Mexican food has African roots that most people never hear about. Starting early in the colonial period, the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to New Spain, the colony that became Mexico, and over the following centuries those men and women and their descendants worked in kitchens, on ranches, on sugar plantations and in port cities. They brought cooking knowledge with them, and several ingredients that came to the Americas from Africa, like tamarind and hibiscus, are now so common in Mexico that they feel native. Mexican cooking is usually described as a meeting of Indigenous and Spanish traditions, and that is true, but African hands and African ingredients are part of the story too. At El Chubby’s, a family-owned Mexican restaurant in Aurora since 1991, we think that history deserves a place at the table.
How did African people come to Mexico?
The most direct path was the transatlantic slave trade. Early in the colonial period, Spain brought enslaved Africans to New Spain to labor in mines, on sugar plantations, on cattle ranches and in the homes of the wealthy. The port of Veracruz on the Gulf coast was a main point of arrival. Historians debate the exact numbers, and estimates vary, but scholars generally agree that New Spain had one of the larger African populations in the Spanish colonies during its early centuries.
Over time, many Africans and their descendants gained their freedom, married into Indigenous and Spanish families, and became part of the mixed population of colonial Mexico. Some escaped and built their own communities. The best known story is that of Gaspar Yanga, who is remembered for leading a community of people who escaped slavery in the mountains of Veracruz and eventually winning recognition of a free town from colonial authorities. A town in Veracruz still carries his name.
Today, Afro-Mexican communities are found in many places, with especially well-known ones along the Costa Chica of Guerrero and Oaxaca and in Veracruz. In recent years Mexico formally recognized Afro-Mexican people in its constitution and began counting them in its national census, a sign of how long this part of the country’s history went overlooked.
Which Mexican foods have African roots?
Food history is full of arguments, and it is usually hard to say exactly who brought which dish where. Ingredients are easier to trace than recipes, so that is a good place to start.
Tamarind is native to tropical Africa. It traveled along colonial trade routes and took root in Mexico so thoroughly that agua de tamarindo and tamarind candies are now everyday Mexican treats. Hibiscus, the deep red flower used for agua de jamaica, is also generally traced to Africa and reached Mexico during the colonial era. Plantains originally come from Southeast Asia, but they are generally thought to have reached the Americas through Atlantic routes that ran by way of Africa and the Canary Islands, and they are a big part of cooking along Mexico’s Gulf and Pacific coasts.
Sesame seeds, called ajonjolí in Mexico, came to the Americas from the Old World and are often linked to the African trade, though their deeper origins are debated. Sesame shows up in many Mexican moles and is sprinkled on top of them as a finishing touch.
Cooking methods are harder to pin down, but many food historians point to the coastal cooking of Veracruz and the Costa Chica as places where African influence is easiest to taste. The heavy use of plantains, certain ways of frying and stewing, and dishes built around fish, coconut and starchy roots are often cited. Some writers go further and suggest that African cooks helped shape well-known dishes such as mole. Those claims are interesting but debated, and the most honest answer is that colonial kitchens were mixed places where Indigenous, African and Spanish cooks all worked side by side, so many dishes probably carry a little of each.
Was there African influence on Spanish food, too?
Yes, and this second road is often forgotten. For several centuries before Spain reached the Americas, much of the Iberian Peninsula was ruled by Muslim dynasties with deep ties to North Africa. That period left a lasting mark on Spanish cooking, including the spread of sugar cane, rice, citrus and almonds, and a fondness for spices like cumin and saffron.
When the Spanish came to Mexico, they brought that cooking with them. Rice is a good example. It is native to Asia, it was grown in Spain during the Moorish era, and it arrived in Mexico with the colonists, where it eventually became the familiar red or orange Mexican rice served beside so many plates. Some historians have also argued that enslaved Africans, many of whom came from rice-growing regions of West Africa, brought valuable rice-growing knowledge to parts of the Americas. How much that applies to Mexico specifically is still discussed, so we will leave it as an open question.
Cumin is another Old World arrival. It is one of the spices people most associate with Mexican food in the United States, and it came to Mexico by way of Spain. We wrote more about that in our post on what spices go into Mexican food, and our piece on the history behind the Mexican dishes you enjoy traces a few more of these paths.
What does this history mean for the food on your plate?
It means a simple Mexican meal is a record of many people. Take a plate of rice and beans. The beans are Mesoamerican, grown in the region for thousands of years before the Spanish ever arrived. The rice came from Asia by way of Spain, carried along routes shaped in part by North African rule. And the kitchens that turned those ingredients into everyday food were often staffed by Indigenous and African cooks whose names were never written down.
That is part of why we take rice and beans seriously. Every one of our combination plates comes with both, from the cheese enchiladas to the smothered tamales to Bertha’s Special Burrito with chicharrone. Our beans are made in the pot, the way they have been made in Mexican homes for generations. You can also order them, along with rice, by themselves from the sides menu.
We do not claim our menu is a museum. We are a neighborhood restaurant with green chili made fresh every day and a kitchen that cooks everything to order. But it is worth remembering, the next time you pick up a forkful of rice and beans, that the people who shaped Mexican food came from three continents, and that Africa is one of them.
Come see us at 1191 S Abilene St in Aurora, or order online for pickup or delivery and enjoy a combination plate at home.
