepdad's Canadian. So who I practiced my English
with with was him.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
So I told a little bit like what's a house about?
You know, like how Canadian? Hispanic? It was so.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, yeah, no doubt, broke no doubt like that, and
then people were like when where are you from?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
And then so I got rid of my accent.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It took me a full year, and then for the
next five six years the only roles I ever played
had an accent. I was like, man, you really could
have seen me a lot of time and money.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You know, So wait, you have a podcast. I have
a podcast. I'm a history about I'm a history buff.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
So I wanted to you know, I always have I
always have the wildest sort of like tidbits about I
love how a seemingly small event has across history, you know.
And so I was always fascinated by escapes, like people
escaping or prison or everything law or did we have
(08:04):
one about a woman who escaped two shipwrecks, one of
them being the Titanic, which by then it's like girls
stop getting on a boat, you know. And so basically
I just get my friends to come on the podcast.
I tell them a story and we have like live
music and we just have fun with it.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
It sounds what great is escape says.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
We have Ed Helmes, we have Joseph Gordon Levitt, Dian Guerrero,
a bunch of cool people. And yeah, man, I just
thought there weren't enough podcasts, and I said, hey, guys,
let me you need one more.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And that's that's how I happened.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh my gosh, I know we need more podcasts. And well,
Mike than I are history buffs and food buffs, foodies,
we're taste butts Facebook.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Did you're actually art historian?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And I got into food history through art history because
it tells us so much about culture. Right, things are
such a big part about culture. Have you come across
any interesting food escape stories?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well, yes, one of them.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
So one of these guys, this frenchman named Michelle, escaped
from prison because he convinced his wife to take helicopter lessons,
and so she landed the helicopter in the yard, in
the prison yard, and he got away.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
But the way he got away.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Is that he painted tangerines to look like grenades, and
so he started like flinging these tangerines that were like
painted black with a little thing on the top.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And that's how we got away.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Can you imagine how stupid you must feel as the
guard once you figure out that, my god, these grenades
are delicious. It's there's a much more like dark one,
which is Dan Mora. They've made a bunch of films
about it. But basically they convinced two of the inmates
(09:59):
had a relationship with one of the female person guards
and she would sneak them tools to escape in Hamburger helper.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
So, oh, food.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Has been a part of escapes since escapes have been escapes.
You know, wow, hungry escaping from stuff?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
You know, you really do.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
So, you know, Mike and I do this.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Hungry for history, because the history of food of different ingredients,
you know, And we mostly focus on on Mexico and
Latin America, and so we're doing a Guatemala episode and
we were like, oh my god, we got to have
our turu on for us.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's we do stews.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So we do a stew called cacique and it's sort
of a turkey very there's a spice from the space
called kowang.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So it's a red soup. It's all.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
But it's very thick. We like think we we love fis.
We just love textures. Honestly, we just love the thicker
the better. If you can't, like, if you can't eat
your soup with a fork and a like steak knife,
I don't want it.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know, you don't want it. Yeah, we as we have.
And I wonder if you guys know what that is?
So that do you know that?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
My I know because you tell the story and then
I have a story to go with your.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Well, there's no Well, it's basically a sweet fried plantain,
a ball of it, right, and but it's it's got
refried beans inside of it, and so I can't tell
you how delicious and simple is and you can do
powdered sugar on top. It is for ricking a great
But I gotta tell you a story real quick. My
aunt used to send us to you know, in one
(11:35):
of my schools, you had to once a month bring
a dish for these sort of like fairs, these food
fairs they had, and she would make hers with with
with beans, but she would put the like raw onion
in the beans and leave it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
There, and that's nasty.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
So nobody would ever buy them, right, nobody would ever
buy them. But we didn't want her to feel bad.
So whenever she's coming to pick us up from school,
me and my two cousins, so just like like you know,
like eating as much of these like really nastyly anitos.
So we didn't hurt her feelings until she this podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And then she'll listen to this and her heart will break.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well with that, like a traditional Watemalan think is my
favorite food in the world are fried plantains, like I could.
I love it And my mom used to make though
she just used to call them thirty did you ever
have the But she remembers as a kid that they
used to make them in the med that.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Day, so what I'm getting is that your mom stole
the recipe from Watemala, my watermelon ancestors, and I will
not stand for this, not.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Aural cultural appropriation on it.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
But we're so close, are we?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Like you know, Pachula is like on the border of Guatemala, right,
so anything that comes from that region. And plus we
share my heritage a lot of which I found out recently.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I have twenty two percent of my own.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Wow, im you, I'm Mayan too. I'm I'm Spanish and
look I grew up going so I'm Mexicana. The quass
on like, I'm such a proud Mexicana. And then I
did my DNA and they're like, and you're Spanish. I
was like, I'm a bad guy. Yeah and uh and
and they're like, and your Mayan. So I was like, what,
(13:18):
So my mix is Spanish and Mayan, but my Mayan
is like fourteen.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Percent not as much.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Oh okay, yeah, I need because my dad was from Katan.
So I've yeah, you're you're Mayan. I am Prancess.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I can see the like just like the shadow of it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, and she'sa so for sure, oh yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
But also I found uh ten percent Ashkenazi Jewish.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Oh yeah, I would, Yeah, a lot of that and
most of the other one.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
It's it's from Spain and Portugal, but I know because
they conquered us.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
But but I'm happy that it's been confirmed that I
have my blood because I feel so connected to so
many places in the food and the lakes and and
and the ruins, and I'm just glad.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I wasn't like fooling myself, you.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Know what I mean, Spanish boys just in the middle
of it.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
No, I never met a Platano until I moved to
La really. Yeah, I didn't, not until I went to
Versailles the restaurant, and I was like, first.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I thought there was you know, there's a little corner
of Versailles, you know, besides the hallow mirrors where they
just the French.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah it's yeah, yeah, because the history erased.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Him, but man, he loved Yeah, there's.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
A little that there on the corner. So I was
reading about because I love that. I didn't know they
were called that, and I went on Tuesday night, I
went to the Whatatemala night market down in West Lake
MacArthur Park, and I was looking for them. They didn't
have them. But I did have the most amazing stew
(15:08):
and it was big. It was thick, now that you're
saying that it was thick. And then also the most
amazing Cado.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
The great head so God.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And there was this line. This woman had a line
of about twenty five people and oh my god.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
It was dope. I know her personally, great friends from
a long time. Yes, we're in business together. Actually, thank
you for supporting us. Uh yeah, no, listen, I wonder,
you know, and maybe you can answer this for me.
But because it's so sort of soup heavy and like,
you know, I wonder if it's that's what is more
traditionally Mayan, you know, like I wonder if from the Mayan,
(15:49):
like there was a big source of stew, like there
was a stew fad in in in what through the
mines because a lot of our dishes are based on that.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And we have tamalis but different than yours. I think, yeah, yeah,
you do banana leaves, banana leaf. Yeah, we splanting for everything, man.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I had a tamal actually there at the ros,
which I'd.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Never had before.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
We love our gluten intolerant people. You know, we want
to shout them out at every stance that we can.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You know what though, because I went to a studios.
Studios is where my family is from in Spain, and
they too are a soup stu place. And as a
matter of fact, in our studian language, the native language,
not Castano, but a studio, there's no word for fork.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
These people really love soup. I mean, these guys, if
you don't even know what a fork is, You're like, yeah, man,
I just never hate.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, that is interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It probably does come from the Mayan culture because there was,
like in the markets pre Hispanic markets, there was a
lot of soup. Since we did a Galloos episode and
it was in the markets that's what they had. You
grew up in New York? Was there a big Watemelan
community in New York?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I did?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I mean?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I mean you didn't grow up there, you moved there.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, not as not as much honestly, but as in La.
You know, La is so Central American and Mexican and
New York is a little more Caribbean. But I will
tell you what I six years into my you know,
when you moved to a new place right at because
I found you try to assimilate very hard to it,
and that means separating yourself from where you come from
a little bit. And so I kind of left what
(17:25):
because I have serious notes on waterman uh, wealthy society,
you know, it's it can be a little close minded,
it can be So I left, like, this is the city,
this is the cool place, this is a cool civilization.
And so but about six years into my state in
New York, I met a group of watermelons that were
one hundred percent watermelon and one hundred percent New Yorkers.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
And I didn't know you could be both.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I thought.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I didn't know that you didn't have to give up
who you were in order to be this new thing,
you know. And so it was a real sort of
after that, I started reencountering myself with watermelon culture. I
started going back more often. I fell in love with
a watermelon girl. I started trying the food more. I
was very suddenly, not that I wasn't proud before, but
suddenly I was very like, oh cool, this is my superpower.
My superpower is that I come from a very unique place.
(18:13):
And I grew up hiking volcanoes and eating stew with
a fork and knife, you know, and so it really
sort of changed my life. But yeah, so I didn't
find a big community until like maybe six years into it.
I can I can I tell you something super quick
about food history that kind of ties into my show
as well.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah so, and you know how I told you about
how like.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Seemingly small events can sort of like affect the entire
the entirety of human nature and humanity.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, bananas almost ended the world.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Why because in the nineteen fifties there was a democratically
elected president in Whatemala called Ataban's and he saw that
the United Food Company had these massive swats of land
that they basically taken from the in a corrupt deal
with the previous dictator. And he wanted to start a
land reform project where he would give the indigenous people
(19:04):
land so they could work it and they could they
could sort of flourish, and then the country was going
to be set in a really cool progressive way. But Doles,
who was the FBI director and also one of his
brother who was adviser to the President of America at
the time, were on the board of the United Fruit Company,
So they decided to stage a CIA coup.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
They decided to depose.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
The democratic, democratically elected president, install a puppet guy, and
get the line back for cheap bananis.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
But here's the kicker. Here's the here's the kicker.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
There was a man traveling through Gatemala that got radicalized
by this actual event and went fleeing to Mexico where
he met his revolutionary partner. And that man was Chay Gevada.
Jay Gievada hadn't been radicalized until he was in Watemala
at the time when this happened.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
He saw that flit to I knew that.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
And that's how almost the Cuban missile crisis happened indirectly
because us the world almost ended because they wanted cheap bananas.
And if that's not food history, guys, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
What is very bad.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I remember hearing no, I remember hearing Ja got radicalized
in I thought it was Mexico, but Guatemala what he.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Got radicalized on? What I'm on.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Then he met Fidel Castri in Mexico because he was
fleeing Watemala in this cool stage so or maybe he
got radicalized because he was like, I can't drink this stew,
I have to chew it.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
You don't have water to it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I'm glad you mentioned that about the bananas because it's
so it's basically and this led to.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
These thirty years of civil war, which then that's what
caused people to immigrate, to immigrate into the United States,
because it was the United States that caused this war,
who then propped up the dictators that committed genocide and
what them all, etcetera. It wasn't the sad part it was.
It wasn't original. They did this all throughout Latin America.
But what I'm all was a pilot program. It was
the first time that it worked because it was such
(21:05):
a small country and so you know, not to get
into immigration and etc. But there is a reason why
people fled, and it was because of intervention. Intervention by
the United States, yes, and it was because of a
very but what's interesting is it was because of a
very sort of silly little region. Like in the grand
(21:25):
scheme of things, the United Food Company had so many
more places where they could get bananas from. That's why
they call countries like mine banana republics.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
When we come back, I visit the Guatemalan night market
in Los Angeles for some home cooking with our friend
food writer Billi Spavsa. Welcome back to Hungary for history.
Billi Sparza, food writer and expert on Latin American food,
and I visited the hustle and bustle of the Guatemalan
(21:54):
night market.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
So here we are one of my favorite places to
eat in Los Angeles at the Buo on six and
Bonnie Bray. And this is a community spot for day
workers men that are working. You know, it's construction handymen
that stand out. And actually they don't just stand up
at home depot in places like that, they also get
(22:20):
called by construction companies to join up for the day.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
And it's also domestic.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Workers women and then they're families that come out here
and they're looking for a taste of the little towns
they're from in in Watemala that have these you know
foods that you have in the evening after for workers
workers foods, big Central American community, and we're here tonight
to have Guatemalan food, domal soapas, tostadas and amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for waiting
in line to get all this delicious stuff. So I
appreciative of you agreeing to to meet us here.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Yeah, I mean I've been coming here for years, but
I've never seen a line of thirty people for one stand. Ever,
It's always a few people gathered around. So I just
jumped in line, like, okay, we got to get this
whatever it.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Is, and of course follow the lines and delicious.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Soap us open the Guyina, great home cooking from watermelon
woman and handmade tortillas.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
They're delicious this stuff. Yes, yeah, they're delicious.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
I don't think any other stands doing that tonight. Oh really,
the line is still.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
There, line is still there.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
We've stumbled upon something because like I don't, you know,
I haven't been in it a little bit. I don't
recognize all the vendors, all these because you come. I
come so infrequently and I'm just randomly going to stands.
But I'm going to make a note. This is the spot.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
This is the spot.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Yes, I'm coming for all the all the soap us.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
So this is just a it's a chicken stew.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
Yeah, it's a stewed chicken.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Oh my gosh, this is really good. So what makes this?
I mean, I feel like this could be any any culture, right,
this is just a so you know, because it's sticken with.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Off the bone.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
You know, don't use hot peppers, they use sweet peppers.
And I was asking people online, like what do you
get here? They're like, whatever she has, she's gonna have soups.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
This is a soup.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Culture, soapash gainascado.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
They make good stews, you know, good soups.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Is it from a particular part of Mala.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
So what the Mala has departments, But it's a small country,
so many of the foods are national and there are
regional styles of like tomales. You can find paches are
from a certain region, but you can find those here.
So you can find all the tomales kind of here,
you know, mm hmm. But I think that's the key
(24:53):
is it's it's economical and it's home cooking super delicious.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
That's the key to home the homie And so so
how long has this been here?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
MacArthur Park area has always had street vendors. I mean
since I moved into La ninety five, MacArthur Park was
always busy. I became aware of the Watemalon night market
probably twenty eighteen, and it's grown and it's you know,
as a lot of these markets, there's an EBB and
flow of vendors that go in and out and some
(25:23):
I recognize a woman over there who's been there. She's
always here no matter what happens here. It's the vendors
are resilient, They're always LA has historically been just the worst.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
Our local politicians just do not take care of street vendors.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
They don't watch out for them, they don't provide them alternatives,
they don't provide solutions. And clearly it's always the case
that people want to be here and want to eat this.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
This provides a service for people that help.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Our you know, our construct in the city that.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Are built in the city, and they can't afford to
go to whole.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Foods and the home cook traditions that you can only
find here.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, it's only the person making it at home that
can add the sasson like a restaurant can't really do that.
Los Angeles has the biggest community of guate Malins outside
of whatate Mala. They started moving here like in the
eighties and nineties with the Civil War, So can you
talk about that a little bit and what that did
to the kind of yeah culture in Losennas.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
I want to say the largest group in La are Mexicans,
but after them are Salvadorans. But then we have Guatamlons
that make a huge impact on the Latino community of
Los Angeles. But it's US intervention in Central America in
the seventies, even going back before, but especially in the seventies,
(26:49):
the our intervention in the Civil War and El Salvador
or invention into whatanamas. Yeah, I mean we destabilize these
places and that you know, they came here.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
The government creates these problems, and then.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
You know, this is this we have.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
We have to have one of the most ignorant discussions
about this because we are the reason they're here and
we need them here.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
Yeah, we cannot. We don't.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
There is not one political party that has a solution
to people that pick our food, people that work in
our kitchens, restaurant kitchens, people that clean our hotels, the
service economy.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
We don't have the solutions. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
And it's not even that, it's that there is no
incentive or no drive for any group of US citizens
to go pick strawberries for a day. There just is
no path to that. There's nothing you couldn't force them
to do it, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And another part of that is like it's basically slave
labor that has been normalized, you know, which is a
whole other level of cruelty.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
And yeah, the logical thing is we need the workers,
give them the H two be visas, and we don't
do that.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
We make it super hard to happen.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
The companies need the workers, the farms need them, the
factories need them. The chicken the poultry factories need them,
and so the government's not giving those visas, and so
it encourages this undocumented labor to come here and we're
so we're actually asking for it and then making them
(28:33):
go through hell.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
And so I wonder what's going to happen to these
markets now with everything that's going on with ice, and
it must be so terrifying.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Honestly, I was surprised tonight. I was thinking there won't
be a lot of people here. So this is encouraging
that we're.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Seeing this, you know, the resilience.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
People are out having soapas and mas and and tostadas.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Huge thanks to Castro and Billis for joining us this week.
Thank you so much for listening. See you next week.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Thanks for listening. Everybody. Hungary for History is a Hyphenite
media production in partnership with Iheart'smichael Pura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I love La because it's filled with all walks of life.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I know, I feel so fortunate to live in the
city such a diverse community.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So today we're going to talk about Guatemala.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
My name is Eva Longoria and I am my.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
And welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores
our past and present through food.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So make yourself at home. Have you been to Guatemala?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I have, Oh my god, it's so yeah, I held you.
I've only I've been once. I went to well to
Antigua and to Lake at Ittland and it was it's phenomenal.
Were you there for vacation or were you there for work?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was there for charity work, so I was there
with the with the farmers and farm workers, and yeah,
it was really it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It's really.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I wish, you know, Honduras was having a better moment
because it's also really beautiful. But Nita Awa stunning. That
just Central America is really I get sad in that
it's plagued by so much violence or problems and that
because it really really is a lush place and filled
(01:30):
with culture and amazing food and really beautiful, beautiful people.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, it's really amazing. And that whole area Central America
has multiple microclimates and there's volcanoes and mountains and valleys
and lakes and oceans and it's just and the land
is so rich and and agricultural and this really long
Mayan history. I mean, we've talked about nixtimalization and chocolate
(01:58):
before and that originated there, but I remember when I
went and just how the Mayan culture is still so strong.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's interesting because it's it began around two thousand BC.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And you know that the Mayans were the or not the.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Only, but one of the indigenous populations that were never colonized.
They weren't they they weren't conquered by by the Spaniards.
That's why they're thriving today.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. Still yeah, still, they were never fully conquered. And
I think it's partly because of the because of the
the topography, right, because of the dense jungle. They could
just go. But they were amazing. They built, and we've
talked about this before, super impressive city states, the ball courts.
They developed this writing system, the concept of zero and
(02:51):
the Book of Creation, the po which we've mentioned before,
that was also Guatemala.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well it's funny because, yeah, because you know, huge trap
of Mayan land during this time, you know, during the
eighteen hundreds that were stolen for a cultivation of tobacco,
sugar cane, and a lot of the Mayans were enslaved
to work that land. But in the eighteen seventies, coffee
became a very important crop. And when I went to Guatemala,
that's where I went.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I went to the.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Coffee fields and they were having a huge crisis because
there's a disease called rust and it was really destroying
all of these coffee crops. And so we were there
to try to, you know, help help with farm worker needs,
like is it equipment, you know, is it you know,
(03:39):
not pesticides, but is there some sort of preventative things
we can do because once they lose their crop, they
lose their money for the year. So that's why I
was down there. It was because I was helping the
Guatemalan farm workers.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
That's fascinating. I mean, it's such a small country and
it's it's basically their main crops are banana and cardamom
and this is it's all these cash crops and they're
so dependent on the climate and so yeah, with climate change,
what are they going to do? I mean this was
(04:14):
one example with the coffee.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, but also like you know, their food and traditions,
you know corn. We talked about this that the nix
demalization came from Guatemala.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They were the first to do it, right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
The first evidence of the niximalization process dates to Guatemala
around fifteen hundred BC, so it's definitely from that area.
The first visual references to corn God's date to around
one hundred BC from also Guatemala. They were discovered in
two thousand and one, not that long ago, in San Bartolo.
(04:48):
And there were these murals in the jungle depicting the
birth of the cosmos, and one of them shows a
corner of God floating with a pair of birds tied
to his hunting basket. He's letting blood and offering a
sacrifice turkey before one of the five cosmic trees. So
the soul of meso America is corn. And and I
(05:09):
guess we could say that the belly button is.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You guys, don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
My dear friend Arturo Castro, who has a podcast called
Greatest Escapes, is coming on to talk to us about
growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
What I can't wait stay with us?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Do you know that might be that?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And I did a did a not a movie, a
TV show.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Quibi was a TV show. Yeah, yeah, there's a I
was confused and thank you for coming on. I did
not know you were Guatemalin. Oh yeah you didn't, do
you think? I thought you were a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
That yeah, yeah, those act yes, I do one of those.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yes, one of those Nordic places.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Because when we met, I was like, if a long, Guordio,
it's so nice to me to you, And was like,
oh no, she's now confused.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Ya.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
No, you know why. You know why because we're in
LA and Mike and I are Mexican, and so I
was like, he's obviously Mexican.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
No, but I played Mexican a bunch and nobody knows
where what them all is more. When I started so,
I remember me and my buddy were single dudes back
in the day in New York and we met these
girls from Oklahoma. They're like, so, where you guys from?
And we're like, oh, what Tema And they're like, oh
my God, we love Wadalajara and I looked at him.
We looked at each other like is it worse whatever? Man, Yes,
(06:42):
we love being from Wadalajara. We could not be more
if we tried. Did you grow up here in La
No No? Born and raised till I was nineteen, I
moved to New York City. I had a bit of
a thick accent from one all.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yes, straight, what you went an accent? You?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
One?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Really?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Not only did I have an accent as Hispanic accent,
but my stepdad's Canadian. So who I practiced my English
with with was him.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
So I told a little bit like what's a house about?
You know, like how Canadian? Hispanic? It was so.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, yeah, no doubt, broke no doubt like that, and
then people were like when where are you from?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
And then so I got rid of my accent.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It took me a full year, and then for the
next five six years the only roles I ever played
had an accent. I was like, man, you really could
have seen me a lot of time and money.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You know, So wait, you have a podcast. I have
a podcast. I'm a history about I'm a history buff.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
So I wanted to you know, I always have I
always have the wildest sort of like tidbits about I
love how a seemingly small event has across history, you know.
And so I was always fascinated by escapes, like people
escaping or prison or everything law or did we have
(08:04):
one about a woman who escaped two shipwrecks, one of
them being the Titanic, which by then it's like girls
stop getting on a boat, you know. And so basically
I just get my friends to come on the podcast.
I tell them a story and we have like live
music and we just have fun with it.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
It sounds what great is escape says.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
We have Ed Helmes, we have Joseph Gordon Levitt, Dian Guerrero,
a bunch of cool people. And yeah, man, I just
thought there weren't enough podcasts, and I said, hey, guys,
let me you need one more.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And that's that's how I happened.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh my gosh, I know we need more podcasts. And well,
Mike than I are history buffs and food buffs, foodies,
we're taste butts Facebook.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Did you're actually art historian?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And I got into food history through art history because
it tells us so much about culture. Right, things are
such a big part about culture. Have you come across
any interesting food escape stories?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well, yes, one of them.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
So one of these guys, this frenchman named Michelle, escaped
from prison because he convinced his wife to take helicopter lessons,
and so she landed the helicopter in the yard, in
the prison yard, and he got away.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
But the way he got away.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Is that he painted tangerines to look like grenades, and
so he started like flinging these tangerines that were like
painted black with a little thing on the top.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And that's how we got away.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Can you imagine how stupid you must feel as the
guard once you figure out that, my god, these grenades
are delicious. It's there's a much more like dark one,
which is Dan Mora. They've made a bunch of films
about it. But basically they convinced two of the inmates
(09:59):
had a relationship with one of the female person guards
and she would sneak them tools to escape in Hamburger helper.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
So, oh, food.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Has been a part of escapes since escapes have been escapes.
You know, wow, hungry escaping from stuff?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
You know, you really do.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
So, you know, Mike and I do this.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Hungry for history, because the history of food of different ingredients,
you know, And we mostly focus on on Mexico and
Latin America, and so we're doing a Guatemala episode and
we were like, oh my god, we got to have
our turu on for us.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's we do stews.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So we do a stew called cacique and it's sort
of a turkey very there's a spice from the space
called kowang.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So it's a red soup. It's all.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
But it's very thick. We like think we we love fis.
We just love textures. Honestly, we just love the thicker
the better. If you can't, like, if you can't eat
your soup with a fork and a like steak knife,
I don't want it.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know, you don't want it. Yeah, we as we have.
And I wonder if you guys know what that is?
So that do you know that?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
My I know because you tell the story and then
I have a story to go with your.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Well, there's no Well, it's basically a sweet fried plantain,
a ball of it, right, and but it's it's got
refried beans inside of it, and so I can't tell
you how delicious and simple is and you can do
powdered sugar on top. It is for ricking a great
But I gotta tell you a story real quick. My
aunt used to send us to you know, in one
(11:35):
of my schools, you had to once a month bring
a dish for these sort of like fairs, these food
fairs they had, and she would make hers with with
with beans, but she would put the like raw onion
in the beans and leave it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
There, and that's nasty.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
So nobody would ever buy them, right, nobody would ever
buy them. But we didn't want her to feel bad.
So whenever she's coming to pick us up from school,
me and my two cousins, so just like like you know,
like eating as much of these like really nastyly anitos.
So we didn't hurt her feelings until she this podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And then she'll listen to this and her heart will break.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well with that, like a traditional Watemalan think is my
favorite food in the world are fried plantains, like I could.
I love it And my mom used to make though
she just used to call them thirty did you ever
have the But she remembers as a kid that they
used to make them in the med that.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Day, so what I'm getting is that your mom stole
the recipe from Watemala, my watermelon ancestors, and I will
not stand for this, not.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Aural cultural appropriation on it.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
But we're so close, are we?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Like you know, Pachula is like on the border of Guatemala, right,
so anything that comes from that region. And plus we
share my heritage a lot of which I found out recently.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I have twenty two percent of my own.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Wow, im you, I'm Mayan too. I'm I'm Spanish and
look I grew up going so I'm Mexicana. The quass
on like, I'm such a proud Mexicana. And then I
did my DNA and they're like, and you're Spanish. I
was like, I'm a bad guy. Yeah and uh and
and they're like, and your Mayan. So I was like, what,
(13:18):
So my mix is Spanish and Mayan, but my Mayan
is like fourteen.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Percent not as much.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Oh okay, yeah, I need because my dad was from Katan.
So I've yeah, you're you're Mayan. I am Prancess.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I can see the like just like the shadow of it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, and she'sa so for sure, oh yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
But also I found uh ten percent Ashkenazi Jewish.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Oh yeah, I would, Yeah, a lot of that and
most of the other one.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
It's it's from Spain and Portugal, but I know because
they conquered us.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
But but I'm happy that it's been confirmed that I
have my blood because I feel so connected to so
many places in the food and the lakes and and
and the ruins, and I'm just glad.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I wasn't like fooling myself, you.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Know what I mean, Spanish boys just in the middle
of it.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
No, I never met a Platano until I moved to
La really. Yeah, I didn't, not until I went to
Versailles the restaurant, and I was like, first.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I thought there was you know, there's a little corner
of Versailles, you know, besides the hallow mirrors where they
just the French.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah it's yeah, yeah, because the history erased.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Him, but man, he loved Yeah, there's.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
A little that there on the corner. So I was
reading about because I love that. I didn't know they
were called that, and I went on Tuesday night, I
went to the Whatatemala night market down in West Lake
MacArthur Park, and I was looking for them. They didn't
have them. But I did have the most amazing stew
(15:08):
and it was big. It was thick, now that you're
saying that it was thick. And then also the most
amazing Cado.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
The great head so God.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And there was this line. This woman had a line
of about twenty five people and oh my god.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
It was dope. I know her personally, great friends from
a long time. Yes, we're in business together. Actually, thank
you for supporting us. Uh yeah, no, listen, I wonder,
you know, and maybe you can answer this for me.
But because it's so sort of soup heavy and like,
you know, I wonder if it's that's what is more
traditionally Mayan, you know, like I wonder if from the Mayan,
(15:49):
like there was a big source of stew, like there
was a stew fad in in in what through the
mines because a lot of our dishes are based on that.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And we have tamalis but different than yours. I think, yeah, yeah,
you do banana leaves, banana leaf. Yeah, we splanting for everything, man.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I had a tamal actually there at the ros,
which I'd.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Never had before.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
We love our gluten intolerant people. You know, we want
to shout them out at every stance that we can.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You know what though, because I went to a studios.
Studios is where my family is from in Spain, and
they too are a soup stu place. And as a
matter of fact, in our studian language, the native language,
not Castano, but a studio, there's no word for fork.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
These people really love soup. I mean, these guys, if
you don't even know what a fork is, You're like, yeah, man,
I just never hate.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, that is interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It probably does come from the Mayan culture because there was,
like in the markets pre Hispanic markets, there was a
lot of soup. Since we did a Galloos episode and
it was in the markets that's what they had. You
grew up in New York? Was there a big Watemelan
community in New York?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I did?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I mean?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I mean you didn't grow up there, you moved there.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, not as not as much honestly, but as in La.
You know, La is so Central American and Mexican and
New York is a little more Caribbean. But I will
tell you what I six years into my you know,
when you moved to a new place right at because
I found you try to assimilate very hard to it,
and that means separating yourself from where you come from
a little bit. And so I kind of left what
(17:25):
because I have serious notes on waterman uh, wealthy society,
you know, it's it can be a little close minded,
it can be So I left, like, this is the city,
this is the cool place, this is a cool civilization.
And so but about six years into my state in
New York, I met a group of watermelons that were
one hundred percent watermelon and one hundred percent New Yorkers.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
And I didn't know you could be both.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I thought.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I didn't know that you didn't have to give up
who you were in order to be this new thing,
you know. And so it was a real sort of
after that, I started reencountering myself with watermelon culture. I
started going back more often. I fell in love with
a watermelon girl. I started trying the food more. I
was very suddenly, not that I wasn't proud before, but
suddenly I was very like, oh cool, this is my superpower.
My superpower is that I come from a very unique place.
(18:13):
And I grew up hiking volcanoes and eating stew with
a fork and knife, you know, and so it really
sort of changed my life. But yeah, so I didn't
find a big community until like maybe six years into it.
I can I can I tell you something super quick
about food history that kind of ties into my show
as well.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah so, and you know how I told you about
how like.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Seemingly small events can sort of like affect the entire
the entirety of human nature and humanity.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, bananas almost ended the world.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Why because in the nineteen fifties there was a democratically
elected president in Whatemala called Ataban's and he saw that
the United Food Company had these massive swats of land
that they basically taken from the in a corrupt deal
with the previous dictator. And he wanted to start a
land reform project where he would give the indigenous people
(19:04):
land so they could work it and they could they
could sort of flourish, and then the country was going
to be set in a really cool progressive way. But Doles,
who was the FBI director and also one of his
brother who was adviser to the President of America at
the time, were on the board of the United Fruit Company,
So they decided to stage a CIA coup.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
They decided to depose.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
The democratic, democratically elected president, install a puppet guy, and
get the line back for cheap bananis.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
But here's the kicker. Here's the here's the kicker.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
There was a man traveling through Gatemala that got radicalized
by this actual event and went fleeing to Mexico where
he met his revolutionary partner. And that man was Chay Gevada.
Jay Gievada hadn't been radicalized until he was in Watemala
at the time when this happened.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
He saw that flit to I knew that.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
And that's how almost the Cuban missile crisis happened indirectly
because us the world almost ended because they wanted cheap bananas.
And if that's not food history, guys, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
What is very bad.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
I remember hearing no, I remember hearing Ja got radicalized
in I thought it was Mexico, but Guatemala what he.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Got radicalized on? What I'm on.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Then he met Fidel Castri in Mexico because he was
fleeing Watemala in this cool stage so or maybe he
got radicalized because he was like, I can't drink this stew,
I have to chew it.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
You don't have water to it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I'm glad you mentioned that about the bananas because it's
so it's basically and this led to.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
These thirty years of civil war, which then that's what
caused people to immigrate, to immigrate into the United States,
because it was the United States that caused this war,
who then propped up the dictators that committed genocide and
what them all, etcetera. It wasn't the sad part it was.
It wasn't original. They did this all throughout Latin America.
But what I'm all was a pilot program. It was
the first time that it worked because it was such
(21:05):
a small country and so you know, not to get
into immigration and etc. But there is a reason why
people fled, and it was because of intervention. Intervention by
the United States, yes, and it was because of a
very but what's interesting is it was because of a
very sort of silly little region. Like in the grand
(21:25):
scheme of things, the United Food Company had so many
more places where they could get bananas from. That's why
they call countries like mine banana republics.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
When we come back, I visit the Guatemalan night market
in Los Angeles for some home cooking with our friend
food writer Billi Spavsa. Welcome back to Hungary for history.
Billi Sparza, food writer and expert on Latin American food,
and I visited the hustle and bustle of the Guatemalan
(21:54):
night market.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
So here we are one of my favorite places to
eat in Los Angeles at the Buo on six and
Bonnie Bray. And this is a community spot for day
workers men that are working. You know, it's construction handymen
that stand out. And actually they don't just stand up
at home depot in places like that, they also get
(22:20):
called by construction companies to join up for the day.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
And it's also domestic.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Workers women and then they're families that come out here
and they're looking for a taste of the little towns
they're from in in Watemala that have these you know
foods that you have in the evening after for workers
workers foods, big Central American community, and we're here tonight
to have Guatemalan food, domal soapas, tostadas and amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for waiting
in line to get all this delicious stuff. So I
appreciative of you agreeing to to meet us here.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Yeah, I mean I've been coming here for years, but
I've never seen a line of thirty people for one stand. Ever,
It's always a few people gathered around. So I just
jumped in line, like, okay, we got to get this
whatever it.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Is, and of course follow the lines and delicious.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Soap us open the Guyina, great home cooking from watermelon
woman and handmade tortillas.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
They're delicious this stuff. Yes, yeah, they're delicious.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
I don't think any other stands doing that tonight. Oh really,
the line is still.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
There, line is still there.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
We've stumbled upon something because like I don't, you know,
I haven't been in it a little bit. I don't
recognize all the vendors, all these because you come. I
come so infrequently and I'm just randomly going to stands.
But I'm going to make a note. This is the spot.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
This is the spot.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Yes, I'm coming for all the all the soap us.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
So this is just a it's a chicken stew.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
Yeah, it's a stewed chicken.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Oh my gosh, this is really good. So what makes this?
I mean, I feel like this could be any any culture, right,
this is just a so you know, because it's sticken with.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Off the bone.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
You know, don't use hot peppers, they use sweet peppers.
And I was asking people online, like what do you
get here? They're like, whatever she has, she's gonna have soups.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
This is a soup.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Culture, soapash gainascado.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
They make good stews, you know, good soups.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Is it from a particular part of Mala.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
So what the Mala has departments, But it's a small country,
so many of the foods are national and there are
regional styles of like tomales. You can find paches are
from a certain region, but you can find those here.
So you can find all the tomales kind of here,
you know, mm hmm. But I think that's the key
(24:53):
is it's it's economical and it's home cooking super delicious.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
That's the key to home the homie And so so
how long has this been here?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
MacArthur Park area has always had street vendors. I mean
since I moved into La ninety five, MacArthur Park was
always busy. I became aware of the Watemalon night market
probably twenty eighteen, and it's grown and it's you know,
as a lot of these markets, there's an EBB and
flow of vendors that go in and out and some
(25:23):
I recognize a woman over there who's been there. She's
always here no matter what happens here. It's the vendors
are resilient, They're always LA has historically been just the worst.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
Our local politicians just do not take care of street vendors.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
They don't watch out for them, they don't provide them alternatives,
they don't provide solutions. And clearly it's always the case
that people want to be here and want to eat this.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
This provides a service for people that help.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Our you know, our construct in the city that.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Are built in the city, and they can't afford to
go to whole.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Foods and the home cook traditions that you can only
find here.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, it's only the person making it at home that
can add the sasson like a restaurant can't really do that.
Los Angeles has the biggest community of guate Malins outside
of whatate Mala. They started moving here like in the
eighties and nineties with the Civil War, So can you
talk about that a little bit and what that did
to the kind of yeah culture in Losennas.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
I want to say the largest group in La are Mexicans,
but after them are Salvadorans. But then we have Guatamlons
that make a huge impact on the Latino community of
Los Angeles. But it's US intervention in Central America in
the seventies, even going back before, but especially in the seventies,
(26:49):
the our intervention in the Civil War and El Salvador
or invention into whatanamas. Yeah, I mean we destabilize these
places and that you know, they came here.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
The government creates these problems, and then.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
You know, this is this we have.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
We have to have one of the most ignorant discussions
about this because we are the reason they're here and
we need them here.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
Yeah, we cannot. We don't.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
There is not one political party that has a solution
to people that pick our food, people that work in
our kitchens, restaurant kitchens, people that clean our hotels, the
service economy.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
We don't have the solutions. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
And it's not even that, it's that there is no
incentive or no drive for any group of US citizens
to go pick strawberries for a day. There just is
no path to that. There's nothing you couldn't force them
to do it, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And another part of that is like it's basically slave
labor that has been normalized, you know, which is a
whole other level of cruelty.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
And yeah, the logical thing is we need the workers,
give them the H two be visas, and we don't
do that.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
We make it super hard to happen.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
The companies need the workers, the farms need them, the
factories need them. The chicken the poultry factories need them,
and so the government's not giving those visas, and so
it encourages this undocumented labor to come here and we're
so we're actually asking for it and then making them
(28:33):
go through hell.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
And so I wonder what's going to happen to these
markets now with everything that's going on with ice, and
it must be so terrifying.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Honestly, I was surprised tonight. I was thinking there won't
be a lot of people here. So this is encouraging
that we're.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Seeing this, you know, the resilience.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
People are out having soapas and mas and and tostadas.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Huge thanks to Castro and Billis for joining us this week.
Thank you so much for listening. See you next week.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Thanks for listening. Everybody. Hungary for History is a Hyphenite
media production in partnership with Iheart'smichael Pura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
MAITE GOMEZ-REJÓN
Eva Longoria
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