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Pan de muerto

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Pan de Muerto
Alternative namesBread of the dead
TypeSweet bread
Place of originMexico
A basket of pan de muerto

Pan de muerto (Error: {{language with name/for}}: missing language tag or language name (help)), is a type of pan dulce traditionally baked in Mexico and the Mexican diaspora during the weeks leading up to the Día de los Muertos, which is celebrated from November 1 to November 2.[1]

Description

It is a sweetened soft bread shaped like a bun, often decorated with bone-shaped phalange pieces.[2][3] Some traditions state that the rounded or domed top of the bread represents a grave.[3] Bread of the dead usually has skulls or crossbones added in extra dough.[4] The bones represent the deceased one (difuntos or difuntas), or perhaps bones coming out of a grave, there is normally a baked tear drop on the bread to represent goddess Chīmalmā's tears for the living.[3] The bones are often represented in a circle to portray the circle of life. The bread is topped with sugar, sometimes white and sometimes dyed pink.[5] This bread can be found in Mexican grocery stores in the U.S.

The classic recipe for pan de muerto is a simple sweet bread recipe, often with the addition of anise seeds, and other times flavored with orange flower water or orange zest.[5] The bread often contains some fat, such as butter. Its texture has been described as similar to that of challah, brioche, or falling between a concha and a hamburger bun.[6][5][7][3]

Other variations are made depending on the region or the baker. The one baking the bread will usually wear decorated wristbands, a tradition which was originally practiced to protect from burns on the stove or oven.

Pan de muerto is eaten on Día de Muertos, at the gravesite or alternatively, at a domestic altar called an ofrenda.[8] In some regions, it is eaten for months before the official celebration of Dia de Muertos. As part of the celebration, loved ones eat pan de muerto as well as the relative's favorite foods, but not those that have been placed on the ofrenda. It is believed the spirits do not eat, but absorb its essence, along with water at their ofrenda, after their long journey back to Earth.[5]

History

Origin

The origin of the pan de muerto is uncertain. The story is popularly told that the Mexicas offered the heart of a maiden as a sacrifice, and that the Spanish, disgusted with this practice, forced the natives to replace the heart with a kind sweet roll. Although this is a legend, it serves to explain the "ritual" meaning of the pan de muerto, since it is an allegory of the deceased person: the circular shape symbolizes the cycle of life and death; the ball of dough in the center is the skull, as well as the decoration that represents the bones, symbolically arranged in the shape of a cross.[9]

The most serious study about the origin of pan de muerto was carried out by Dr. Elsa Malvido in an essay published by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). According to her, in medieval Europe it was customary for some parishioners to prepare loaves or sugar sweets in the form of relics (bones or skulls) for All Saints and All Souls' Day.[10] These breads were blessed by the priest and placed next to the fruit and other foods as an offering to the dead. Equivalents to pan de muerto can be found in Spain. For example, in the Madrid area it is traditional to put hueso de santo ("saint bones"; a sugar dough filled with egg yolk) on the graves,[11] and in Catalonia, there is pà d'ànimes ("bread of souls"), a votive bread offered to the deceased.[12] The altar de muertos is not only typical of Mexico, but of some areas of Latin Europe and Latin America. However, nowhere have they been as deeply rooted as in Mexico, perhaps due to a fusion with the existing pre-Hispanic tradition. On this, Dr. Malvido comments: "continuing to think that [the pan de muerto] is a tradition of pre-Hispanic origin means that we did not understand anything, since it is profoundly Roman".[10]

Despite this, there are not a few sources, including government institutions, that seek a pre-Columbian origin for the bread of the dead, in an attempt at patriotic cultural construction. Thus, the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) has tried to relate the bread of the dead with the papalotlaxcalli, a butterfly-shaped tortilla. In its blog, the INPI also points out another possible pre-Hispanic ancestor, a tamale called huitlatamalli. And although these preparations also had a ritual function, the use and elaboration are quite different from that of pan de muerto and no relationship between them can be proven. Indigenist theories lose strength when studying the history of wheat and the baking culture in Mesoamerica, which were introduced by the Spanish. It is not uncommon to see that many of the classic Mexican breads, such as bolillo, pan bazo or telera, have their respective counterparts in Spain. Pan de muerto is no less, and has its origin in the Spanish breads of masa enriquecida [es] ("enriched dough"; meaning flour with milk and eggs).[13]

20th and 21st centuries

Until the 1970s and 1980s in the United States, pan de muerto was not common in celebrations of what was then largely called All Saints’ Day, but the rise of Chicano cultural activism lead to an embrace of the bread, public altars, and the name Dia de los Muertos.[14] In Latinx communities in Los Angeles, for example, many public altars serve as protests, such as those dedicated to the victims of police brutality.[5]

With the rise of globalized cultural awareness starting in the 1990s, pan de muerto has become a cultural ambassador for Mexican popular culture. A 2019 Japanese exhibition at the National Museum of Ethnology on Mexican folk art, for example, included a baking demonstration and samples of the bread for visitors.[15] As a form of cultural outreach and collaboration with local communities, some American museums and institutions create public altars that include pan de muerto.[16][17]

Regional variations

In San Andrés Mixquic, despeinadas (literally, unkempt ones) are made with sprinkles and sesame seeds.[18]

Muertes (deaths), made in the State of Mexico, are made with a mix of sweet and plain dough with a small amount of cinnamon. Other types in the region include gorditas de maíz, aparejos de huevo (egg sinkers, apparently after fishing weights) and huesos (bones).[18]

In Michoacán, breads include pan de ofrenda (offering bread), the shiny pan de hule, (rubber bread) and corn-based corundas, made with tomato sauce and chile de árbol.[18]

In Puebla, and in diaspora communities, the bread often is coated with bright pink sugar.[7] Within Puebla, there are further regional specializations, with towns such as San Sebastián Zinacatepec known for baking pan de muerto.[19]

While the bread has always been an expression of popular religious celebrations, by the late 2010s, pan de muerto had become more known through several American pop culture representations. It appeared in the 2017 Pixar film Coco, which broadened recognition of the bread outside the Mexican diaspora.[20][5] In the award-winning young adult novel Cemetery Boys by Latinx author Aiden Thomas (2020), pan de muerto is a central component in a Dia de los Muertos celebration.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Castella, Krystina (October 2010). "Pan de Muerto Recipe". "Epicurious". Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  2. ^ Béligand, Nadine; Orensanz, Lucrecia (2007). "La muerte en la ciudad de México en el siglo XVIII". Historia Mexicana (in Spanish). 57 (1): 6. ISSN 0185-0172. JSTOR 25139765 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ a b c d Delgadillo, Natalie (October 31, 2016). "The Treat That Defines L.A.'s Day of the Dead". Bloomberg CityLab. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  4. ^ Brandes, Stanley (1998). "Iconography in Mexico's Day of the Dead: Origins and Meaning". Ethnohistory. 45 (2): 181–218. doi:10.2307/483058. ISSN 0014-1801. JSTOR 483058.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Morales, Christina (2021-10-29). "To Feed the Dead, You First Need Pan de Muerto". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  6. ^ Tecante, Alberto (2020-01-16), Nishinari, Katsuyoshi (ed.), "Textural Characteristics of Traditional Mexican Foods", Textural Characteristics of World Foods (1 ed.), Wiley, pp. 53–68, doi:10.1002/9781119430902.ch5, ISBN 978-1-119-43069-8, S2CID 214182252, retrieved 2021-12-16
  7. ^ a b Wharton, Rachel (2013-10-29). "Pan de Muerto Is Bread That Gets Into the Spirit". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  8. ^ Norget, Kristin (2021-07-14). "Popular-Indigenous Catholicism in Southern Mexico". Religions. 12 (7): 531. doi:10.3390/rel12070531. ISSN 2077-1444.
  9. ^ Vargas Muñoz, Karen; Vargas Muñoz, Norma García Gómez (2017-11-30). "Pan de Muerto". Boletín Científico de las Ciencias Económico Administrativas del ICEA (in Spanish). 6 (11). doi:10.29057/icea.v6i11.2712. ISSN 2007-4913.
  10. ^ a b Martínez, Alonso (2020-10-01). "El (supuesto) origen caníbal del Pan de Muerto". GQ (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-05-15.
  11. ^ Velez, Adriana (October 26, 2020). "Pan de Muerto". Washington Post. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  12. ^ "pa d'ànimes". Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (in Catalan). Retrieved 2022-05-15.
  13. ^ Zarauz López, Héctor (2000). La fiesta de muertos (in Spanish). México: Lindero Ediciones. p. 48. ISBN 968-5343-02-0. OCLC 45915333.
  14. ^ Marchi, Regina (2013). "Hybridity and Authenticity in US Day of the Dead Celebrations". The Journal of American Folklore. 126 (501): 277. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.126.501.0272. ISSN 0021-8715. S2CID 145305495 – via Project MUSE.
  15. ^ Osorio Sunnucks, Laura; Levell, Nicola; Shelton, Anthony; Suzuki, Motoi; Isaac, Gwyneira; Marsh, Diana E. (2020-07-01). "Interruptions: Challenges and Innovations in Exhibition-Making: The Second World Museologies Workshop, National Museum of Ethnology (MINPAKU), Osaka, December 2019". Museum Worlds. 8 (1): 168–187. doi:10.3167/armw.2020.080112. ISSN 2049-6729. S2CID 229543070. Furthermore, Suzuki also emphasized the importance of multisensory installations and programming, and echoed Nakamura in feeling that these creative elements in the exhibition could communicate the language of Mexican culture sensorially rather than visually. … Suzuki described his delight when part of his museum became a bakery for making pan de muerto ("Day of the Dead bread"), and talked about his transformation from curator to baker.
  16. ^ Isaac, Gwyneira; Bojorquez, April; Nichols, Catherine (2012). "Dying to Be Represented: Museums and Día de los Muertos Collaborations". Collaborative Anthropologies. 5 (1): 28–63. doi:10.1353/cla.2012.0001. ISSN 2152-4009.
  17. ^ Davis, Kenneth G. (2006). "Dead Reckoning or Reckoning with The Dead: Hispanic Catholic Funeral Customs". Liturgy. 21 (1): 21–27. doi:10.1080/04580630500285964. ISSN 0458-063X. S2CID 145419815.
  18. ^ a b c "Pan de muerto: una sabrosa tradición" [Pan de muerto: a tasty tradition]. Vivir Mexico (in Spanish). October 26, 2011.
  19. ^ Licona Valencia, Ernesto (2014). "Un sistema de intercambio híbrido: el mercado/tianguis La Purísima, Tehuacán-Puebla, México". Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología (in Spanish) (18): 137–163. doi:10.7440/antipoda18.2014.07. ISSN 1900-5407 – via ProQuest.
  20. ^ Avila, Jacqueline (2020). "Memorias de oro: Music, Memory, and Mexicanidad in Pixar's Coco (2017)". Americas: A Hemispheric Music Journal. 29 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1353/ame.2020.0009. ISSN 2768-1858. S2CID 241795474.
  21. ^ Gillis, Bryan (September 2021). "The honor list of 2020 prize-winning young adult books: Cultural knowledge in YA literature". English Journal, High School Edition. 111 (1): 71–76 – via ProQuest.
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