The First Tortilla(adapted to help give students background information)

How can a young girl become a hero in her village?

By Rudolfo AnayaIllustrated by Amy Córdova

Genre: Legend (an old story telling great deeds of a hero)Examples: Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Anne Frank.

Glossary

jade – a precious stone in ancient Mexico

rebozo – a shawl worn by Mexican women

pozol – or posole, a corn and meat stew

elote – an ancient Mexican word for ear of corn

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Glossary (continued) metate – concave rock where corn is ground

mano – smooth rock with which to grind corn

masa – dough

tortilla – traditional Mexican bread

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Mother is crushing dry chile pods in a metate.

Father is weaving a basket.Jade is

sleeping on a hammock.

Jade and her people believe the Mountain Spirit lives on the peak of the volcano. Jade prays for the spirit to send rain to help the plants and feed her people.

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Jade went to the almost dry lake to fill her pot with water. She came back to the garden and began

watering the plants. A blue hummingbird flew in front of her and whispered to Jade. It tells her to go to the

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Mountain Spirit to ask for rain and to take a gift. Jade knows the spirit sends messages through

birds, so she must listen. The bird will show her the way to the spirit.

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Jade came home and told her mother about the bird. Her mother told her of a hummingbird that

flew over her crib when she was a baby.

It was a sign from the Mountain Spirit.

A while ago, Jade’s people had lots of rain and good crops. The people forgot to thank the

Mountain Spirit or bring gifts to the mountain and now the Mountain Spirit is mad.

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Jade offered to take a gift to the Mountain Spirit, but her father said it was not safe for a girl to climb the mountain.

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Her parents left to the store and the bird spoke to Jade, “the Mountain Spirit will listen to you.”

Jade’s father had warned her it was dangerous to go up the mountain, but she knew her village would not have rain if she didn’t. She took a bowl of beans and squash

with chile up to the mountain.

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She wore her rebozo or shawl and followed the hummingbird up the mountain when the mountain

shook and big rocks came rolling down.

As Jade went up the mountain, she stepped out of the way of the rolling rocks. Finally Jade and the hummingbird came to the home of the Mountain Spirit. There were butterflies

flying around colorful flowers. A waterfall came down into a clear, blue lake.

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The Mountain Spirit asked Jade why she came as it filled the sky with smoke and thunder.

Jade asked the spirit for rain and told how the rain was needed to grow the plants for food. The

Mountain Spirit told her the people aren’t thankful for it, but Jade showed the bowl of beans and

squash filling the air with a pleasing smell. The spirit was happy and told Jade she was brave to bring the offering to it. It promised to send rain.

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The spirit also told Jade it would give her a gift. She would get the food stored by the ants in the

cave. Jade thought the ants were carrying pebbles but as she looked closer, she saw they were

carrying corn seeds that grew on the mountain. One ant offered her a taste of a kernel and it had a

sweet flavor.

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The ants told her the corn came from Corn Mountain, and they collect and store the corn in a cave. There were many piles of corn. One of the

ants told Jade the corn is a gift from the Mountain Spirit and she could take all she wanted.

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Jade put all the corn she collected in her rebozo or shawl. She was thankful to the spirit for giving her

the corn. Jade thanked the hummingbird for showing her the way. She thanked the ants for

sharing their corn and headed to her home.

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Mother and Father had returned from the market when Jade entered the house. She

brought in the the corn carried in her rebozo and spilled it onto the floor. Her father wanted

to know what she had brought in.

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Jade told him it was corn from the Mountain Spirit and to taste it. After her father tried the corn, he couldn’t believe how sweet and tasty it was. He

said the corn was hard to chew.

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Her mother said she could boil the corn in a clay pot to make pozol. Jade’s father tasted it and

thought it tasted so good. He wanted to thank the Mountain Spirit for the corn.

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They spread the corn kernels in the garden. They gave a prayer of thanks.

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Clouds gathered on the mountain peak and it began to rain. Many days later, the corn plants

began to grow.

The corn tassels blossomed and corn began to appear on stalks.

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Jade picked the corn and said, “Elotes.”

That evening mother made corn, beans, and squash flavored with red chile. Jade and her family

ate it for their meal.

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After the corn was dried, Jade placed kernels in a metate and crushed them with a mano.

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She added water to the cornmeal to make a thick dough called masa and patted it back and forth in her palms until it was flat and round. Then she cooked it on a hot stone near the fire.

Jade’s father asked what the good smell was and Jade said it was the masa. It was baking into a bread. She offered some to her parents. Jade

named it a tortilla. Her father was proud of Jade.

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