The territory that today occupies San Luis Potosí was characterized in the prehispanic time for being the border between the two geographical and cultural zones that had at that time: Mesoamerica and Aridoamérica; the region that today is the Altiplano belonged to the latter.
In the region of Aridoamérica the indigenous groups that received the generic name of chichimecas were located and whose extinction registers towards the first half of the XVII century (Monroy and Calvillo, 1998: 41).
As for most indigenous groups, the geographical environment determined the way of life of the Chichimecas and this group subsisted thanks to the hunting and gathering of wild fruits, and in some cases to minor agriculture; traits that explain why they did not establish fixed settlements; Contrary to the groups that lived in Mesoamerica, which were characterized by having agriculture as their primary activity, which allowed them to build large centers with clearly organized structures and infrastructures.
The inhabitants of Aridoamérica, unlike the settlers of Mesoamerica, maintained their tribal nuclei and a great mobility and versatility in the functions of daily and religious life (Monroy and Calvillo, 1998: 42).
The registries that have data of the settlers of the Altiplano, indicate that they were the guachichiles, that occupied all the region, as well as Guanajuato, Jalisco and Zacatecas.
In almost all the extension of the Great Chichimeca the food was scarce. In a few places the Indians cultivated corn and some types of pumpkin, but usually they depended on tunas, acorns, seeds and roots, as well as hunting and fishing … the cacti and mezquites offered basic foods. The aborigines ate tunas raw, dried or in the form of liquor. Also the leaves, the heart and the flowers of the cacti, often cooking them in underground ovens. With the mesquite they made a white bread, in large slices, which remained edible for many months or even a year, and from the same plant they prepared liquor. In all the great chichimeca honey was consumed. The juice of the agave was used instead of water when it could not be obtained. They also ate a fruit called “date” by the Spaniards. Some of the roots they ate were sweet potatoes or yucca, others were from the plant called címatl (red beans) by Mexicans. (Monroy and Calvillo, 1998: 47).
The ways of preparation of the dishes in this stage of history can be grouped into two broad categories: direct consumption, the result of harvesting and hunting without any cooking, and the ingestion of partially cooked food.
Source: María Isabel Monroy, Tomás Calvillo Unna, Brief history of San Luis Potosí, El Colegio de México; FCE, 1997.
