CHOCOLATE
Chocolate
is something we all eat! Me, you, any random person on the street; you ask
anybody; they would have eaten chocolate, except for perhaps the poor chocolate
workers in African cocoa farms who are sometimes not even paid a cent and made
to work like slaves… but that’s another story…
There
are a million brands- Cadbury, Snickers, Mars, and Maltesers to name a few. The
slightly higher end hand crafted ones are Lindt and Sprungli. Some brands are
so big, they have their own amusement parks and activities, a bit like a
chocolate Disney World. Hershey’s Chocolate World, Pennsylvania, is one of
them. It has it’s own town, called, quite unimaginatively, Hershey. And believe me, two days there and you will
be so sick of chocolate that you won’t eat it for at least a week (that’s a
long time for a chocolate lover like me!). It’s common all over the world, from
India to America. But did you ever imagine as you bit into a bar of luscious,
creamy Dairy Milk, where it had come from? Who invented it? Who made the yummy,
crunchy square in your hand? Now you’re going to be thinking, ‘Well, obviously
not! I was concentrating on eating and enjoying it wasn’t I?’ That’s probably
what I would have said, till ,one day, I read a book on the Aztecs…
Aztecs
and chocolate?? The words have no connection, you think? Wrong! They have a
very strong link…
Maybe
you’ve heard of the cacao bean (the thing that makes chocolate, silly! Did you
think it was made of thin air?) being discovered by some tribals on a remote
island? The ‘tribals’ were the Aztecs, and Mayans before them. They were actually
quite a civilized and smart culture (unless you count their human sacrifices to
the sun). They discovered the Cacao in their homeland of Mexico.
Besides
paying priests to build large golden pyramids, sacrificing a citizen now and
again, and strolling through Cuzco-the capital of the Aztec Empire- the Aztec
Emperor would look through new inventions and discoveries. That’s how he noticed
the Cacao bean. It had been found and eaten as a powder by the citizens of an
Aztec village unknown to the rest of the Aztecs until a messenger from the
Emperor passed through and told the Emperor of the ‘bitter, strange fruit’.
The
emperor from then on would mix it in milk and eat it (the Aztecs had no sugar) and
for flavor would sometimes even add in cornmeal and chili peppers. This bitter drink
could only be drunk by the nobles and Royal Family. Thus began the legend that
the head god, Quetzalcoatl, had brought down a sacred Cocoa Tree from heaven
for the kings who were considered incarnations of God. The Cacao Bean was even
used as a thanksgiving sacrifice to the gods. After the Aztec empire reached Guatemala,
the Aztecs began spreading out into South America. Slowly, trade with other
cultures caused it to become the common man’s drink. And over time it became
popular in the Spanish conquistador societies; which had now reached South
America. Here is the tale of a certain Father Jóse Paulo, a Spanish priest…
Father
Jóse Paulo, called Paulo by the Aztecs, was one of the only whites to befriend
them. He came as the priest on a Spanish ship of conquistadors, which ran
aground, making him wash up unconscious on the beaches of Colombia clutching a
rosary. The Aztecs found him, and rescued him, even though he was a ‘white
Yaotl’ or (in plain English) ‘white warrior enemy’. He, over the years,
befriended them and become almost one of them. They, in turn, revealed to him
their secrets- the Cacao bean and their golden temple treasures. The Cacao was
indeed a strange bean to Father Paulo. His Aztec friends were the brewers of
the chocolate drink sent to the Emperor each day, (it was called xcolacotl,
meaning hot bitter water in Nahuatl the Aztec language) and they had let the
Father taste it in secret. To the Father the taste was most disagreeable, yet
he believed his friends and swore to protect their secret. They would use a
golden, sacred, three-pronged instrument like a fork- called a tuning fork, to froth
the cacao and make it creamy. It was the size of a normal fork; but plated in
gold.
Life
passed pleasantly for four years with his friends, when another ship of
Conquistadors- led by Francisco Pizarro- appeared on the coast. The Father was
scared; he knew what the Spanish planned to do. Despite his warnings, the
Aztecs invited in the Europeans and traded with them. On discovering Father
Paulo, the Spanish began to speak to him in his native tongue of Spanish, to
the Father’s great joy. Yet, as the Spanish began to loot and plunder the
village the Father had learned to call home, Father Jóse felt a sense of hate.
How could his own countrymen kill unfeelingly those who had welcomed them
warmly, and moreover, helped him, a poor, shipwrecked man of no use to them,
out of the goodness of their hearts? The conquistadors tried to get Father
Paulo to their side; asking him to give up the secrets he swore never to
reveal.
Late
one evening, the Aztec Head Cacao Brewer, Centehua, Father Jóse’s special
friend, pulled him to a dark corner of the brewery…
“Father.
I know we have foolishly not heeded your excellent advice on the other white Yaotl.
I deeply regret it. However, what is done is done. They have begun looting and
plundering, killing and massacring! They may kill me; but they will never kill
you, one of their brothers and countrymen. I would let them capture Cuzco, our
capital and steal all the wealth- but there is one thing they must never find!”
He led the Father to a jeweled box. He opened it and there lay the instrument
they called a Tuning Fork, and a bolt of silver inlaid with sapphires.
“Paulo!
Promise me! Promise me this, in return for our brotherhood and friendship of
five years. Promise me that you will never, ever let this fall into the hands
of evil! This bolt locks the Brewery. I know they will break it down
eventually; yet, please, if anything happens to me- the first thing you must do
is bolt this building with this magic bolt and take the Fork away with you. Get
away from here! Go to your homeland with them. But never leave the Fork, Paulo!
Give me your solemn word- please, brother!’ Centehua pleaded in desperation.
Father
Jóse took a deep breath. He agreed.
The
minute Centehua stepped out; a Spanish bullet hit him in the head. He fell
backwards, clutching Paulo.
“P-p-paul-lo!
K-ke-keep your pr-pr-promi-” Centehua drew his last breath. Paulo looked up at
his friend’s assailant, trying to hide the tears that fell from his eyes in
grief.
“Wh-what?”
Paulo cried, half in anger, half in grief.
“Leave
this barbarian alone. Come home with us, Father Jóse. Leave this stupid land of
barbarians with us and we shall give you the treasure we have,” the soldier
said.
Paulo
almost screamed at the soldier in rage at his cruelty, but he was bound by a
dying mans last words. He remembered his promise and told the soldier.
“I
will be at the ship once I pack my things.”
The
soldier nodded and turned to shoot a brewery worker. Father Paulo could not
bear to watch and turned inside.
He
picked up the jeweled box and hid it under his robes till her reached his hut,
which was connected to the brewery. He opened the jeweled box and took out the
fork and the magic bolt. In his room he had an old grey cloth bag. In it he put
his rosary, a handful of cacao beans and a drawing of the brewery and the Head
Brewer, Centehua. He could not bear to look at Centehua’s picture and shoved it
into the bottom of the bag. The tuning fork he put in the secret pocket in the
side of the bag. He bolted the door outside, bolted his hut’s entrance and ran
to the ship, turning back with tears in his eyes at the thought of saying
goodbye to the land he had known and loved for 5 years. In awe he watched as
the brewery seemed to explode! Almost as if it had been hit by lightning! He
turned around and gave a steely gaze to the ship. Someday, Father Jóse Paulo
swore, the Spanish would be paid back. He no longer felt any love or longing to
go back to his homeland, now that he had realized his fellow Spaniard’s
cruelty. He cursed himself, for he would have been part of such happenings back
in his original expedition. He thanked god for helping him meet and befriend such
truly selfless beings as the Aztecs. But now, they were gone- the people, their
monuments, their houses, their food, their land- all had been swallowed up by
the monster of Spain, leaving no trace of their existence. Father Paulo felt
burning hatred; a desire to kill all the Spaniards on the ship, who had wiped
off not only a culture but also an influence on the world. He walked to the
Captain’s cabin, declared his arrival and stepped into his cabin. He had been
given a wooden box for coins. He placed in it the bag with the tuning Fork and
covered it with coins as he received his share of the treasure. Though day upon
day Francisco pressurized him to give up his Aztec brothers’ secrets, Father
Paulo had a will of iron. He had sworn to the Aztecs that he would not give
away what they had told him; and that was what he intended to do. Even when
they tried to make him homesick and loyal to Spain, Jóse did not crack. He had
a burning hatred for his country and it’s citizens in him now- and never would
it stop. He looked out into the horizon as the ship set sail at last, saying
goodbye to what he felt was his only true home, a distant continent halfway
across the world from his country- the Aztec Empire, where his only true
friends and brothers had once lived….
They seemed to have bad luck with the sea
though. The ship ran aground in the ocean; though most others made it out,
Father Jóse Paulo went down with the ship and his precious Tuning Fork. But, perhaps,
he actually had good luck with the sea; for in his original voyage he ran
aground to meet his friends, the Aztecs and the second time, had he landed in
Spain, his fellow Spaniards may have discovered his treasure, but by letting it
float away, he ensured that no one would find it for millennia…
Who
knows? Maybe the Tuning Fork of the Aztecs is still out there… somewhere still
at the bottom of the sea in a decaying box? So if you ever find an old battered
box with strange symbols washed up on the beach, check inside to see whether
the treasure countless Aztecs and Father Jóse Paulo gave up their lives to
protect is inside; a two pronged, solid gold and diamond inlaid fork. Just
don’t use it to eat dinner; your food might turn frothy and creamy! (That’s
actually not a bad idea- it might make food taste better!)
Later
ships of Conquistadors found cacao beans and took them to Europe. These slowly
evolved from ‘xcolacotl’ to Swiss Handcrafted Chocolate to the Mars and Hershey
bars we know today.
Chocolate
has had an amazing journey… from a bitter drink made by tuning forks… an
ancient promise to protect it… to bars and cake. It has spanned the centuries
and delighted many. Now goodbye… as I turn to munch on a Hershey! .... (Sound
of chocolate wrapper being ripped open)…(munch)… (Crunch)… hey, stop staring
and get your own chocolate!
