Cooking Mexican Food
Tasty Heritage
Mexican cuisine began about nine thousand years ago,
when prehispanic civilizations such as the Maya formed, domesticating
maize, creating the standard process of maize nixtamalization, and
establishing their foodways (Maya cuisine).
Successive waves of other Mesoamerican groups brought with them their
own cooking methods. After the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in the 16th
century and the subsequent conquest of the Maya area, Europeans
introduced a number of other foods, the most important of which were
meats from domesticated animals, dairy products, and rice.
While the Spanish initially tried to impose their own diet on the
country, this was not possible. Asian and African influences were also
introduced into the indigenous cuisine during this era as a result of
African slavery in New Spain and the Manila-Acapulco Galleons.
Over the centuries, this resulted in regional cuisines based on local
conditions, such as those in Oaxaca, Veracruz and the Yucatán Peninsula.
Mexican cuisine is an important aspect of the culture, social structure
and popular traditions of Mexico. For this reason and others,
traditional Mexican cuisine was inscribed in 2010 on the
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by
UNESCO.