Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Ocimum basilicum
Region of origin: Tropical Asia, Africa
Quotations:
"Se mezclan todas, la albahaca, el apasote, el piñón de botija, se meten en la lata con un
poco de azúcar y sal." (101)
"You mix them all up, basil, apasote, pine nuts, put them in the can with a little sugar
and salt." (126)
Botanical reference:
“Ocimum
Basilicum,” Missouri Botanical Garden, accessed June 30, 2021,
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=281408.
Black eyed peas / Frijoles de carita
Number of times mentioned: Latin name: Region of origin: Quotations: Botanical reference:
Number of times mentioned: Latin name: Region of origin: Quotations: Botanical reference:
Number of times mentioned: 3
Latin name: Vigna unguiculata
Region of origin: Africa and tropical Asia
Quotations:
"Daban una ración buena, aunque siempre era lo mismo; arroz con frijoles negros, blancos o de carita y tasajo." (46)
"They gave a good-sized portion though it was always the same — rice and black beans, white beans or black eyed peas and beef jerky." (63)
***
"Todos los
santos tenían su comida, Obatalá tenía el ecrú de frijoles
de carita." (60)
"All the saints had their food. Obatala had the black-eyed pea stew." (77)
***
"Uno le daba un
medio o dos y a comer frituritas de yuca, de carita, de malanga, buñuelos...
veinte cosas más." (114)
"You gave her a
half peso or two and started right in eating little fritters of yuca, black
eyed peas, taro, or doughnuts...and twenty more things." (142)
Botanical reference:
Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 468, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Bourbon Rose / Rosa de Borbón
Latin name: Rosa 'Bourbon' Number of times mentioned: 1 Region of origin: Reunión
Quotations:
"Aquí había una rosa, muy grande ella, que le decían la rosa de Borbón." (57)
"There used to be a rose, a big rose, called the Bourbon Rose." (73)
Botanical Reference: “Bourbon,” University of Illinois Extension, accessed June 30, 2021, https://web.extension.illinois.edu/roses/kinds/bourbon.cfm..
Canteloupe / Melón de castilla
Latin name: Cucumis melo Number of times mentioned: 1 Region of origin: Africa, Asia, Malesia, Australia, and Pacific
"Tenían la cabeza que parecía un melón de castilla." (23)
"Their heads would look like Castilian melons." (32)
Botanical Reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 252, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Chard / Acelga
Latin name: Beta vulgaris Number of times mentioned: 1 Region of origin: Eurasia and Africa
Joseph Jacob Plenck, Beta Vulgaris, n.d., Lithograph, n.d.,
Plantarum Medicinalium,
http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:164505-1.
Quotations:
"De esas comidas, la más rica era el ochinchín, que se hacía con berro, acelga, almendras y camarones sancochados." (60)
"But the most delicious of all those foods was ochinchin that was made with water cress, chard, almonds, and boiled shrimp." (77)
Botanical Reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 21, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Guinea grass / Yerba de guinea
Latin name: Megathyrsus maximus Number of times mentioned: 2 Region of origin: Tropical Africa Quotations:
"Cobijé en unas horas un rancho de yerba de guinea." (34)
"I camped under a tree." (45) [translation omits guinea grass]
***
"Otros soldados se hacían sus campamentos con ranchos de yerba de guinea y yaguas." (133)
"
"Other soldiers made their place to sleep with Guinea grass and reeds." (167)
Botanical Reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 740, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Indian goosegrass / Pata de gallina
Latin name: Eleusine indica Number of times mentioned: 1 Region of origin: Africa and temperate and tropical Asia
Quotations: "Dentro de la cazuela, ponían patas de gallinas, que era una yerba con paja de maíz para asegurar a los hombres." (19)
"They put star-shake, which was an herb, in the pot with corn straw to hold human beings." (27) [erroneous translation]
Botanical Reference: Julissa Rojas-Sandoval and Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, “Eleusine Indica (Goose Grass),” Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, 2014, https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/20675.
Lablab bean / Frijol caballero
Latin name: Lablab purpureus Number of times mentioned: 1 Region of origin: Africa Quotations:
"Ahí se cosechaba de todo: boniato, calabaza, quimbamtoó, maíz, gandul, frijol caballero, que es como las habas limas, yuca y maní." (18)
Botanical Reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 439, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Purslane / Verdolaga
Latin name: Portulaca oleracea Number of times mentioned: 2 Region of origin: West Indies, North America, Central America, South America, Old World
Quotations:
"China no, allá lo que había más era yerba de la que se arrastra, dormidera, verdolaga, diez de la mañana." (16)
"Over there they had plants that grew along the ground, creepers, purslane, morning glories." (24)
***
"Lo más que podía hacer un libertador en Las Villas era robar ganado, recoger malanga, retoños de boniato, bledos, verdolagas, en fin..." (140)
"The most a revolutionary could do in Las Villas was to steal livestock, collect taro weeds, sweet potato shoots, amaranth, purslane, and such." (75)
Botanical Reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 778, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.
Sesame / Ajonjolí
Latin name: Sesamum orientale Number of times mentioned: 4 Region of origin: India and Subsaharan Africa
Quotations: "También me acuerdo que se vendían unos dulces que les llamaban "capricho", de harina de castilla y ajonjolí y maní." (20)
"I also remember that they sold some candy called capricho, made of white flour, sesame seeds and peanuts." (29)
***
"Ahora, esto del ajonjolí era cosa de chinos, porque había vendedores ambulantes que recorrían los ingenios vendiéndolos." (20)
"Sesame seeds, you know, were a Chinese thing because their salesmen went around the plantations selling them." (29)
***
"Tampoco comía ajonjolí, porque me salían verdugones y granitos." (60)
"I didn't eat sesame seeds either because I got spots and pimples all over me." (77)
***
"Mientras haya un granito de ajonjolí en el suelo, ellas no se pueden mover." (93)
"While there's a single sesame seed on the ground, witches can't move." (117)
Botanical Reference: Alison Weisskopf and Dorian Q. Fuller, “Sesame: Origins and Development,” in Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, ed. Claire Smith (New York, NY: Springer New York, 2014), 6587–90, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2327.
Coffee / Café
Latin name: Coffea arabica Number of timesmentioned: 15 Region of origin: Ethiopia
"Después que esa
hoja quedaba bien disuelta, la colaba y ya era café." (40)
"After it was
well broken up, I boiled it, and then it was coffee." (51)
***
"Con la miel de abejas el café servía para el
fortalecimiento del organismo." (40)
"With the honey the coffee gave strength to
the body." (51)
***
"Además,
repartían café a cada rato." (74)
"They also
served coffee every few minutes." (94)
***
"Café como el que a mi me gustaba." (74)
"Coffee the way I like it." (94)
***
"Cuando la
familia del muerto era fina, daban café en escudillas." (94)
"When the dead
man's family was refined, they served coffee in large cups." (94)
***
"Veían a un bandolero en su caballo y la mujer
decía: 'Vamos, hombre, a tomar un buchito de café." (84)
"They would see a bandit on his horse, and the
wife would say, 'Come on in and have a sip of coffee." (109)
***
"Cuando los
niños llegaban, él para traérselos, les daba dulces, café con leche, pan con
man- tequilla y todo lo que ellos pedían." (108)
"As the children
were passing by, to attract them he would give them sweets, coffee with milk,
bread, and butter, and all they asked for." (135)
***
"Los pobres desayunaban café y boniato." (113)
"Poor people had coffee and sweet
potato." (140)
***
"El café se
tomaba mucho." (113)
"People drank a
lot of coffee." (141)
***
"En las casas de familia no faltaban unas
cafeteras grandes y prietas, de hierro, donde se hacía el café." (113)
"Every household had an abundance of big,
black, iron coffee pots where they made coffee." (141)
***
"El café de
pilón es el que más me gusta a mí porque no pierde el aroma." (113)
"Hand-ground
coffee is the kind I like the best because it keeps its aroma." (141)
***
"Antes de que extendieran los cafetales, el
café se vendía en boticas." (113)
"Before coffee plantations got bigger, coffee
was sold in the pharmacy." (141)
***
"Vendían café
sin tostar." (113)
"They sold
unroasted coffee." (141)
Botanical Reference:
V. Merot-L’anthoene
et al., “Development and Evaluation of a Genome-Wide Coffee 8.5K SNP Array
and Its Application for High-Density Genetic Mapping and for Investigating
the Origin of Coffea Arabica L.,” Plant Biotechnology Journal 17, no. 7 (01
2019): 1418–30, https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.13066.
Text editions: Esteban Montejo and Miguel Barnet, Biografía de Un Cimarrón, 223
p. (La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1980),
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005222640.
Esteban
Montejo, Biography of a Runaway Slave, ed. Miguel Barnet, trans. W. Nick
Hill (Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 1994).
Commissioned
by William Roxburgh, Cucumis utilissimus Roxb., n.d., Watercolour
illustration, n.d.,
http://powo.
