{"id":317885,"date":"2025-11-25T11:06:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/barbecue\/the-surprising-truth-behind-16th-century-spanish-explorers-and-barbacoas\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T11:06:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:06:02","slug":"the-surprising-truth-behind-16th-century-spanish-explorers-and-barbacoas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=317885","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising Truth Behind 16th-century Spanish Explorers and Barbacoas"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Illustration of a 16th-century Barbacoa<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The following is a discussion about a small portion of the chapter “Hernando’s Barbacoa” in the book From Barbycu to Barbecue<\/i>. The book is published by the University of South Carolina Press. It was peer reviewed for two years and cites over 2000 primary and secondary sources. It is available from online booksellers and from many of the best local bookstores.<\/p>\n

The widely accepted tall tale of how barbecue was
\n“discovered” begins with the ancient Taino people of what is today
\nHaiti and the word the Spanish borrowed from them “barbacoa.”
\nSixteenth-century Spanish explorers, we are told, soon adopted the Taino way of
\ncooking, which is sometimes described as cooking pork low and slow with
\nindirect heat. From there, English speakers adopted the word barbacoa with an
\nAnglo spin pronouncing it as “barbecue.” This theory of the origins
\nof barbecue is entertaining, but it is far from the facts as they are recorded
\nin historical records.<\/p>\n

It is true that 16th-century Spanish explorers witnessed
\nancient Taino people using barbacoas. However, the word “barbacoa”
\nwas used only as a noun and it did not refer to the food on a barbacoa nor did
\nit refer to the way of cooking. Records from the 1500s through the 1800s refer
\nto barbacoas only as wooden grills suspended on three or four forked corner
\nposts and, sometimes, as being attached to a tree trunk on one end and two forked
\nposts on the other. At some point, people in Mexico adopted the word
\n“barbacoa” to refer earthen ovens, which are holes dug into the
\nground and filled with hot rocks before wrapping food in leaves and placing it
\nin the pit before covering it with leaves and soil. Even so, to this day, the
\nword “barbacoa” is used in Mexico only as a noun to refer to the
\nearthen oven and the food that is cooked in one.<\/p>\n

The notion that word “barbacoa” refers to a way of
\ncooking was invented in the United States after the end of World War II.
\nAmericans invented the verb “barbacoa” and promoted the idea that
\nbecause Spanish explorers were the first to use the word “barbacoa,”
\nthat must be how barbecue was created. Nevertheless, firsthand accounts from
\nthe 16th through 19th centuries do not support those assertions.<\/p>\n

It is true that Spaniards who came to the Americas in the
\n16th and 17th centuries were fascinated by barbacoas, but it wasn’t because
\nthey craved a delicious pork barbecue sandwich topped with a tangy, spicy sauce
\nand coleslaw. The truth about the 16th-century Spanish love affair with
\nbarbacoas is far more fascinating than the modern myth about it.<\/p>\n

Early records of Spanish exploits in the Americas
\noccasionally mention barbacoas. The word is used to describe wooden grills on
\nwhich foods were cooked, smoked, and dried. The word “barbacoa” was
\nalso used to describe porticos, bridges, and even tree houses inhabited by
\nindigenous people. “So,” you may ask, “just why were Spaniards
\nso fascinated by barbacoas?” One reason was how indigenous people used
\nbarbacoas to store things like clothing skins, corn, and other foods. Warm
\nanimal skins and food was always in high demand among Spanish conquistadors and
\ntheir armies. But, that’s not the main reason Spaniards sought out barbacoas.<\/p>\n

The Spanish conquistador Vasco Nu\u0301n\u0303ez de Balboa (1475\u20131519)
\nwas the first European to lead a quest across Panama\u2019s Isthmus and to march to
\nthe Pacific Ocean. In the year 1513 he sent a secret communique to King
\nFerdinand II (1452\u20131516) that contained a closely guarded secret. The secret
\nwas so closely guarded, it escaped detection by people who study barbecue
\nhistory since it was revealed to King Ferdinand until now. The top secret,
\nhighly classified information in that communique was this: Caciques, leaders of
\nindigenous tribes, hid vast amounts of gold in barbacoas.<\/p>\n

Because one of the main goals of a conquistador\u2019s mission
\nwas to find treasure for the king, this discovery was significant. It is also
\nwhy it was to be kept secret and only shared with those the king sent to the
\nAmericas. Indeed, to King Ferdinand and his conquistadors, the closely guarded
\nsecret message was clear. Find a barbacoa, and you will find treasures. From
\nthat point forward, one of the main missions of Spanish explorers was to seek
\nout barbacoas. Barbacoas stored corn that could feed their army and gold that
\ncould feed their greed. That explains why records show that one of the first
\nthings Spanish explorers did when encountering a Native American village was to
\nhead straight to the barbacoas. It also explains why the indigenous people
\ndefended them with their lives.<\/p>\n

When carefully reviewing credible historical records, it is
\neasy to see that the modern American tale of the origin of barbecue just does
\nnot stand up to facts. Get a copy of From Barbycu to Barbecue<\/i><\/b> for
\na fresh look at barbecue history and how history tells us that southern barbecuing
\nin the United States is an original style of barbecuing that was born in the
\nsouthern United States and was not imported from the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illustration of a 16th-century Barbacoa The following is a discussion about a small portion of the chapter “Hernando’s Barbacoa” in the book From Barbycu to Barbecue. The book is published by the University of South Carolina Press. It was peer reviewed for two years and cites over 2000 primary and secondary sources. It is available […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[134461,146904,52512,16717,5081,5477],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-317885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barbecue","tag-16thcentury","tag-barbacoas","tag-explorers","tag-spanish","tag-surprising","tag-truth"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Surprising Truth Behind 16th-century Spanish Explorers and Barbacoas - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=317885\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Surprising Truth Behind 16th-century Spanish Explorers and Barbacoas - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Illustration of a 16th-century Barbacoa The following is a discussion about a small portion of the chapter “Hernando’s Barbacoa” in the book From Barbycu to Barbecue. 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