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Speaker 1: I love La because it's filled with all walks of life.

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Speaker 2: I know, I feel so fortunate to live in the

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Speaker 2: city such a diverse community.

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Speaker 1: So today we're going to talk about Guatemala.

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Speaker 2: My name is Eva Longoria and I am my.

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Speaker 1: And welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores

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Speaker 1: our past and present through food.

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Speaker 2: On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some

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Speaker 2: of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.

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Speaker 1: So make yourself at home. Have you been to Guatemala?

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Speaker 2: I have, Oh my god, it's so yeah, I held you.

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Speaker 2: I've only I've been once. I went to well to

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Speaker 2: Antigua and to Lake at Ittland and it was it's phenomenal.

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Speaker 2: Were you there for vacation or were you there for work?

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Speaker 1: I was there for charity work, so I was there

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Speaker 1: with the with the farmers and farm workers, and yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was really it's beautiful.

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Speaker 3: It's really.

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Speaker 1: I wish, you know, Honduras was having a better moment

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Speaker 1: because it's also really beautiful. But Nita Awa stunning. That

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Speaker 1: just Central America is really I get sad in that

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Speaker 1: it's plagued by so much violence or problems and that

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Speaker 1: because it really really is a lush place and filled

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Speaker 1: with culture and amazing food and really beautiful, beautiful people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really amazing. And that whole area Central America

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Speaker 2: has multiple microclimates and there's volcanoes and mountains and valleys

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Speaker 2: and lakes and oceans and it's just and the land

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Speaker 2: is so rich and and agricultural and this really long

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Speaker 2: Mayan history. I mean, we've talked about nixtimalization and chocolate

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Speaker 2: before and that originated there, but I remember when I

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Speaker 2: went and just how the Mayan culture is still so strong.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting because it's it began around two thousand BC.

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Speaker 3: And you know that the Mayans were the or not the.

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Speaker 1: Only, but one of the indigenous populations that were never colonized.

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Speaker 1: They weren't they they weren't conquered by by the Spaniards.

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Speaker 1: That's why they're thriving today.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Still yeah, still, they were never fully conquered. And

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Speaker 2: I think it's partly because of the because of the

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Speaker 2: the topography, right, because of the dense jungle. They could

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Speaker 2: just go. But they were amazing. They built, and we've

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Speaker 2: talked about this before, super impressive city states, the ball courts.

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Speaker 2: They developed this writing system, the concept of zero and

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Speaker 2: the Book of Creation, the po which we've mentioned before,

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Speaker 2: that was also Guatemala.

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Speaker 1: Well it's funny because, yeah, because you know, huge trap

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Speaker 1: of Mayan land during this time, you know, during the

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds that were stolen for a cultivation of tobacco,

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Speaker 1: sugar cane, and a lot of the Mayans were enslaved

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Speaker 1: to work that land. But in the eighteen seventies, coffee

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Speaker 1: became a very important crop. And when I went to Guatemala,

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Speaker 1: that's where I went.

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Speaker 2: I went to the.

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Speaker 1: Coffee fields and they were having a huge crisis because

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Speaker 1: there's a disease called rust and it was really destroying

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Speaker 1: all of these coffee crops. And so we were there

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Speaker 1: to try to, you know, help help with farm worker needs,

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Speaker 1: like is it equipment, you know, is it you know,

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Speaker 1: not pesticides, but is there some sort of preventative things

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Speaker 1: we can do because once they lose their crop, they

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Speaker 1: lose their money for the year. So that's why I

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Speaker 1: was down there. It was because I was helping the

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Speaker 1: Guatemalan farm workers.

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Speaker 2: That's fascinating. I mean, it's such a small country and

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Speaker 2: it's it's basically their main crops are banana and cardamom

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Speaker 2: and this is it's all these cash crops and they're

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Speaker 2: so dependent on the climate and so yeah, with climate change,

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Speaker 2: what are they going to do? I mean this was

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Speaker 2: one example with the coffee.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but also like you know, their food and traditions,

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Speaker 1: you know corn. We talked about this that the nix

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Speaker 1: demalization came from Guatemala.

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Speaker 3: They were the first to do it, right.

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Speaker 2: The first evidence of the niximalization process dates to Guatemala

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Speaker 2: around fifteen hundred BC, so it's definitely from that area.

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Speaker 2: The first visual references to corn God's date to around

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Speaker 2: one hundred BC from also Guatemala. They were discovered in

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Speaker 2: two thousand and one, not that long ago, in San Bartolo.

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Speaker 2: And there were these murals in the jungle depicting the

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Speaker 2: birth of the cosmos, and one of them shows a

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Speaker 2: corner of God floating with a pair of birds tied

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Speaker 2: to his hunting basket. He's letting blood and offering a

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Speaker 2: sacrifice turkey before one of the five cosmic trees. So

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Speaker 2: the soul of meso America is corn. And and I

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Speaker 2: guess we could say that the belly button is.

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Speaker 3: You guys, don't go anywhere.

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Speaker 1: My dear friend Arturo Castro, who has a podcast called

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Speaker 1: Greatest Escapes, is coming on to talk to us about

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Speaker 1: growing up.

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Speaker 2: What I can't wait stay with us?

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Speaker 3: Do you know that might be that?

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Speaker 1: And I did a did a not a movie, a

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Speaker 1: TV show.

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Speaker 3: Quibi was a TV show. Yeah, yeah, there's a I

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Speaker 3: was confused and thank you for coming on. I did

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Speaker 3: not know you were Guatemalin. Oh yeah you didn't, do

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Speaker 3: you think? I thought you were a lot of people.

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Speaker 4: That yeah, yeah, those act yes, I do one of those.

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Speaker 3: Yes, one of those Nordic places.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Because when we met, I was like, if a long, Guordio,

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Speaker 4: it's so nice to me to you, And was like,

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Speaker 4: oh no, she's now confused.

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Speaker 3: Ya.

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Speaker 1: No, you know why. You know why because we're in

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Speaker 1: LA and Mike and I are Mexican, and so I

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Speaker 1: was like, he's obviously Mexican.

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Speaker 4: No, but I played Mexican a bunch and nobody knows

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Speaker 4: where what them all is more. When I started so,

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Speaker 4: I remember me and my buddy were single dudes back

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Speaker 4: in the day in New York and we met these

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Speaker 4: girls from Oklahoma. They're like, so, where you guys from?

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Speaker 4: And we're like, oh, what Tema And they're like, oh

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Speaker 4: my God, we love Wadalajara and I looked at him.

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Speaker 4: We looked at each other like is it worse whatever? Man, Yes,

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Speaker 4: we love being from Wadalajara. We could not be more

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Speaker 4: if we tried. Did you grow up here in La

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Speaker 4: No No? Born and raised till I was nineteen, I

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Speaker 4: moved to New York City. I had a bit of

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Speaker 4: a thick accent from one all.

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Speaker 3: Yes, straight, what you went an accent? You?

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Speaker 4: One?

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Speaker 3: Really?

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Speaker 4: Not only did I have an accent as Hispanic accent,

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Speaker 4: but my stepdad's Canadian. So who I practiced my English

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Speaker 4: with with was him.

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Speaker 3: So I told a little bit like what's a house about?

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Speaker 3: You know, like how Canadian? Hispanic? It was so.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no doubt, broke no doubt like that, and

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Speaker 4: then people were like when where are you from?

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Speaker 3: And then so I got rid of my accent.

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Speaker 4: It took me a full year, and then for the

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Speaker 4: next five six years the only roles I ever played

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Speaker 4: had an accent. I was like, man, you really could

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Speaker 4: have seen me a lot of time and money.

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Speaker 3: You know, So wait, you have a podcast. I have

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Speaker 3: a podcast. I'm a history about I'm a history buff.

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Speaker 4: So I wanted to you know, I always have I

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Speaker 4: always have the wildest sort of like tidbits about I

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Speaker 4: love how a seemingly small event has across history, you know.

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Speaker 4: And so I was always fascinated by escapes, like people

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Speaker 4: escaping or prison or everything law or did we have

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Speaker 4: one about a woman who escaped two shipwrecks, one of

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Speaker 4: them being the Titanic, which by then it's like girls

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Speaker 4: stop getting on a boat, you know. And so basically

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Speaker 4: I just get my friends to come on the podcast.

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Speaker 4: I tell them a story and we have like live

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Speaker 4: music and we just have fun with it.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 3: It sounds what great is escape says.

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Speaker 4: We have Ed Helmes, we have Joseph Gordon Levitt, Dian Guerrero,

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Speaker 4: a bunch of cool people. And yeah, man, I just

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Speaker 4: thought there weren't enough podcasts, and I said, hey, guys,

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Speaker 4: let me you need one more.

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Speaker 3: And that's that's how I happened.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I know we need more podcasts. And well,

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Speaker 1: Mike than I are history buffs and food buffs, foodies,

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Speaker 1: we're taste butts Facebook.

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Speaker 3: Did you're actually art historian?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2: And I got into food history through art history because

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Speaker 2: it tells us so much about culture. Right, things are

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Speaker 2: such a big part about culture. Have you come across

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Speaker 2: any interesting food escape stories?

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Speaker 3: Well, yes, one of them.

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Speaker 4: So one of these guys, this frenchman named Michelle, escaped

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Speaker 4: from prison because he convinced his wife to take helicopter lessons,

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Speaker 4: and so she landed the helicopter in the yard, in

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Speaker 4: the prison yard, and he got away.

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Speaker 3: But the way he got away.

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Speaker 4: Is that he painted tangerines to look like grenades, and

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Speaker 4: so he started like flinging these tangerines that were like

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Speaker 4: painted black with a little thing on the top.

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Speaker 3: And that's how we got away.

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Speaker 4: Can you imagine how stupid you must feel as the

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Speaker 4: guard once you figure out that, my god, these grenades

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Speaker 4: are delicious. It's there's a much more like dark one,

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Speaker 4: which is Dan Mora. They've made a bunch of films

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Speaker 4: about it. But basically they convinced two of the inmates

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Speaker 4: had a relationship with one of the female person guards

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Speaker 4: and she would sneak them tools to escape in Hamburger helper.

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Speaker 3: So, oh, food.

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Speaker 4: Has been a part of escapes since escapes have been escapes.

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Speaker 4: You know, wow, hungry escaping from stuff?

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Speaker 3: You know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: You know, you really do.

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Speaker 3: So, you know, Mike and I do this.

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Speaker 1: Hungry for history, because the history of food of different ingredients,

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Speaker 1: you know, And we mostly focus on on Mexico and

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Speaker 1: Latin America, and so we're doing a Guatemala episode and

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Speaker 1: we were like, oh my god, we got to have

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Speaker 1: our turu on for us.

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Speaker 3: It's we do stews.

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Speaker 4: So we do a stew called cacique and it's sort

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Speaker 4: of a turkey very there's a spice from the space

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Speaker 4: called kowang.

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Speaker 3: So it's a red soup. It's all.

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Speaker 4: But it's very thick. We like think we we love fis.

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Speaker 4: We just love textures. Honestly, we just love the thicker

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Speaker 4: the better. If you can't, like, if you can't eat

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Speaker 4: your soup with a fork and a like steak knife,

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Speaker 4: I don't want it.

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Speaker 3: You know, you don't want it. Yeah, we as we have.

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Speaker 3: And I wonder if you guys know what that is?

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Speaker 3: So that do you know that?

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Speaker 2: My I know because you tell the story and then

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Speaker 2: I have a story to go with your.

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Speaker 4: Well, there's no Well, it's basically a sweet fried plantain,

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Speaker 4: a ball of it, right, and but it's it's got

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Speaker 4: refried beans inside of it, and so I can't tell

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Speaker 4: you how delicious and simple is and you can do

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Speaker 4: powdered sugar on top. It is for ricking a great

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Speaker 4: But I gotta tell you a story real quick. My

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Speaker 4: aunt used to send us to you know, in one

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Speaker 4: of my schools, you had to once a month bring

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Speaker 4: a dish for these sort of like fairs, these food

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Speaker 4: fairs they had, and she would make hers with with

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Speaker 4: with beans, but she would put the like raw onion

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Speaker 4: in the beans and leave it.

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Speaker 3: There, and that's nasty.

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Speaker 4: So nobody would ever buy them, right, nobody would ever

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Speaker 4: buy them. But we didn't want her to feel bad.

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Speaker 4: So whenever she's coming to pick us up from school,

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Speaker 4: me and my two cousins, so just like like you know,

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Speaker 4: like eating as much of these like really nastyly anitos.

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Speaker 4: So we didn't hurt her feelings until she this podcast.

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Speaker 1: And then she'll listen to this and her heart will break.

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Speaker 2: Well with that, like a traditional Watemalan think is my

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Speaker 2: favorite food in the world are fried plantains, like I could.

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Speaker 2: I love it And my mom used to make though

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Speaker 2: she just used to call them thirty did you ever

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Speaker 2: have the But she remembers as a kid that they

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Speaker 2: used to make them in the med that.

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Speaker 4: Day, so what I'm getting is that your mom stole

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Speaker 4: the recipe from Watemala, my watermelon ancestors, and I will

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Speaker 4: not stand for this, not.

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Speaker 2: Aural cultural appropriation on it.

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Speaker 3: But we're so close, are we?

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Speaker 4: Like you know, Pachula is like on the border of Guatemala, right,

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Speaker 4: so anything that comes from that region. And plus we

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Speaker 4: share my heritage a lot of which I found out recently.

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Speaker 3: I have twenty two percent of my own.

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Speaker 1: Wow, im you, I'm Mayan too. I'm I'm Spanish and

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Speaker 1: look I grew up going so I'm Mexicana. The quass

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Speaker 1: on like, I'm such a proud Mexicana. And then I

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Speaker 1: did my DNA and they're like, and you're Spanish. I

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Speaker 1: was like, I'm a bad guy. Yeah and uh and

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Speaker 1: and they're like, and your Mayan. So I was like, what,

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Speaker 1: So my mix is Spanish and Mayan, but my Mayan

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Speaker 1: is like fourteen.

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Speaker 3: Percent not as much.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, I need because my dad was from Katan.

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Speaker 2: So I've yeah, you're you're Mayan. I am Prancess.

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Speaker 3: I can see the like just like the shadow of it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and she'sa so for sure, oh yes, yeah.

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Speaker 3: But also I found uh ten percent Ashkenazi Jewish.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I would, Yeah, a lot of that and

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Speaker 1: most of the other one.

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Speaker 4: It's it's from Spain and Portugal, but I know because

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Speaker 4: they conquered us.

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Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh my gosh.

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Speaker 4: But but I'm happy that it's been confirmed that I

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Speaker 4: have my blood because I feel so connected to so

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Speaker 4: many places in the food and the lakes and and

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Speaker 4: and the ruins, and I'm just glad.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't like fooling myself, you.

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Speaker 4: Know what I mean, Spanish boys just in the middle

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Speaker 4: of it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: No, I never met a Platano until I moved to

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Speaker 1: La really. Yeah, I didn't, not until I went to

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Speaker 1: Versailles the restaurant, and I was like, first.

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Speaker 4: I thought there was you know, there's a little corner

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Speaker 4: of Versailles, you know, besides the hallow mirrors where they

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Speaker 4: just the French.

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Speaker 3: Yeah it's yeah, yeah, because the history erased.

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Speaker 4: Him, but man, he loved Yeah, there's.

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Speaker 2: A little that there on the corner. So I was

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Speaker 2: reading about because I love that. I didn't know they

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Speaker 2: were called that, and I went on Tuesday night, I

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Speaker 2: went to the Whatatemala night market down in West Lake

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Speaker 2: MacArthur Park, and I was looking for them. They didn't

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Speaker 2: have them. But I did have the most amazing stew

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Speaker 2: and it was big. It was thick, now that you're

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Speaker 2: saying that it was thick. And then also the most

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Speaker 2: amazing Cado.

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Speaker 3: The great head so God.

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Speaker 2: And there was this line. This woman had a line

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Speaker 2: of about twenty five people and oh my god.

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Speaker 4: It was dope. I know her personally, great friends from

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Speaker 4: a long time. Yes, we're in business together. Actually, thank

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Speaker 4: you for supporting us. Uh yeah, no, listen, I wonder,

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Speaker 4: you know, and maybe you can answer this for me.

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Speaker 4: But because it's so sort of soup heavy and like,

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Speaker 4: you know, I wonder if it's that's what is more

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Speaker 4: traditionally Mayan, you know, like I wonder if from the Mayan,

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Speaker 4: like there was a big source of stew, like there

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Speaker 4: was a stew fad in in in what through the

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Speaker 4: mines because a lot of our dishes are based on that.

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Speaker 3: And we have tamalis but different than yours. I think, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: you do banana leaves, banana leaf. Yeah, we splanting for everything, man.

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Speaker 2: But I had a tamal actually there at the ros,

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Speaker 2: which I'd.

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Speaker 3: Never had before.

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Speaker 4: We love our gluten intolerant people. You know, we want

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Speaker 4: to shout them out at every stance that we can.

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Speaker 1: You know what though, because I went to a studios.

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Speaker 1: Studios is where my family is from in Spain, and

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Speaker 1: they too are a soup stu place. And as a

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Speaker 1: matter of fact, in our studian language, the native language,

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Speaker 1: not Castano, but a studio, there's no word for fork.

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Speaker 4: These people really love soup. I mean, these guys, if

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Speaker 4: you don't even know what a fork is, You're like, yeah, man,

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Speaker 4: I just never hate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that is interesting.

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Speaker 2: It probably does come from the Mayan culture because there was,

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Speaker 2: like in the markets pre Hispanic markets, there was a

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Speaker 2: lot of soup. Since we did a Galloos episode and

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Speaker 2: it was in the markets that's what they had. You

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Speaker 2: grew up in New York? Was there a big Watemelan

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Speaker 2: community in New York?

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Speaker 1: I did?

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Speaker 3: I mean?

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Speaker 2: I mean you didn't grow up there, you moved there.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, not as not as much honestly, but as in La.

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Speaker 4: You know, La is so Central American and Mexican and

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Speaker 4: New York is a little more Caribbean. But I will

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Speaker 4: tell you what I six years into my you know,

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Speaker 4: when you moved to a new place right at because

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Speaker 4: I found you try to assimilate very hard to it,

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Speaker 4: and that means separating yourself from where you come from

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Speaker 4: a little bit. And so I kind of left what

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Speaker 4: because I have serious notes on waterman uh, wealthy society,

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Speaker 4: you know, it's it can be a little close minded,

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Speaker 4: it can be So I left, like, this is the city,

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Speaker 4: this is the cool place, this is a cool civilization.

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Speaker 4: And so but about six years into my state in

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Speaker 4: New York, I met a group of watermelons that were

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Speaker 4: one hundred percent watermelon and one hundred percent New Yorkers.

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Speaker 3: And I didn't know you could be both.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 3: I thought.

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Speaker 4: I didn't know that you didn't have to give up

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Speaker 4: who you were in order to be this new thing,

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Speaker 4: you know. And so it was a real sort of

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Speaker 4: after that, I started reencountering myself with watermelon culture. I

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Speaker 4: started going back more often. I fell in love with

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Speaker 4: a watermelon girl. I started trying the food more. I

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Speaker 4: was very suddenly, not that I wasn't proud before, but

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Speaker 4: suddenly I was very like, oh cool, this is my superpower.

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Speaker 4: My superpower is that I come from a very unique place.

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Speaker 4: And I grew up hiking volcanoes and eating stew with

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Speaker 4: a fork and knife, you know, and so it really

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Speaker 4: sort of changed my life. But yeah, so I didn't

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Speaker 4: find a big community until like maybe six years into it.

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Speaker 4: I can I can I tell you something super quick

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Speaker 4: about food history that kind of ties into my show

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Speaker 4: as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah so, and you know how I told you about

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Speaker 3: how like.

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Speaker 4: Seemingly small events can sort of like affect the entire

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Speaker 4: the entirety of human nature and humanity.

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Speaker 3: Well, bananas almost ended the world.

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Speaker 4: Why because in the nineteen fifties there was a democratically

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Speaker 4: elected president in Whatemala called Ataban's and he saw that

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Speaker 4: the United Food Company had these massive swats of land

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Speaker 4: that they basically taken from the in a corrupt deal

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Speaker 4: with the previous dictator. And he wanted to start a

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Speaker 4: land reform project where he would give the indigenous people

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Speaker 4: land so they could work it and they could they

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Speaker 4: could sort of flourish, and then the country was going

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Speaker 4: to be set in a really cool progressive way. But Doles,

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Speaker 4: who was the FBI director and also one of his

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Speaker 4: brother who was adviser to the President of America at

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Speaker 4: the time, were on the board of the United Fruit Company,

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Speaker 4: So they decided to stage a CIA coup.

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Speaker 3: They decided to depose.

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Speaker 4: The democratic, democratically elected president, install a puppet guy, and

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Speaker 4: get the line back for cheap bananis.

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Speaker 3: But here's the kicker. Here's the here's the kicker.

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Speaker 4: There was a man traveling through Gatemala that got radicalized

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Speaker 4: by this actual event and went fleeing to Mexico where

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Speaker 4: he met his revolutionary partner. And that man was Chay Gevada.

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Speaker 4: Jay Gievada hadn't been radicalized until he was in Watemala

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Speaker 4: at the time when this happened.

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Speaker 3: He saw that flit to I knew that.

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Speaker 4: And that's how almost the Cuban missile crisis happened indirectly

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Speaker 4: because us the world almost ended because they wanted cheap bananas.

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Speaker 4: And if that's not food history, guys, I don't know.

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Speaker 3: What is very bad.

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Speaker 1: I remember hearing no, I remember hearing Ja got radicalized

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Speaker 1: in I thought it was Mexico, but Guatemala what he.

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Speaker 3: Got radicalized on? What I'm on.

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Speaker 4: Then he met Fidel Castri in Mexico because he was

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Speaker 4: fleeing Watemala in this cool stage so or maybe he

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Speaker 4: got radicalized because he was like, I can't drink this stew,

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Speaker 4: I have to chew it.

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Speaker 3: You don't have water to it.

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Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned that about the bananas because it's

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Speaker 2: so it's basically and this led to.

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Speaker 4: These thirty years of civil war, which then that's what

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Speaker 4: caused people to immigrate, to immigrate into the United States,

403
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Speaker 4: because it was the United States that caused this war,

404
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Speaker 4: who then propped up the dictators that committed genocide and

405
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:59,080
Speaker 4: what them all, etcetera. It wasn't the sad part it was.

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Speaker 4: It wasn't original. They did this all throughout Latin America.

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Speaker 4: But what I'm all was a pilot program. It was

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Speaker 4: the first time that it worked because it was such

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Speaker 4: a small country and so you know, not to get

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Speaker 4: into immigration and etc. But there is a reason why

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Speaker 4: people fled, and it was because of intervention. Intervention by

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Speaker 4: the United States, yes, and it was because of a

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Speaker 4: very but what's interesting is it was because of a

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Speaker 4: very sort of silly little region. Like in the grand

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00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:27,400
Speaker 4: scheme of things, the United Food Company had so many

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Speaker 4: more places where they could get bananas from. That's why

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Speaker 4: they call countries like mine banana republics.

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Speaker 2: When we come back, I visit the Guatemalan night market

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Speaker 2: in Los Angeles for some home cooking with our friend

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Speaker 2: food writer Billi Spavsa. Welcome back to Hungary for history.

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Speaker 2: Billi Sparza, food writer and expert on Latin American food,

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Speaker 2: and I visited the hustle and bustle of the Guatemalan

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Speaker 2: night market.

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Speaker 5: So here we are one of my favorite places to

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Speaker 5: eat in Los Angeles at the Buo on six and

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Speaker 5: Bonnie Bray. And this is a community spot for day

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Speaker 5: workers men that are working. You know, it's construction handymen

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Speaker 5: that stand out. And actually they don't just stand up

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Speaker 5: at home depot in places like that, they also get

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Speaker 5: called by construction companies to join up for the day.

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Speaker 6: And it's also domestic.

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Speaker 5: Workers women and then they're families that come out here

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Speaker 5: and they're looking for a taste of the little towns

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Speaker 5: they're from in in Watemala that have these you know

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Speaker 5: foods that you have in the evening after for workers

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00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:42,760
Speaker 5: workers foods, big Central American community, and we're here tonight

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Speaker 5: to have Guatemalan food, domal soapas, tostadas and amazing.

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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for waiting

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00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:57,680
Speaker 2: in line to get all this delicious stuff. So I

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00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 2: appreciative of you agreeing to to meet us here.

441
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I've been coming here for years, but

442
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 5: I've never seen a line of thirty people for one stand. Ever,

443
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,240
Speaker 5: It's always a few people gathered around. So I just

444
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:13,720
Speaker 5: jumped in line, like, okay, we got to get this

445
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 5: whatever it.

446
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 3: Is, and of course follow the lines and delicious.

447
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:24,960
Speaker 5: Soap us open the Guyina, great home cooking from watermelon

448
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,360
Speaker 5: woman and handmade tortillas.

449
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:31,160
Speaker 2: They're delicious this stuff. Yes, yeah, they're delicious.

450
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 3: Yeah.

451
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 6: I don't think any other stands doing that tonight. Oh really,

452
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 6: the line is still.

453
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 2: There, line is still there.

454
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,560
Speaker 5: We've stumbled upon something because like I don't, you know,

455
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:42,400
Speaker 5: I haven't been in it a little bit. I don't

456
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 5: recognize all the vendors, all these because you come. I

457
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 5: come so infrequently and I'm just randomly going to stands.

458
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,399
Speaker 5: But I'm going to make a note. This is the spot.

459
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 2: This is the spot.

460
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 6: Yes, I'm coming for all the all the soap us.

461
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 2: So this is just a it's a chicken stew.

462
00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a stewed chicken.

463
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is really good. So what makes this?

464
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like this could be any any culture, right,

465
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 2: this is just a so you know, because it's sticken with.

466
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:10,119
Speaker 3: Off the bone.

467
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,959
Speaker 5: You know, don't use hot peppers, they use sweet peppers.

468
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 5: And I was asking people online, like what do you

469
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 5: get here? They're like, whatever she has, she's gonna have soups.

470
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 6: This is a soup.

471
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:26,680
Speaker 5: Culture, soapash gainascado.

472
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,760
Speaker 6: They make good stews, you know, good soups.

473
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 2: Is it from a particular part of Mala.

474
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 5: So what the Mala has departments, But it's a small country,

475
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:41,199
Speaker 5: so many of the foods are national and there are

476
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,639
Speaker 5: regional styles of like tomales. You can find paches are

477
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 5: from a certain region, but you can find those here.

478
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:50,160
Speaker 5: So you can find all the tomales kind of here,

479
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,680
Speaker 5: you know, mm hmm. But I think that's the key

480
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,320
Speaker 5: is it's it's economical and it's home cooking super delicious.

481
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 2: That's the key to home the homie And so so

482
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 2: how long has this been here?

483
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 5: MacArthur Park area has always had street vendors. I mean

484
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:08,920
Speaker 5: since I moved into La ninety five, MacArthur Park was

485
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:13,439
Speaker 5: always busy. I became aware of the Watemalon night market

486
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 5: probably twenty eighteen, and it's grown and it's you know,

487
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 5: as a lot of these markets, there's an EBB and

488
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 5: flow of vendors that go in and out and some

489
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:27,680
Speaker 5: I recognize a woman over there who's been there. She's

490
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 5: always here no matter what happens here. It's the vendors

491
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 5: are resilient, They're always LA has historically been just the worst.

492
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,040
Speaker 6: Our local politicians just do not take care of street vendors.

493
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 5: They don't watch out for them, they don't provide them alternatives,

494
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:46,720
Speaker 5: they don't provide solutions. And clearly it's always the case

495
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 5: that people want to be here and want to eat this.

496
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 6: This provides a service for people that help.

497
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 3: Our you know, our construct in the city that.

498
00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 6: Are built in the city, and they can't afford to

499
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:57,880
Speaker 6: go to whole.

500
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 5: Foods and the home cook traditions that you can only

501
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 5: find here.

502
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's only the person making it at home that

503
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 2: can add the sasson like a restaurant can't really do that.

504
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 2: Los Angeles has the biggest community of guate Malins outside

505
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 2: of whatate Mala. They started moving here like in the

506
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 2: eighties and nineties with the Civil War, So can you

507
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:22,440
Speaker 2: talk about that a little bit and what that did

508
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:26,159
Speaker 2: to the kind of yeah culture in Losennas.

509
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 5: I want to say the largest group in La are Mexicans,

510
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,880
Speaker 5: but after them are Salvadorans. But then we have Guatamlons

511
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 5: that make a huge impact on the Latino community of

512
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 5: Los Angeles. But it's US intervention in Central America in

513
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 5: the seventies, even going back before, but especially in the seventies,

514
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 5: the our intervention in the Civil War and El Salvador

515
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 5: or invention into whatanamas. Yeah, I mean we destabilize these

516
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 5: places and that you know, they came here.

517
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 2: The government creates these problems, and then.

518
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 6: You know, this is this we have.

519
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 5: We have to have one of the most ignorant discussions

520
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 5: about this because we are the reason they're here and

521
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:16,200
Speaker 5: we need them here.

522
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,879
Speaker 6: Yeah, we cannot. We don't.

523
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,640
Speaker 5: There is not one political party that has a solution

524
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:27,520
Speaker 5: to people that pick our food, people that work in

525
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 5: our kitchens, restaurant kitchens, people that clean our hotels, the

526
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 5: service economy.

527
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 6: We don't have the solutions. Yeah.

528
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 5: And it's not even that, it's that there is no

529
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 5: incentive or no drive for any group of US citizens

530
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 5: to go pick strawberries for a day. There just is

531
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 5: no path to that. There's nothing you couldn't force them

532
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 5: to do it, you know.

533
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:54,679
Speaker 2: And another part of that is like it's basically slave

534
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,159
Speaker 2: labor that has been normalized, you know, which is a

535
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 2: whole other level of cruelty.

536
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 5: And yeah, the logical thing is we need the workers,

537
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 5: give them the H two be visas, and we don't

538
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 5: do that.

539
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 6: We make it super hard to happen.

540
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 5: The companies need the workers, the farms need them, the

541
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 5: factories need them. The chicken the poultry factories need them,

542
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 5: and so the government's not giving those visas, and so

543
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 5: it encourages this undocumented labor to come here and we're

544
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 5: so we're actually asking for it and then making them

545
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 5: go through hell.

546
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 2: And so I wonder what's going to happen to these

547
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 2: markets now with everything that's going on with ice, and

548
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 2: it must be so terrifying.

549
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 5: Honestly, I was surprised tonight. I was thinking there won't

550
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 5: be a lot of people here. So this is encouraging

551
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 5: that we're.

552
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 2: Seeing this, you know, the resilience.

553
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 5: People are out having soapas and mas and and tostadas.

554
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 2: Huge thanks to Castro and Billis for joining us this week.

555
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening. See you next week.

556
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Everybody. Hungary for History is a Hyphenite

557
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: media production in partnership with Iheart'smichael Pura podcast network.

558
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 2: For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,320
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