chairo lapaceño – Peace

[ap_dropcaps style=”ap-square”]T[/ap_dropcaps]three important assertions in relation to CHAIRO PACEÑO give rise to this research work, presenting your certificate of origin and indisputable citizenship letter. A contribution to the history of Latin American gastronomy.

1. CHAIRO is a mestizo soup that begins its journey in the history of CHARQUENSE gastronomy (the territory that today is called Bolivia) in the 18th century, period of many changes – the expulsion of the Jesuits occurred in 1767 and the founding of the Viceroyalty of La Plata in 1776, to which Charcas became a part.

2. The most likely thing is that during this time and on the occasion of the first and second siege of the city of La Paz, el CHAIRO , have taken your citizenship card in this beloved city, probably at the beginning in the form of “chupe” and/or “uchu” , to later take its final form.

3. El CHAIRO, It is the flag plate of the city of La Paz, product of the cultural-gastronomic FUSION of two peoples, AYMARA and SPANISH; represents the miscegenation of 516 years and its current result, means the evolution of the mestizo gastronomy of this territory,today called “traditional Bolivian cuisine”.

Search for the origin of the Chairo, is to look at the composition of its ingredients, of their culinary techniques and the taste trends of each era of our territory..

Doing a detailed review of your ingredients, It can be verified that at least 10 of the 13 products that comprise it, They are edible items that the Spanish brought to America. If we calculate that the Spanish reached the current Bolivian plateau, in the year 1532, They surely took time to acclimatize the products they brought, teach its use and make a habit of its consumption. This FUSION period would last about 100 years and we are already in the 17th century (1600).

The chronicler COBO writes for 1653, that “in the middle of the 17th century, corn consumption, wheat, frejoles,barley,onion, parsley, coriander, cumin, anise and other legumes, vegetables and condiments, was widespread throughout the territory of the Viceroyalty. garlic, good grass and melons were, among all the plants that were brought, those with the highest consumption among Indians”.

In the middle of the 17th century – writes researcher Rosario Olivas Weston- “The food of the day laborers was generally a large “pot” in which meat was more abundant than legumes.”.
Also write:"There were a large number of sheep in the pampas and punas of the Collao provinces and their meat was very cheap".

It is assumed that with this background, the conquered Aymaras and Quechuas, They particularly ate sheep meat in “chalona” that they cooked in a broth accompanied by fresh meat and other ingredients that they could put in their pot. (As the chronicler COBO already lets us relate, These other ingredients are mostly vegetables brought from Spain and acclimatized in the highlands.), without the slightest intention of trying to copy any European recipe at all. The thing is that the easiest way to cook since ancient times (since fire and cooking techniques appeared – all over the world) put ingredients in a boiling pot, without much care, It somehow leads us to a more or less happy ending.. This is also how the “Spanish pot” itself was surely invented..

To 1776 (18th century), by reference from the cookbook written by Doña Josefa Escurrechea , about the food eaten in Potosí, It can be seen that the Spanish Olla, It is mixed according to the following ingredients: Beef Breast – Mutton – Ham – Bacon – capons or fat hens – chickpeas – garlic – Yerba Buena – cilantro – Cabbage – yuccas – sweet potatoes – bananas – turnips – quinces – pears – pumpkins- potatoes – geese – chuño – blood sausages – sausages – sausages – saffron – cloves – cinnamon – pepper – mustard – parsley – chili . It can be seen that the products highlighted below will be an essential part of the future CHAIRO, and the concept of boiling a series of products at the same time is the same one that the Aymaras and Quechuas use in the corresponding preparation of their “chupes.”.

Probably if we continue down this path, It is easy to assume that the indigenous women who were in domestic service, they were making their own adaptations, mixing the European concept of the “olla” and the Aymara of the “chupe”, always using as a base to thicken these broths, to the potato in different variables and the sheep's chalone as a fundamental flavoring, almost like a tribute to the “sheep” that has the coat of arms of La Paz, granted by CHARLES V in 1555 (We already had 221 years of culinary mixing).

In 1781, TUPAC CATARI besieged the city of La Paz on two occasions, sowing hunger and destruction among the Spaniards who inhabited it. The city was liberated by Ignacio Flores and his army. They say that the indigenous people, upon seeing him arrive, did not offer resistance and withdrew without fighting.. Flores entered the city leaving some provisions that he collected from the countryside., of the crops of the Aymara Indians, those who already grew carrots, pea, length, wheat, good yerba and they owned large numbers of sheep and also had extensive crops of potatoes and corn, They processed chuño and were experts in making chalona. The Spaniards who received this gift, They filled their tired stomachs by preparing what could most easily be done in a common way for all., chop everything and boil it.

The hunger was such that these foods were also served in other simple ways and in a common pot., such is the case of the implementation, also, from the La Paz plate.

For reasons unknown, Ignacio Flores left 80 men under the command of Sebastián de Segurola (That character whose image the Aymaras made the figure of Ekeko), soldiers who had to eat in a not very sophisticated but strong way. This powerful soup is a bit “hot”, a little “sucky”, a little “uchu”, It was transformed into “the soup”, in “the chairo”.

CIRO CIRO, in his work “Chuquisaca or La Plata Perulera” , tells of his five-year stay in Sucre at the end of the 19th century (1890) and mention some important things: Tell what the spicy shops were like, exposes the reality of the hypocritical society, of love affairs with cholas and visits to chicherias where spicy food is sold, "Uchus", mainly made from meat and potatoes, talks about the “chupes” and the “chairo”, This being the first historical reference of this word in Latin American culinary use.. Probably, The “picanterías” and the silent kitchens of the indigenous domestic workers were the laboratories where the wonderful soup called CHAIRO was created., and something else, for this reference,We deduce that the spicy restaurants in Sucre prepared this soup,respecting his name CHAIRO PACEÑO; which gives us the idea that this stew already gained strength and brand in the second half of the 19th century..

In 1917, shortly after the civil war (1898-1899) between La Paz and Sucre, Mrs. Sofia Urquidi, writes a recipe book in which he mentions CHAIRO in the following way:
………..” Chuño prieto is usually soaked, after cleaning it is crushed well, Put it in water and wash it several times.; then it is seasoned with shredded meat or jerky, ground yellow chili pepper, whole green chillies, onion leaves, good weed, etc. “It must have enough broth.”
So it is easy to see that this succulent dish already has a serious presence in the city of La Paz. ( probably the La Paz spicy shops spread it more strongly), although it continues its process of culinary improvement.

After the Chaco War (1931 – 1936), different publications of cooking recipes appear that show us eating habits, no longer from a high society as happened in previous publications, but rather of a growing impoverished middle class and democratic in its culinary tastes, sharing with the poorest people (miners, peasants, artisans) your daily routine preparations. The Chaco War, It has left a deep mark on the people and these are times when a revolution of great proportions is brewing. (1952).

Luis Tellez Herrero (1946), Aida Aguirre Gainsborg de Méndez ( 1945), Antonio Paredes Candia (1990), all in their own styles and collecting the best of the recipes of the time, They also show us the presence of CHAIRO PACEÑO, with some variables in its ingredients and especially in its final presentation, but the base of the flavor is consolidated with the aroma of the “chalona”, lamb knots, the potato in a row, the carrot in the thread, the huacataya, the good weed, the oregano, the peas, the bean, the paws, the nickname of wheat, the hammered chuño, green chili, the red chili , the parsley , cheese and chicharrón, What are the basic accessories that can be freely used to flavor the dish more strongly?.

It is a mestizo soup dish with mostly European ingredients but with Aymara seasoning., the seasoning that only a Bolivian and Paceño cook above all, can give, because your palate is accustomed to that strong combination of condiments, such as the heritage left to us in our traditional food by the medieval culinary techniques that the Spaniards brought..

Today on the internet you can see how easily some Peruvian brothers from the southern provinces (Ayacucho, Puno etc.) They are awarded for this Andean mestizo recipe, This is fundamentally due to the influence that the city of La Paz has in these very close geographies., so culturally the same. Also populated by Aymaras who belong to the same race and nation as the Bolivian Aymaras., Chileans or Argentines. Surely, culturally, everyone has the same taste and preferences and it is natural that they share the same things., Only it is better to be clear that this soup originates in the geography of the capital of the Aymara culture – the city of La Paz – and is the product of a refined process of cultural FUSION with the Spaniards who refounded this city and their children who inhabit it., the same ones who decided to place the “emblematic lamb” on the city's coat of arms and as the flagship ingredient of its most important soup..

The rest is easy to assume, with the same ease with which Bolivian gas is sold in Puno, recipes cross borders, carried fundamentally by their consumers who are of the same race and culture. Let us conclude by explaining that approximately up to 1780; Puno was dismembered from the province of La Paz and became part of the Court of Cuzco. It was at this time that Charcas passed to the administration of the Viceroyalty of La Plata, that is to say that safely, the recipe for the mestizo “olla” that was made in Potosí, that mentions the book by Doña Josefa Escurruchea,It was also prepared in Puno, for being part of the Charcas territory until that time. It is natural that they now eat CHAIRO PACEÑO in Puno, Just as in Bolivia we eat “huancaina potatoes” without problems..

Antonio Paredes Candia, in his book, “National Gastronomy and Literature”, mentions a poem written by the poet Jorge Mancilla Torres:
“I believe in the sunk chuño
In a chalone broth
And sweet beef,
ground yellow chili pepper
peas, burning wheat
Carrot, patacka the log
(the flavor puts its effort),
The potato chopped into thread
And the parsley on the edge,
Frugal of the chairo of La Paz

WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHAIRO
By: Guillermo Iraola Mendizábal
Peace, 10 June of 2008