Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala

Would you believe these are cherry tomatoes! Not JUST cherry tomatoes, but a little-known tomato indigenous to a far northwestern rainforest region in Guatemala. The plant, along with its bright sanguine tint and subtle sweet flavor flourished for centuries with the aid of the Maya’s master agricultural skills. But in recent decades, the robust miniature has taken a downhill slide toward extinction.
Why? The decades-long Guatemalan civil war, genocidal for the Maya, forced tens of thousands to abandon their lands, flee for their lives, and seek refuge in Mexico. And in their desperate retreat, they abandoned the tiny tomato.
The massive dislocation would endure nearly 20 years until the Maya could finally return safely to their homeland. In the meantime, the forests and jungles had all but swallowed the tomato plants.
Botanically, the cherry tomato is a fruit, classified as a “berry”, although cultivated as a vegetable. Rich in lycopene, a powerful natural anti-oxidant, it has a high level of Vitamin C, and contains Vitamin A, E, and K. Minerals include potassium, iron, calcium, and manganese.
It is purported that this small hardy tomato originated in Peru, South America, although no evidence has been found that it was cultivated there. How it came to be domesticated in Guatemala is unknown—perhaps the seeds were caught up with other produce that traded through ancient routes from South to Central America. It was called the “tomatl”—the swelling fruit. Eventually called the cerasiforme, and is regarded to be the direct ancestor of the modern cultivated tomato. It still grows in a somewhat wild state in Central America, producing small cherry-like fruits on a creeping vine, which we know as a cherry tomato.
The petite tomato began as a curiosity to the early Spanish settlers of Mesoamerica, but that curiosity transformed to widespread consumption when the Spaniards introduced it to their homeland. By the 16th century, tomatoes had traveled widely throughout Europe to Africa and the lands of the Moors (Arabs) where it was known as pome dei Moro (Moor’s apple). In France, it was called pomme d’amour (love apple).
It would not be a simple matter to regenerate the tomatl. Many of the new generation of Maya were born in Mexico and knew nothing of its existence. It would be up to the aging Maya who stayed behind.

Juan Diego, now a Maya elder, learned how to cultivate the tomatl from his father before the privations of the Guatemalan civil war. (In his Mayan language of Q’anjoba’l, it is called “yalixh pajich”—small tomato) By the age of eight, he was able to produce the crop on his own. He would bundle up the ripe berries in his mother’s sarape and trek to town barefoot—a hike of four hours. There he sold his precious cargo for a few centavos, returning home at dusk to wait for the next batch to ripen. From that day until now, he has carefully—almost secretly—maintained his tomato crops, always conscientiously saving seeds for future plantings.
Although now 74 years old, his memory of the 36-year civil war remains clear. He had been forced by the Guatemalan military to abandon his homestead in the mountains and relocate to an army-designated encampment. There, he and other Mayan families could be more closely observed for suspected collaboration with the guerilla forces. He arrived with few belonging, his young family in tow, to find no available land upon which to grow corn and beans, (the staple food of the Maya), no accessible water, no electricity, and no school for his children. Military law mandated that he and his teen-age sons stand watch at the local civil patrol post, armed with old rifles and machetes—and no pay.
It is through Juan Diego’s decades-long devotion to his agricultural heritage and his recent gift of a small cache of cherry tomato seeds to Adopt-a-Village that we have been able to reintroduce the diminutive fruit. The wild tomatl—prolific, savory, and disease-resistant—is making its comeback from ancient times! Mayan children—in a land of chronic malnutrition—will be beneficiaries of the wholesome food source.

If you would like to help a family grow their garden, please send your contribution by mail to Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala, 1264 NE 156th Street, North Miami Beach, FL 33162, or go to our website to access PayPal at www.adoptavillage.com. If you like this short piece of Maya history, please share it with your friends!