FOOD IN BOLIVIA
Bolivia, one of the poorest and least developed countries in South America, is one of the hemisphere’s highest, most isolated, and most rugged landlocked nations. Bolivia is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, and Chile and Peru to the west. Bolivia’s topography and climate are varied, from the peaks of the Andes in the west to the eastern lowlands, situated within the Amazon basin. Its topography includes some of the earth’s coldest, warmest, windiest, and steamiest locations: the dry, salty, and swampy natural landscapes of the dry salt flats of Uyuni; the steaming jungles of the Amazon; and the wildlife-rich grasslands of the southeast.
Bolivia is a democratic republic, divided into nine regions, and it is home to more than seven million people. Bolivia has a concentrated indigenous population (60%) with heritage including Aymará, Quechua, Guaraní, and over 30 other ethnic groups. Famous since Spanish colonial days for its mineral wealth, modern Bolivia was once a part of the ancient Inca Empire. After the Spaniards defeated the Incas in the 16th century, Bolivia’s predominantly Indian population was reduced to slavery. The remoteness of the Andes helped protect the Bolivian Indians from the European diseases that decimated other South American Indians. But the existence of a large indigenous group forced to live under the thumb of their colonizers created a stratifi ed society that continues to this day. Wealthy urban elites, who are mostly of Spanish ancestry, have traditionally dominated political and economic life, whereas most Bolivians are low-income subsistence farmers, miners, small traders, or artisans.
Bolivia is a country rich in natural resources, with key exports including gas and zinc. The country’s agricultural exports include soybeans, coff ee, sugar, cotton, corn, and timber, as well as coca, sunflower seed (for oil), and organic chocolate. Despite these rich resources, Bolivia continues to be one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with almost two thirds of its people, many of whom are subsistence farmers, living in poverty. Population density ranges from less than 1 person per square mile in the southeastern plains to about 25 per square mile (10 per square kilometer) in the central highlands. The annual population growth rate is about 1.45 percent (2006).
Bolivia’s estimated 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $10.3 billion. Economic growth was estimated at about 4.5 percent, and inflation was estimated at about 4.3 percent. The average annual earnings are around US$900, and GDP per capita is around US$2,900 (2005 estimate). The economy of Bolivia has had a historical pattern of a single-commodity focus. From silver to tin to coca, Bolivia has enjoyed only occasional periods of economic diversifi cation. Political instability and difficult topography have constrained efforts to modernize the agricultural sector. Similarly, relatively low population growth coupled with a low life expectancy and high incidence of disease has kept the labor supply in fl ux and prevented industries from fl ourishing. Rampant inflation and corruption have also thwarted development. The mining industry, especially the extraction of natural gas and zinc, currently dominates Bolivia’s export economy.
There is widespread underemployment; a large percentage of the underemployed supplement their income by participating in coca production, mainly in the Yungas, and in the informal street-market economy. The government remains heavily dependent on foreign aid. A large part of agricultural revenue comes from the illegal growing and processing of coca leaves. The Bolivian government has tried to have coca replaced by other crops, but this has given rise to a number of problems, and the coca leaf remains one of the major sources of national revenue.
Acarapi and Claudia live in La Paz, one of the more affluent areas of Bolivia. Acarapi works in the local mines, while Claudia is the primary domestic provider, looking after their four children and managing the household and all other household duties including the cooking. Their lifestyle is common among the more affluent neighborhoods of La Paz, and their diet is made up of a combination of meat and potato dishes. For Claudia, shopping for food to prepare meals is a daily ritual. Bread is purchased daily fresh from a street vendor or bakery. Breakfast is taken in the local market or in the home and is a simple preparation of coffee, tea, or a hot maize beverage (api) served with bread.
For Acarapi and Claudia, following Bolivian tradition, lunch is the main meal of the day. According to Acarapi, because of the altitude and work ethic in Bolivia, most people don’t eat dinner until very late, and they don’t like to go to bed on a full stomach. Acarapi returns home every day to eat lunch with his family. Lunch typically consists of soup, up to three “main” dishes, and sometimes dessert. Most lunches would include some potatoes—fried, boiled, or whipped together with other foods.
Meat, normally beef, chicken, or sausage, accompanies most dishes, and vegetables usually include red onions, tomatoes, shredded lettuce or cabbage, carrots, peas, and broccoli. All meals are usually accompanied by llajhua, a hot spicy salsa made from tomatoes and hot peppers ground on a large stone.
Claudia begins making lunch around 10:30 and continues preparation for several hours. Meals in Bolivia are a big challenge, with no premade ingredients available, so lunch takes considerable time to prepare. Around 5 P.M. the family may have a snack of tea and rolls with jam or dulce de leche (caramel sauce). A light dinner is usually served around 9 P.M.
Major Foodstuffs
Though Bolivia is currently self-suffi cient in sugar, rice, and beef, it still has to import certain foodstuff s. The chief Bolivian crops are potatoes, cassava, sugarcane, coff ee, maize, rice, and soybeans with a major share of farm income derived from the illicit growing and processing of coca leaves, the source of cocaine. The relationship between access to land, poverty, and food security appears to be a kind of vicious cycle, particularly for the rural altiplano population in Bolivia. In the context of widespread poverty and limited access to institutional social security, access to land is a crucial factor in creating favorable conditions for subsistence agriculture and hence food security.
The typical diet is abundant in carbohydrates but deficient in other food categories. In the highlands, the primary staple is the potato (dozens of varieties of this Andean domesticate are grown), followed by other Andean and European-introduced tubers and grains (e.g., oca, quinoa, barley, and, increasingly, rice), maize, and legumes, especially the broad bean. Freeze-dried potatoes (chuño) and air-dried jerky (ch’arki) from cattle or Andean camelids (llama, alpaca, and vicuña) are common, although beef forms an insignifi cant part of the daily diet. Bolivia is self-sufficient in almost all food staples with the exception of wheat. Highland crops include tubers, maize, and legumes. Other crops (e.g., peanuts, citrus fruits, bananas, plantains, and rice) are grown in the Oriente, while large cattle ranches are prominent in the departments of Beni and Pando.
The simultaneous processes of demographic transition and urbanization currently underway in Bolivia are having a signifi cant impact on cooking traditions and the use of traditional recipes and ingredients in the family home. Food preparation is an important daily ritual for Bolivian families, with family meals playing a critical role in family relationships and socialization. Until the mid-1970s, the average Bolivian family consisted of close to seven children per woman, and the average family as of 2008 is estimated at four children. Food preparation and cleanliness are closely associated with national folklore and taboo; the family kitchen is a space where food is the focus, and the rituals associated with making the raw cooked and the dirty clean are primarily the responsibility of female family members.
Bolivia is in a situation of chronic food insecurity, which seems to be particularly acute in the traditional rural settlements of the altiplano and the valleys. Heavy-handed state intervention has resulted in some improvement in the food supply in recent years, with families being able to enjoy fixed prices for staples such as flour, bread, and oil. Purchasing groceries is increasingly occurring at specialized shops set up by the government where rice, flour, red meat, poultry, and oil are sold at lower prices. The availability of produce significantly influences the family meal and its preparation, as do the strong social and cultural mores of the Bolivian people.
Cooking
Bolivia is home to numerous culinary styles, each with its own personality representative of the nation’s diverse climatic and geographic conditions. Bolivian dishes consist mainly of meat, fish, and poultry blended with herbs and spices. The diet also consists of fresh fruit and vegetables. When using meat, every part of the animal (particularly cows) is consumed. Tongue, kidney, stomach, and all cuts of meat are used during cooking.
Bolivians typically prepare and eat salteñas in the morning and empanadas in the afternoon (both of these are meat or vegetables pies) and can have up to five small meals a day. Meals generally consist of potatoes, meat, a large assortment of breads made from corn or quinoa, and pastries. Fresh fruit juices are also abundant and can include blackberry, peach, and lemonade. In the more traditional rural areas, coca leaf is often chewed in the evening after a meal. Bolivian food preparation is dominated by meat dishes, accompanied by potatoes, rice, and shredded lettuce, and food is often accompanied by traditional hot sauces made from tomatoes and pepper pods.
Some typical Bolivian dishes include ají de lengua, spicy cow’s tongue; lechón al horno, roast pig, served on New Year’s Day; fritanga, spicy pork and egg stew; majao, a rice-and-meat dish served with fried egg, fried plantain, and fried yucca (tapioca); cuñapes, a bread made of cheese and yucca starch; pan dulce, a sweet bread served at Christmas; chuño phuti, freeze-dried potatoes; escabeche, pickled vegetables; cicadas, coconut candies; leche asada, roasted milk (a dessert); and helado de canela, cinnamon sorbet.
Some traditional dishes include majao, silpancho (meat served with rice and potatoes), pacumutu (a rice dish with grilled beef, fried yucca, and cheese), salteñas and empanadas, locro (a soup made with rice, chicken, and banana), and chicharrón de pacu (made with the local Pacu fish, rice, and yucca). Some potatoes are freeze-dried after they are harvested. Bolivians cover raw potatoes with a cloth and leave them outside during the cold nights and dry days of early winter. The potatoes freeze at night, and the next day the people stomp on them to press out the water the vegetables retained. After a few days, the potatoes have been freeze-dried and are called chuño (CHEW-nyo). They last for months, even years, and can be cooked after being soaked overnight in a pot of water.
Corn is also used to make the fermented maize drink called chicha (CHEE-chah). It is a sacred alcoholic drink for the Incas. They drink it from bowls made from hollowed gourds. Before and after drinking it, Bolivians spill a few drops onto the ground. This gesture is meant as an off ering to the Inca earth goddess Pachamama, to ensure a good harvest. Traditional cooking methods revolved around use of a fire for the majority of dishes. Meals were prepared by placing food directly on the heat or grilling it on wooden sticks in order to smoke it. Food is sometimes placed over the embers or on fl at pottery or covered with leaves and buried to cook over stones heated from the fi re. The subsequent influences of numerous global cuisines have seen these traditional cooking methods replaced or adapted in some areas, particularly the more urban centers.
Picante de pollo is chicken in a special spicy sauce, and there are many variations of this traditional Bolivian dish.
Ingredients
3 lb chicken, cut into medium-size pieces
2 c white onion, cut into small strips
1¼ c carrots, julienned
1 c turnip, diced
1 tbsp salt
3 c chicken stock
¼ c fresh locoto or chili pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped
In a large casserole dish combine the chicken pieces with the onion, carrot, turnip, and salt. Pour the chicken stock over this, until all ingredients are covered. Cook over high heat until the dish is bubbling. Turn heat to low and simmer for 90 minutes until the chicken is soft. Stir occasionally and continue to check on the level of chicken stock. If it seems low, add more stock, as you need some liquid to serve the dish. Add the fresh locoto or chili pepper, cumin, coriander, ground black pepper, and garlic, and stir and cook for 30 minutes. Serve with steamed rice.
Typical Meals
Like the people of the other nations of the Andean highlands such as Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, Bolivians prefer to eat a good breakfast, a substantial lunch, and a small dinner. As the main meal of the day, lunch is eaten with family whenever possible and often consists of soup, a main dish, and perhaps dessert. Bolivian meals are heavy on the pork and potatoes, with chicken, rice, and vegetables also being popular choices. The potato is the main staple, served at most meals, sometimes with rice or noodles. Potatoes, originally cultivated by the Incas in this region, are often served with meat. They are the country’s number one crop, and more than 200 different varieties are grown. The most popular meat is beef. No part of the cow is wasted, not even the tongue, which is used to make a popular spicy cow-tongue dish. Bolivians also enjoy chicken and llama—they even eat llama jerky. In rural areas, rabbits and guinea pigs are also eaten.
Bolivian food is not often spicy, with the majority of heat and spice found in condiments such as a sauce la llajhua which is made with tomato and locoto (hot chilies). Maize beer (chicha) is a traditional and ritually important beverage in the highlands. In the Oriente, rice, cassava, peanuts, bananas, legumes, and maize constitute the cornerstone of the daily diet, supplemented by fi sh, poultry, and beef. Favorite national delicacies include guinea pig (also consumed during important ceremonial occasions) and deep-fried pork (chicharrón). Meals are served with hot pepper sauces.
The people of Bolivia start their day with a light breakfast. Many people eat empanadas—cheeseand meat-fi lled turnovers. People often wash them down with api, which is a sweet breakfast tea made from corn, lemons, cloves, and cinnamon. This is common in the cities and towns, with the api often served with bread. Breakfast is followed by a mid morning snack of salteñas (sawl-TAY-nyahs). Similar to empanadas, salteñas are sweet meat pastries filled with a wide variety of ingredients such as diced meat or chicken, vegetables, potatoes, raisins, and hot sauce. Along with empanadas, salteñas can be purchased from many street vendors, and in marketplaces hot meals and stews are also consumed.
In the countryside, breakfast sometimes consists of toasted ground cereals with cheese and tea, followed by a thick soup ( lawa ) at 9 or 10 a.m. The most important meal of the day is lunch (almuerzo), which in upper-class urban households and restaurants typically is a four-course meal. It usually includes soup and a main dish. The soup typically contains beef, vegetables, potatoes, and quinoa. Peanut soup is also popular. The main dish that follows the soup usually includes meat, potatoes, rice, and vegetables. Favorites include pique macho (PEEkay MA-cho)—grilled chunks of meat, tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers. The spicy chicken dish picante de pollo is also popular. Silpancho, beef that is pounded thin and served on a bed of rice or potatoes with a fried egg on top, is another favorite.
Lunch for those living near Lake Titicaca may include fresh lake trout. Bolivians in this region tend to enjoy fi sh grilled, fried, stuff ed, steamed, or served covered in a spicy sauce. Frogs’ legs from the lake’s frogs are also eaten and are considered a delicacy. Peasants and lower-income urban dwellers have a lunch of boiled potatoes, homemade cheese, a hardboiled egg, and hot sauce (llajhua) or a thick stew with rice or potatoes.
Corn, a major crop in Bolivia, is the main ingredient in humitas (ooMEE-tahs), which are a popular side dish. Corn kernels cut off the cob are combined with spices and wrapped in a small package made from corn husks. The package is tied with string and steamed in a pot of simmering water. Another popular meal choice is quinoa. Quinoa grows well in Bolivia’s cold and arid climate. For meals the outer coating is removed to reveal seeds, which are ground or boiled in water and used for baking breads or as an ingredient in soups and stews.
A much lighter meal is eaten at around seven in the evening. Bolivians also snack on locally grown fruits including oranges, grapes, apples, peaches, cherries, papayas, pears, and avocados. Sweeter options include sweet pastries, ice cream, sorbets, and coconut candies called cicadas.
Eating Out
Eating out is not a common occurrence in Bolivia, with most families eating in the home. Bolivians tend to eat out when celebrating major occasions, or if they have traveled, there is a tendency to eat out more often or entertain friends at home. Typically the restaurants in La Paz and other affluent areas in Bolivia, such as the tourist resort areas, are not restricted to traditional Bolivian dishes. Increasingly, cuisine from all over the world can be found in Bolivia including Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, and other international tastes. Fast-food chains are also increasing due to their convenience and family oriented style. The cost point also makes the eating out experience more accessible for the less-affluent Bolivians.
Special Occasions
There are many holidays and festivals held throughout Bolivia. Many holidays celebrated in Bolivia are of religious or political origin, usually celebrating a Catholic or Indian saint or god, or an event such as a historic battle. Festivals or carnivals typically feature local music, bands, costumes, parades, dancing, fireworks, alcohol, and food.
The most elaborate and hearty meals, with abundant fresh vegetables and beef, chicken, or pork, are eaten at ceremonial occasions, such as the life-cycle events of baptism, marriage, and death. Public displays of generosity and reciprocity, off ering abundant food and drink not often available at other times of the year (e.g., bottled beer, cane alcohol [trago], and beef), are an important cultural imperative. On All Souls’ Day, meals are prepared for the recently deceased and those who are ill. Many important meals mimic those of upper-class restaurants in the major cities, including dishes such as ají de pollo (chicken smothered in hot chili sauce and served with rice and/or potatoes).
Social life is punctuated by many rituals that coincide with major agricultural seasons and/or are linked to the celebration of Christian deities, with specific foods associated with many of these rituals. For example, Epiphany or the Twelfth Night on January 6 is a celebration where gifts are given to children to celebrate the Day of the Kings. Children place their shoes outside the door, and the Three Kings (usually the family) fill them with candy and pastries at night. These can include sweet fritters, or tawa-tawas . The Bolivian version is unique in the use of cane syrup in the final product.
In Bolivia, Christmas (Navidad) continues to be deeply religious, maintaining the original meaning and purpose of the holiday. Most families set up a pesebre (nativity scene) in their homes, and families gather to feast together at midnight after mass, others on Christmas Day. As these holidays take place during the hottest time of year (summer in the Southern Hemisphere) meals usually feature picana, a soup made of chicken, beef, corn, and spices that is eaten traditionally on Christmas. The table is also set with salads, roast pork or roast beef, and an abundance of tropical fruit. For the same reasons, the table is usually adorned with fresh fl owers. At midnight the families toast with champagne or wine and eat taffy-filled wafer cookies called turrón . The canastón is another important holiday tradition.
A large gift basket, it is given by employers to their employees on the day prior to taking their vacation. The canastón is a simple but usually large basket (sometimes a plastic washtub is used) filled with the basic food staples such as ketchup and mustard, bread, jam, crackers and cookies, sugar, rice, flour, and sometimes chocolates or candy. These canastónes are almost never decorated, except for a clear plastic covering closed off with a large red bow. A panetón (a delicious traditional holiday sweet bread with raisins and nuts) and a bottle of cidra (sparkling non-alcoholic cider) are included.
On New Year’s Eve the family gathers again, feasts at midnight, and toasts with champagne. Each family member must also eat 12 grapes at midnight. Bolivians celebrate All Saints’ Day on November 1 to honor the Catholic saints. This has been combined with Día de Todos Santos, also known as the Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. Like many other Catholic celebrations, this melds existing indigenous festivities with the “new” Catholicism and “old” pagan beliefs. The dead are honored by visits to their grave sites, often with food, flowers, and all family members. In Bolivia, the dead are expected to return to their homes and villages.
During this time, families and guests, who enter with clean hands, share in traditional dishes, particularly the favorites of the deceased. Tables are laden with bread fi gurines called t’antawawas, sugar cane, chicha, candies, and decorated pastries. At the cemeteries, the souls are greeted with more food, music, and prayers. Rather than a sad occasion, the Día de Todos Santos is a joyous event. Death, marriage, and almost any other social or religious ritual in Bolivia will include an offering of coca. “Guard its leaves with love,” warns the “Legend of Coca,” an 800-year-old oral poem. “And when you feel pain in your heart, hunger in your fl esh and darkness in your mind, lift it to your mouth. You will find love for your pain, nourishment for your body and light for your mind.”
Diet and Health
Most Bolivians, particularly in the rural areas and low-income neighborhoods surrounding the large cities, lack access to basic medical care, with most sick people cared for by family members. While Bolivia has improving trends in terms of food supplies, these have not been sufficient to overcome widespread poverty, particularly in rural areas, and there is still a high incidence of hunger and malnutrition. Many only partially understand and accept Western biomedical ideology and health care, as Bolivian health beliefs and practices typically revolve around rituals and ritual practitioners such as diagnostic specialists, curers, herbalists, and diviners.
Divination, rituals, and ritual sacrifi ces are important in treating illness, as is the use of coca leaves, alcoholic beverages, and guinea pigs. Traditional medicine attaches importance to the social and supernatural etiology of illness and death, which often are attributed to strained social relations, witchcraft, or the influence of malevolent spirits. Dozens of illness categories, many psychosomatic, are recognized. Many curing rituals emphasize balanced, reciprocal relations with deities, who are “fed” and offered drink to dissipate illnesses.
The coca leaf is used extensively for traditional medicines for a supply of nutrients and natural energy. For high-altitude dwellers of the Andes, the leaf, when chewed or brewed into tea, acts as a palliative and stimulant, and a certain amount of cultivation is allowed for local use. Chewing of coca leaf is a common practice among peasant farmers, miners, laborers, and night workers. Soothsayers and indigenous priests use it in rituals passed down by their ancestors. And in many hotels in La Paz, foreign guests are welcomed with a cup of coca-leaf tea, which helps to relieve altitude sickness. Ancestral beliefs, confirmed by scientific research, credit coca-leaf chewing with alleviating hunger, fatigue, and sleepiness.
Bolivia has one of the highest infant mortality rates in South America—between 68 and 75 per 1,000 live births. Major causes of infant and child mortality include respiratory infections, diarrhea, and malnutrition; almost 30 percent of infants under age three suff er from chronic malnutrition. In Bolivia, more than one-quarter of infants are stunted. But between 1994 and 1998 the number of overweight women increased 9 percent, with the greatest increases seen among women with less education. The infant death rate is between 68 and 75 per 1,000 births, higher than anywhere else in Latin America. Life expectancy is 62 years, compared to the Latin American average of 69. Indigenous women prefer to deliver at home because they do not feel confi dent in hospitals, mainly because their customs are ignored or denied in such health services.
In Bolivia, a culture of rural midwifery known as partera is adopted, where midwives speak the local language. Some of them understand the importance of evaluating risks, and for that purpose they use a sort of oracle, based in coca leaves. In traditional deliveries, women can choose the position. Most of them choose to squat, with their family around, and drink infusions of medicinal plants. Soon after the childbirth, women must keep warm and avoid contact with cold water.
Many projects supported by international organizations have been implemented over the past decades with very low success in terms of decreases in maternal mortality. Currently, the Bolivian government is developing a new strategy based on an intercultural reproductive health care approach, which incorporates the religious and traditional medicinal approach of the Bolivians with Western technologies and practices, uses the indigenous languages, takes advantage of the regional resources, and respects the habits and traditions of the people.
By Katrina Meynink in the book 'Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia'- Ken Albala, editor.Greenwood- (An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC) Santa Barbara, California U.S.A, 2011, 2nd. volume, p.37-45. Edited and adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.
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