The name of the Yuca is of Mayan origin, this ancient civilization was the one who named this tuber, do you want to know why the Yuca is called that? Do you want to know what is the story behind the name of Yuca? And do you want to know what Yuca means? So you have to watch this video to the end.
Video Content Summary: we begin by asking you the most coherent theory that we have found about the etymology of the name of Yuca (Manihot esculenta), which places the Yucatan Peninsula as the place of origin of this word; however this is not because the word Yuca sounds like Yucatan but because of an ancient Mayan word: "jook'ka".
The ancient Mayan word jook'ka means "Digging up a root for the metate", in this regard we explain that the "metate" is a square stone used by many native peoples of the American continent to grind grains (such as corn) and turn them into flour.
Then we make the proposition that the fact that cassava can be ground and turned into hariana to make casabe, gives a lot of credibility to this theory. Then we propose that when checking this theory we find the difficulty that the Mayans throughout their history were diversifying their languages and that over time several languages were spoken within the domains of the Mayan Empire.
Later we mentioned that in the year 1632 the Book of the Spanish Bernal Díaz del Castillo "True History of the Conquest of New Spain" was published, where this Spanish conqueror affirms that the name of Yucatan means "Land of Yucas". Although this is one of the least accepted theories about the origin of the name of Yucatán, it helps us to show that the name of this tuber could indeed come from this peninsula; since as is known there it was widely cultivated since it is one of the foods that allowed the Mayans to maintain large populations.
Finally, we propose that he does not know exactly where the Yuca plant originates from, because although it is known that the Mayans cultivated it from time immemorial in what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador; It is also known to be cultivated in Peru, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia since very ancient times.
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