As our friends and families up North belly up to this week’s Thanksgiving table (plenty us here in Mexico will be doing the same), Mexico will likely be far from their thoughts. Why would it be? What do palm trees, sandy beaches and tequila have to do with our favorite autumn meal? However, in ways both subtle and overt, Mexico’s connection to Thanksgiving is worthy of celebration.
For starters — if you use your imagination, there’s a striking resemblance between the iconic Thanksgiving horn of plenty and a map of Mexico. Hold the horn upright, and it’s a stylized map of Mexico’s mainland, with the Yucatan Peninsula to boot.
Beyond this curiosity of geography, the Thanksgiving dinner table owes an homage to Mexico in more direct ways. Consider how your afternoon of culinary grazing is likely to start. No appetizer table is completed these days without guacamole (a word and dish from Mexico’s Nahuatl heritage) and ripe tomato salsa, gifts from our southern neighbor.
Dip deeper and you may be surprised at how Mexico is, in fact, at the very heart of the Thanksgiving meal. We all know that the wild turkey roamed eastern seaboard forests when the Pilgrims arrived; no big surprise there. Turkey was a main source of pre-Hispanic protein across North America. However, the turkey we today enjoy has a more circumvented path to your dinner table. In the 19th century, the Mexican wild turkey was exported to Europe, domesticated, and then reintroduced to American diners. So, we will all be gobbling down poultry with a Mexican pedigree for the next few days.
Complementing this noble bird, your meal will most certainly include Mexico’s grandest gift to the world — corn. All the world’s corn came from Mesoamerica. Maize is one of the world’s greatest cultural and biological wellsprings, feeding billions around the globe while being at the core of Mexican identity. Rural Mexicans will sometimes refer to themselves as “hombres del maíz,” literally “men of corn.”
But we’re not done. Rounding out your holiday feast are pumpkin, vanilla, and chocolate – all originally from (you guessed it) Mexico. Kahlua on the rocks anyone? Raise a toast to Mexico’s coffee land, verdant Veracruz.
From appetizers to desserts, Mexican ingredients and recipes make their way across just about everyone’s Thanksgiving palate. So, serve yourself another slice and raise a fork to Mexico — a horn of plenty that continues to give.
¡Buen provecho!
Author Greg Custer lives in Mexico. He’s worked for over 40 years in international tourism, educating travel advisors around the world about Mexico and other Latin American destinations. He helps folks explore Mexico for living at www.mexicoforliving.com.
