The Beauty of Mesoamerican Chocolate Art & Language

Welcome once again to C4: Cera's Chocolate Culture at Central! In previous posts, I have mainly focused on my Computer Science classes and experience so I would like to switch it up and primarily relate to my other major, Spanish. In just about every Spanish class at Central, we are reminded of Spain's conquest of the Americas and the indigenous peoples, since it is such an important moment in Latin American and Spanish history. As I mentioned in my first blog post, chocolate was one of the things that originated with the indigenous peoples and that the Spaniards and other Europeans brought back to their countries when they discovered it.

Nowadays, people are able to use modern science and technology to learn more about the history of cacao and how the different indigenous groups used it in the Mesoamerican region. Modern technology basically detects chemical traces of theobromine from Mesoamerican artifacts and architecture, which comes from the cacao tree (Coe and Coe 41). We can also assume these findings would be more accurate than European accounts because those were seen through a foreign perspective and they could have been modified throughout the centuries while the artifacts were made directly from the peoples themselves and have mostly remained untouched by other humans.

In addition to my LAS class about chocolate, I am also taking a class about Medieval Art and Architecture this semester. The Medieval era is something else entirely, but I am learning how to critically examine artworks and their possible interpretations based on certain attributes and historical context. Needless to say, I could appreciate how the Mesoamerican artworks and artifacts provided some answers to the way cacao was used way back then and the professional analyses of them. The Coes' True History of Chocolate book especially contains some of those pieces of art, and I will include one here. Between my art class and my Spanish classes, I can see the full picture of historical and cultural value (pun intended).

The best combinations of art and language about cacao that I can think of are hieroglyphics. The symbols themselves are a type of art, with their curving lines and abstract shapes. It also appeals to me personally as a visual learner. One of the most influential Mayanists of the 20th century, Sir Eric Thompson, made the mistake of assuming the hieroglyphics on pottery dishware and vessels found in the burial site of a Mayan elite were "meaningless" and "little more than decoration, put there by basically illiterate peasant Maya artists" (48). Thompson's theory was later discovered to be wrong on both counts. More importantly, the hieroglyphics found on the ceramic or pottery containers seemed to depict the dedication of the vessel to a patron or to the Mayan gods, the shape of the work, whether the work is painted or carved, sometimes the artist's or scribe's name, what was inside of the vessel, which is also called "the recipe," and finally a person's name with some noble titles, presumably the name of the person it would be buried with. This order of hieroglyphics is known as PSS, or the Primary Standard Sequence (49-50).

The image below is a drawing of one such example found in a Classic Mayan tomb, courtesy of the Coes (50).

The a and b glyphs are the dedication, the c glyphs say the shape is a vase for drinks, and the d glyphs are cacao glyphs. A lot of the other information is not mentioned but it is still enough to identify why the vase was in the burial site. Even though this is a recreated drawing, I can still see the intricate detail of each glyph and how they are like individual words that are part of a whole sentence or a whole description. I just wish I could see it in its original version on the actual vase though.

The Classic Mayans are only one of many indigenous groups that were the first to use cacao and make chocolate. The European conquerors might have helped the spread and evolution of chocolate, but we must not forget all of the atrocities that occurred during Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas and everything that the indigenous peoples have lost since then. As it so happens, Indigenous Peoples' Day is coming up on October 9th this year in the United States, so I recommend celebrating it and learning more about the various cultures in Mesoamerica and beyond. After all, they are the original and true Americans.