NPR

If You Love Potatoes, Tomatoes Or Chocolate Thank Indigenous Latin American Cultures

These delicious treats were cultivated and enjoyed by native people for hundreds if not thousands of years. But with the arrival of the Spanish in Latin America, they were shared around the globe.
Ancient pottery discovered in present day Honduras indicates that pre-Colombian cultures dating back to as early as 1100 B.C. made a fermented, alcoholic beverage from the sweet pulp of the cacao fruit.

As the country celebrates all things Latino, we think it's time to show some culinary appreciation for some of the tastiest foods indigenous to Latin America but that over centuries have been victim to some bad PR, and are commonly associated with European countries.

Mmmm ... chocolate.

Television commercials and magazine ads make it seem that the Swiss and the Belgians must be somehow connected to the very origins of chocolate, but the caffeinated treat's history stretches back millennia to

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