09/30/2026
After another busy couple of days, we’re catching up with two Hispanic Heritage Month highlights—each telling a different story about identity, tradition, and the ways culture is passed from one generation to the next. 🌎✨
🇬🇹 September 29 — Threads of Identity: Maya Weaving
Throughout Guatemala, Maya weaving is much more than creating beautiful clothing or decorative fabric. It is a living art form that can communicate a person’s community, history, heritage, and sense of belonging.
Many Maya artisans use the traditional backstrap loom, an ancestral weaving method that has been preserved for generations. Using carefully selected colors, symbols, animals, flowers, and geometric patterns, weavers create detailed textiles that often reflect their local community and surrounding environment.
Traditional garments such as the huipil—a woven or embroidered blouse—and the corte—a woven skirt—can feature designs connected to a particular town or Maya community. Although meanings and styles vary by region, every finished piece represents hours of skill, patience, creativity, and knowledge passed down through families.
Each thread carries a story. Each pattern helps preserve an identity. 🧵❤️
🇳🇮🇨🇷 September 30 — Gallo Pinto: One Dish, Two Traditions
Gallo pinto—Spanish for “spotted rooster”—is a beloved rice-and-beans dish shared by Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Its name comes from the speckled appearance created when the rice and beans are mixed together.
While both countries proudly claim the dish as part of their national identity, each prepares it in its own special way.
In Nicaragua, gallo pinto is traditionally made with small red beans mixed with rice and commonly seasoned with onion and other simple ingredients. In Costa Rica, black beans are more commonly used, along with cilantro, sweet pepper, onion, and often Salsa Lizano, a signature Costa Rican condiment.
Gallo pinto is especially popular at breakfast and may be served with eggs, cheese, tortillas, fried plantains, avocado, and a hot cup of coffee. The exact recipe may change from one country, region, or family to another—but the dish remains a symbol of home, comfort, and shared Central American heritage.
Two countries. Two traditions. One meal that continues to bring families and communities together. 🍚🫘
Which tradition were you already familiar with? Let us know below! 👇
Culture. Identity. Legacy.
