ANCESTRAL HEAT” AND “ORIGINS, ROUTES, AND EVOLUTION OF CAPSICUM”

ANCESTRAL HEAT” AND “ORIGINS, ROUTES, AND EVOLUTION OF CAPSICUM”

Edith Villavicencio

December 6, 2025

“ANCESTRAL HEAT” AND “ORIGINS, ROUTES, AND EVOLUTION OF CAPSICUM”

When you walk the streets of Mexico and find a taco stand with a long line, you already know what you’re thinking: Those tacos must be good. The meat matters. The corn tortilla matters. But in my opinion, there’s one ingredient that truly reveals whether a taco is unforgettable:

The Salsa.

Salsas—those rustic blends of tomatoes or tomatillos ground with spicy chiles—are often what make a taco a good taco. But how do we know when a salsa is the salsa? The answer is not only flavor. It’s history.

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Heat: A Mexican Measurement You Can’t Always Translate

Spice is personal, cultural, and surprisingly hard to explain. According to Paco Ignacio Taibo I, Mexicans sometimes describe chile heat in a way that confuses outsiders: a salsa “doesn’t burn” when it does, it “burns a little” when it burns a lot, and it “burns like crazy” when you shouldn’t even attempt it.

That’s part of the challenge: there isn’t a perfect, universal way to communicate how hot a chile feels. Even with scales like Scoville, heat isn’t only a number—it’s habit, memory, and training.

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Chile in Pre-Hispanic Mexico: More Than an Ingredient

Chile has been essential in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. Although many people eat chile every day, fewer people know how deeply it was woven into daily life, trade, medicine, and ritual.

Historical accounts—including those of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún—show that by the 16th century chile was already widely commercialized and used far beyond the kitchen. Sahagún even documented beliefs and rituals tied to selling chile: vendors were said to place two chiles under their sheets at night to attract customers when sales were low—hoping the ritual would bring better business the next day.

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Chile at the Market and on the Comal

Chile traveled through markets and kitchens across regions. It was sold by merchants who carried chiles from different areas, and it was central to the work of cooks and street food vendors.

Chiles appeared in:

    •    tortillas filled with meat and ground chile (early relatives of tacos, gorditas, and sopes)

    •    stews cooked with tomato

    •    hot drinks such as atoles

Indigenous Mexican cooking also gave us preparations and traditions that still echo today, including chilmole, chilatole, chipotle, and chiltepín.

Chile didn’t just flavor food—it shaped everyday life.

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A Universe of Varieties: Chile as a Map of Mexico

Today we recognize around 70 species of chiles. Sahagún described multiple types, including red chiles with less harsh flavor and chiles known for intense heat. He also referenced varieties such as:

    •    cuitlachilli

    •    tenpilchilli

    •    chichjoachilli

and connected them to regions like Xochimilco, Oaxtepec, Michoacán, Chihuahua, the Huasteca, and the Chichimeca, among others. Chile, in many ways, is a living map of Mexico—each variety carrying place, climate, technique, and tradition.

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Pleasure and Pain: The Power of Chile

Chile has long symbolized both pleasure and pain. Alongside its role in cuisine, historical accounts also describe its use in punishment and discipline.

Some stories recount how chiles were burned and people were confined in smoke-filled rooms. Others describe forcing individuals to eat extremely spicy tamales without water. Even children, according to some accounts, were punished with chile rubbed on their bodies for misbehavior.

In the 17th century, under the Hohokam tradition, it is said that ballgame losers could have wild chiltepín rubbed into their eyes. These are difficult histories, but they reveal something important:

chile carried power—social, cultural, and symbolic.

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Capsicum: The Plant That Transformed Food Into Nourishment

Chiles and peppers come from the plant genus Capsicum. One of its greatest “gifts” is how it can make what’s available in nature more desirable—turning simple ingredients into nourishment that feels vibrant and complete.

Pre-Hispanic cooks mastered combinations of flavors, colors, and textures that created extraordinary dishes. And chile wasn’t only culinary: it was also ceremonial. In certain rituals, the meat of sacrificed humans was prepared without salt or chile, as a symbol of sacrifice—meaning neither salt nor chile was consumed during that preparation.

That detail alone shows how sacred—and how central—chile was.

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From Mexico to the World (and Back Into Our Mouths)

Capsicum spread widely. It was taken to places like Cuba and Yucatán, and eventually domesticated and cultivated around the world. Today, when foreigners visit Mexico and try our food, their palates often aren’t used to the spice. That’s why misunderstandings happen: Mexicans don’t have a perfect “heat roster” to explain exactly how hot each chile will feel to someone new.

But spice can be learned.

A person can train their palate little by little, tasting chiles gradually, building tolerance over time. History shows that adaptation happened on a large scale too—such as after the Caste War (1847–1848), when migration may have carried chile seeds and culinary traditions to places like Cuba, the United States, and Mexico City.

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Chile Is Part of Who We Are

There is no exact, universal way to measure the heat of Mexican chiles the way we experience it. Many chiles were once wild; some were domesticated and carried across the world. And while we can be grateful that chile-smoke “punishment rooms” are no longer common—and we can hope children are no longer punished with chiles—what remains is undeniable:

chile is part of what distinguishes us.

Román Gutiérrez, J. F., & del Río Hernández, L. I. (2017). Picor ancestral: El chile en el mundo prehispánico. Artes de México, (126), 21–27.

Long, J. (2017). Orígenes, rutas y evolución del “Capsicum”. Artes de México, (126), 9–17.