The history of the ingredients that have special importance in the human diet allows reconstructing at the same time the social, political and economic circumstances of a country or a community. The book Cacao: Production, Consumption and Commerce. From the Pre-Hispanic Period to Present Latin America, is a show of this. In the nine essays that shape it, whether the approach is centered on economic, archaeological and anthropological aspects, or on botanical aspects, a journey is made of part of the evolution of Mesoamerica and of countries that are further south of the continent with which we have a history in common, such as Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador or Peru. Some of the essays mention, in fact, the northern part of what was the Mexican territory and which today is part of the United States.

This journey through the paths of cacao begins with the essay, “Cacao beans in graves, villages and orchards. Archaeobotanical studies of macro remainders of Theobroma cacao L. in the Maya area” by Roberto García Moll and Mario M. Aliphat, who recover several archaeological sources related to this plant; they are representations of cacao in murals, sculptures and vessels, as well as the analysis of food remainders in various containers, the localization of seeds in different contexts, and also in findings that allow rebuilding cultivation units, as it happens in Joya de Cerén, archaeological site that is located in the republic of El Salvador. The following were identified there: maize from the Chapalote Na-Tel race, bean, pumpkin, guava, jocote -which are plums from the genus Spondia- macal, yucca, jicama, maguey and medicinal plants. There were also gourds for drinking chocolate. This group of elements allows concluding that there is an undeniable cultural continuity in the Maya culture, for this combination is presently reproduced in various milpas of the region.

The Mesoamerican worldview is evidenced in the connection between cacao and the sacred, since seeds of the plant have been located in important graves of the ahauob or principal lords of Tikal; also of the lady K’ab’al Xook of Yaxchilán; they appear associated with Spondylus shell, which in turn is linked to the god of maize. Not only García Moll and Aliphat mention the closeness between cacao and maize; Cameron L. McNeil also does in his article, “The role of cacao in ancient Maya religion, rituals and gastronomy”. Here, we are shown that these two foods share the nature of sacredness and are associated to creation myths. Thanks to the discovery by Patricia Crown and Jeffrey Hurst from the University of New Mexico, today we know that the ritual uses of cacao extended north of the Mexican territory, as Laura Caso mentions. For example, in Pueblo Bonito the founders of the Zuñi nation offered chocolate as an offering in slender vases; they are one thousand years old. This implies that cacao not only travelled as exchange coin, but accompanied by a more complex cultural system. With regard to this ceremonial use there are other samples of cultural continuity; in a recent personal communication, the anthropologist Beatriz Albores mentioned the use of cacaloxóchitl or flor de mayo to perfume dough and cacao pozol in an indigenous ceremony in Chiapas. The photographs from the book that show the cacao cuelgas to celebrate San Isidro in Comalcalco, Tabasco, are another sign of this. Indeed, the recording work made by the photographer Ignacio Osorio Pedrero illustrating this book is quite interesting.

In the article already cited by Cameron L. McNeil, another aspect that should be highlighted is emphasized: in vessels located in various graves as an offering it was evidenced, through chemical analyses, that there were remainders of Theobromina -component of cacao-, next to turkey or guajolote bones in one case, and fish spines in another. They imply the use of chocolate in sauces in a very early way: the author concludes that these evidences dismiss “the hypotheses that affirmed that the Pre-Hispanic Mesoamericans did not use cacao in sauces.” (p. 94). It would be important to understand whether in these same containers there were residues of some kind of pepper.

The crosses between the book’s create a network of greater interest; thus, the example of Joya de Cerén that García Moll and Aliphat mention is linked to the description of the polycrop that Laura Caso and Mario M. Aliphat himself describe, made up of cacao, achiote and vanilla in Guatemala. In their article, “The cacao, vanilla and achiote agrosystem in the Maya lowlands, 16^th-21^st centuries”, these authors write correctly that polycrops in relatively small plots have less risks of pests and, if in addition they are shared out, when some are plagued there are alternatives for the supply in others. This happened before and still happens today with this interesting ancient form of agrosystem developed in the southern Guatemala region of Petén that these authors widely describe and in which two fundamental condiments of chocolate appear next to cacao: achiote and vanilla.

However, when the Spanish arrived, two visions were confronted: one, based on nature from observation and understanding, and another that is extractive and based on which land and man are plundered to obtain earnings. The articles by Carlos E. Ruiz Abreu, for the case of Tabasco, by Janine Gasco, for the Soconusco, by Manuel Miño, for Guayaquil, by Gloria Lizania Velasco, in relation to the island of Trinidad, or by Diana Bonnett, for all of New Granada, show that during the Colony, cacao became a commercial monocrop that was sown in large extensions and which required workforce, even slavery, for its production (which still happens today in Africa, where in addition there is child labor in diverse cacao plantations). In not few cases, these crops were infected. This same problem is current today; as consequence of monocrop sowing from western extractive attitude continues, there is a fungus: monilia (Moniliophtera), which attacks the cacao fruits placing the plantations at serious risk.

Because of this same monetarist attitude, native cacao species which produce a chocolate of great quality have been lost, because they have been displaced by foreign cacao plants. This same position that privileges the earnings led the Spanish crown to prohibit cacao commerce in certain provinces to privilege others, regardless of the consequences of these decisions, as it happened when cacao from Caracas was displaced and cacao from Guayaquil, Ecuador, was favored. This is where the need to meet the increasingly growing cacao demand played an important role, both in Spain and in America, as is also shown by the authors mentioned before. The extensive commercial networks by which cacao circulated, are well described by Enriqueta Quiroz, who focuses on the circulation of cacao toward Mexico City during the 18^th century.

In relation to consumption, the projections that Miño Grijalva proposes in the essay “Guayaquil cacao in New Spain: Dynamics of export, market and consumption, 1774-1805”, are interesting to calculate the chocolate consumption per person. This historian also calls attention to the hypothesis according to which Guayaquil cacao did not only have a good reception because it is less expensive, but also because being more bitter, more sugar had to be added and this increased the volume of paste, with which the traders obtained higher earnings.

Incidentally, we reach the theme here of the preference in Spain and America over the different types of cacao, and because of the higher or lower quantity of sugar in the mixtures. In her very interesting, “Final considerations”, Laura Caso Barrera refers to a recipe book from New Spain where different portions of cacao from Guayaquil, Maracaibo and Tabasco are proposed. Let us add that this recipe book from 1791, found by a group of historians in the General Archive of the Nation, and then published by Conaculta in 2000, also mentions the marquesote, the bizcocho, and eggs as ingredients of chocolate.

This type of mixtures continued for a long time, since both in the Nuevo cocinero americano en forma de diccionario from 1878, and in the version as Nuevo cocinero mexicano en forma de diccionario from 1888, it is stated that from the experience of “many years”, it was considered “that not even cacao of the best quality, as the Soconusco, and even the Magdalena, do not produce chocolate as good by themselves, as when different kinds are used, even if they are not the superior, and so the one made up of Caracas and Maracaibo turns out to be better, than the one made only with Soconusco…” (Nuevo cocinero mexicano en forma de diccionario, México, ed. facs. de la de 1888, Miguel Ángel Porrúa, 1989, p. 258).

As a reflection toward the present and the future, which stems from reading this interesting book, I consider that we should learn from the history of our cultures. Today that we have better awareness of the grave consequences that monocrops bring with them, the use of agro-toxics and the irresponsible genetic manipulation in relation to plant species, backyard gardens, the milpa and other polycrops are presented as a viable and desirable alternative to guarantee the permanence of many foods; among others, the valuable cacao converted into chocolate. They are cause for learning in México and other countries which are suffering from the consequences of an extractive commercial agriculture. There is, therefore, a path to follow if we act responsibly.

We could continue to string together the rich themes that are widely developed or are only proposed as an outline in this collection of articles, but it is better for readers to get into its pages. Without a doubt the texts that make up the book are added to other interesting recent studies, such as the one by Edith Ortiz about the Soconusco region: De pantanos, manglares y cacaotales. La provincia colonial del Soconusco (UNAM/IIA, 2015), and the book coordinated by Mario Humberto Ruz, Kakaw, oro aromado, México, UNAM, 2016; and also to other studies that have surely been published in Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador and other related countries with which we share this and many aspects of our history. They also come to update and enrich with data obtained through the field work and the analysis of first sources, works that are already classics to understand the history of cacao and chocolate that is prepared with it, among others La verdadera historia del chocolate by Sophie and Michael D. Coe and Historia del chocolate en México by Martín González de la Vara. The work by the coordinator of the book Cacao, producción, consumo y comercio - Laura Caso Barrera - should be recognized, as well as the work by the authors of the nine essays that integrate it. It will be a consult book for specialists and for the interested public.