Bananas are not from Mexico
As a bicultural immigrant family we have lived in three countries, spoken three languages, taken turns being the foreigner and have crossed the border many, many times.
Cacao has been traveling the planet for centuries, making itself a home on the palettes of countless cultures but its motherland, its Matria, is what we now call 'The Americas'.
Long before there existed 'The Americas' indigenous people have grown cacao trees. For thousands of years of careful cultivation cacao has developed into chocolate and we honor those who have made this possible.
Outside of our house in the La Ciudad de México is this neighborhood altar. The story of La Virgin de Guadalupe was translated through Spanish tongue and reinterpreted, read violently manipulated, into many indigenous languages. It reveres the natural world - roses blooming out of season and the benevolent cosmos encircling the divine feminine energy, perhaps that is why it is so deeply connected to Mexicxn culture today.
Catholicism arrived in ‘The Americas’ alongside the bloody swords of the European conquistadors. Many horrors have been carried out is its name and it has acted as spiritual weapon against indigenous peoples for more than 500 years.
The Banana Wars (1898-1934) were occupations, police actions and interventions by so called The United States in Central Americx and the Caribbean.
They began after the Spanish-American war during which the United States fought to wrest colonial 'rule' from the Spanish. Major battles were fought on both Cuban and Philippine waters with so called United States 'acquiring' Spain's colonies across the Caribbean and Pacific.
It is said that the many species of banana originate from an area that included what is now the Philippines. As a result of the Spanish galleons moving goods (and people) between the Philippines and 'The Americas' banana plantations were established on stolen land across the whole region and the lucrative global trade began. US corporations are still making money from these plantations today.
