One Day Quetzalcóatl Saw an Ant in the City of Teotihuacán, He Called out to Her

One day Quetzalcóatl saw an ant in the city of Teotihuacán, he called out to her:

-¿Dónde encontró ese maíz? – where did you find that corn?

-En el monte de nuestro alimento – In our mountain of food.

Quetzalcóatl wanted some too, so he followed the ant, la hormiga, but couldn’t fit into the ant hill. But since, he was a powerful god, he could transform himself into an ant.

-Toma- take some corn, said the ant.

Quetzalcóatl said, “gracias” and took the corn so that all of the people of the earth could eat it.

Soon people were expecting something more that would be just as delicious to go with their corn, el maíz.

Quetzalcóatl went back to the ant hill and tried to carry away the little mountain, el monte, but couldn’t. He decided to call upon a wise man named, Oxomo. “Well,” said Oxomo,”everyone knows that if you call upon Nanáhuatl, he will throw a sunbeam down and split it open”.

True to Oxomo’s prediction, a ray of sun shot down from Nanáhuatl’s world and opened el monte del alimento. Out spilled enough corn and beans to feed all of humanity. Peoples from many lands agreed that these were the tastiest foods they had ever eaten and exclaimed, “muchas gracias por los frijoles y el maíz!”

Quetzalcóatl decidió, “las hojas verdes del maíz son mucho más preciosas que el jade. Y los granos amarillos del maíz van a satisfacer la hambre de mucha gente. La gente va a moler el maíz para sus tamales y lo va a envolver en las hojas; y servir con unos frijoles!

Hoy en México, el maíz y los frijoles son alimentos básicos de la dieta mexicana.