CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 
139 
Taste 7—Guatemala chiles collected at Santo Domingo Suchitepequez 
Common name Probable scientific name 
Size (length in cm.) and description of 
ripe fruit Special uses cited 
Chiltepe? ..... 
Diente de perro .. 
Pasa (ancho) (sa 
Relleno 
C. FrUtescensS..ecccecvccsese 
+ annuum var. grossum 
. annuum (var. grossum ?) 
Mretarexes are feteyipmatavaratake ts/aysta(arevetatai ners - annuum var. abbreviatum 
- annuum longum 
- annuum longum.......es 
. annuum accuminatum 
Guaquel ...... 
Samayaquero 
Costenio (chocolate) 
Santo Domingo? (chocolate) 
Siete caldos 
. 
fe 
DACA RMP alaveleiee (4, 0:0i0is, o(avele.o 8 are: aia.) 6.6ca 
Chamboroto 
Coban (same as Mexican “‘cascabel’’? 
r 
? 
. annuum var. cerasiforme. 
(3 
Capsicum frutescens var. baccatum 
1%4{cm., oblong, red, very “hot” 
234-3 ‘cm: €f)) like’ chiltepes sere cc.ciesncare 
12-14 cm. (?) dark riage mild, broad. . 
8 cm. (?), red, broad 
|For stuffing (green) with 
meat. 
4-5 cm, thick  purplishin.ev.u/ereveislere of'e1e)a 
LA ACHA: syst Gc icteysterstetehatalcvelsie sa ejstarniataraterat asthe 
7-11 cm., red, 
BO. Gmley a TO si5,0 shave nis castro. ayeere ele peayetererovelecs 
3-5 em., bright red, “thot”? (sold green and 
red, not dried). 
10-14 cm. (?), yellow 
Dipped in soup for flavor- 
ing (said to be good for 
“7 soups’). 
Yellow, *thot? ssi scaadsisaacalsacssieelessc 
12-14 cm. (?), yellow 
Small, 2-3 cm. 
red, dark red. 
round, 2 varieties, bright 
1Tdentification fairly certain. 
2 This chile, given the name Santo Domingo because of its abundance and presumable nativity there, is widely sold, fresh, green and red, all along 
the piedmont. 
nated only in Guatemala, very widely.’ 
found by the Russians to have their greatest center in Cen- 
tral America. 
The common name used by the colonial Spanish writers 
(aji) survives today mainly in South America (as does the 
old frisoles for beans), Standley and Calderén (1925, p. 
191) give the name in Central America only as an alternative 
one for chiltepe (baccatum) in Salvador. 
The distribution of chiles as outlined above indicates two 
major centers of domestication of Capsicum, namely, Mexico 
and Brazil, with Central America, particularly Guatemala, 
between the two, as an important secondary center. At least 
one variety, “Santo Domingo,” seems to have arisen in the 
central piedmont area of Pacific Guatemala. 
Oviedo, writing of the many varieties and the merits of 
“axi,’ especially emphasized its great “healthfulness,” and 
told of its early popularity with the Spaniards, and its im- 
mediate introduction into Spain, Italy, and other parts of the 
Old World (Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 1, p. 275). 
SECONDARY AMERICAN STARCHES: 
TUBER AND ROOT CROPS. 
Manioc (Yuca,™ Manihot spp.).—Known only as “yuca” 
in Southwest Guatemala, manioc, or cassava, is grown widely, 
though in no great quantity, up to about 1,600 m. elevation 
(shores of Lake Atitlan). Mainly the common “sweet,’’ non- 
poisonous species (Manihot dulcis) is grown in that area. 
Standley and Calderén (1925, p. 134) report it also as es- 
caped in Salvador. Its root attains great size, and is eaten, 
usually boiled, as a vegetable. Starch balls, about 114-2 cm. 
in diameter are prepared from it in the Lowlands, and these 
appear in large sackloads in Highland. markets, brought by 
itinerant merchants. The “bitter” species (1M. utilissima), 
23 This name is of West Indian origin, and was picked up by the 
Spanish when they found the plant growing there, and probably intro- 
duced it into Central America. Bukasov (1930, p. 241) states that 
“yuca” is a word of the Taino dialect of Santo Domingo, but that the 
plant is of South American origin, all 42 wild species being native to 
South America. : ea 2 
24 Bukasov (1930, p. 241) reported manioc in “limited quantity in 
Mexico and Central America in the torrid zone.” My Guatemala ob- 
servations verify this. Apparently, larger quantities are grown in 
Salvador (Standley and Calderén, 1925, p. 134). 
This seems to be the “‘chile chocolate” (a name I also found sometimes given) described by the Russians, who said it was ‘‘dissemi- 
They collected it in Guatemala City, Esquintla, and San Felipe (Bukasov, 1930). 
well known for its prussic acid poison, and for its value as 
a fine starch, tapioca, seems to be grown on a smaller scale 
in Central America as a whole. Oviedo wrote of the im- 
portance of cagabi bread in the West Indies, where mainly 
the bitter cassava was grown, in six varieties. Central Amer- 
ican introduction of the technique of breadmaking with 
sweet cassava was said to have been effected by Spanish sol- 
diers.** According to Médel (Ms. 1550-60 p. 143, f. 191), 
the use of manioc was limited to the West Indies and “some 
coasts” of the mainland. 
Sweetpotato (camote).—Bukasov (1930) asserts that, 
though the sweetpotato is definitely American, “the center of 
culture origin ... is not known.” Its widespread pre-Colum- 
bian cultivation (from Mexico through Brazil), and the use 
of the Aztec word “camotli,” distorted to “camote” through- 
out Mexico and Central America, are also pointed out. 
Bukasov suggests “its initial rise in Brazil and the Antilles.” 
Oviedo (1851-55, vol. 1, pp. 272-274) described it in the 
West Indies under the local names “aje”’ and the superior 
“batatas” (five varieties). . 
As in Mexico, sweetpotatoes are raised in small plots, an 
in limited quantities, by Indians in Guatemala. The highest 
point where I have seen sweetpotatoes growing is San Bar- 
tolomé Aguascalientes (2,000 m., or 6,562 ft.), in 30-foot- 
square cornstalk enclosures within the milpa. This is the 
upper limit as given by Bukasov. The purple-skinned 
variety appears in particular abundance in markets of western 
Guatemala. 
“Trish” potato (papa, Solanum twherosum).—Bukasov 
points out that, unlike such “basic American cultivated plants 
as maize, beans, peppers, and curcurbitae,” the “native culti- 
vated potato” is much less extensively cultivated than the 
“wild potatoes,” which are found from Brazil to as far north 
as Arizona, and include about 100 species. 
“The ancestor of all our selected species (S. tuberosum) 
started,” according to Bukasov, in “the Chilean littoral. ... 
A great number of wild potatoes are found in Mexico and 
Guatemala, about 30 species, which is double those of Peru 
or Chile.” 
228 Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 1, p. 270; a sort of bread is made today in 
Colombia from manioc (Bukasov, 1930, p. 244, figs. 136, 137). 
