LA HALLACA OR HAYACA

VENEZUELAN TYPICAL CHRISTMAS DISH AND ITS ORIGIN

The hallaca is a dish of Venezuelan origin. It is made with corn dough (from corn meal like Harina P.A.N or corn grain).This dough is given flavor and/or color by adding chicken broth and onoto. The filling consist of beef,pork,hen or chicken. To those you add olives,raisins,capers,green peppers,onions and more depending on the region and medical diets. These ingredients are placed on the flattten portion of cornmeal doughrap on a rectangular shape using cured platain leaves and tied with cotton string.This dish could be served at any time of the year,but it is typically served during Christmas.

La hallaca is Venezuelan in origin,but its popularity reached other countries due to citizens of those countries returning or Venezuelans emigrating to those countries.Some of those countries are: Colombia (Cúcuta and Barranquilla), in the islands of Curazao, Aruba and Bonaire,Canary islands,in Spain,and in Ecuador. Yes,they have also adapted hallacas as their traditional Christmas dish.

In Venezuela, la hallaca is a national dish.It is also prepared and celebrated by family and friends.

Origins of the hallacas,like many other dishes depends on documents, poems,and tales told through time. The first one is the time of colonization XV and XVI century in which slaves and indiginous people, gathered the leftovers of the food preparation adding them to their meals. The next explanation goes to the time when the Spaniards wanted to build a road to gain access to Caracas from the port of La Guaira. The natives mainly consumed only which was already known to caused a disease. It was asked from the population of Caracas to donate leftovers so the natives could add them to their corn meal.
According to tradicition,one Christmas the wealthy people celebrating with great parties and lots of food enraging the bishop who told them to eat and celebrate like the natives and slaves who work on the "road of the Spaniards", afraid of god's punishment, they agreed to do so and improve on the fillings.
As Uslar Pietri stated in Eskenazi(1988)(la hallaca)"...is a compendium exemplary of crossbreeding. In them are: raisins and olives from the Romans and the Greeks,capers and almonds from the Arabs,beef from the people of Castilla,corn and the banana leaves from the natives".

La hallaca in Caracas continues to be fundamentally unchanged since XVIII century.