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1500
Shared origins
- Colombia:
- Venezuela: known as "Besitos de coco"
- Mexico: creation of the "Feria del Coco"
- Spain: with some main selling cities are Madrid and Barcelona
- And Brasil, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Peru. All of these countries sell their cocadas in the Coastal areas of their countries, and have the recipes originate most likely from the African populations in these areas.
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Start of the Slave Trade in Colombia
During this year, the first slaves arrived to the biggest port in Colombia at the time, Cartagena de Indias, and were sold to different Spaniard families. Along them, these enslaved Africans brought their cooking traditions with them, which included the heavy use of Coconut, Coconut milk, and Coconut Oil. -
Creation of the first Free town: San Basilio de Palenque
This year, the liberator Benkos Biohó created San Basilio de Palenque, where the freed African were able to finally exercise their traditions and practice their native languages without colonizers' pressure. These dishes are mostly based on Coconut:
* Cocada
* Caballitos
* Enyocados
* Alegrias -
Expression: "Rei da cocada preta"
In this year, it believed that one of the kings from Portugal tried dark/black cocada and really enjoyed it, and thus started consuming it very often.
Nowdays the expression "Rei da cocada preta" translates to "King of the black/dark cocada", and refers to:- A person that has an undeservedly high opinion of himself - he's full of himself. Arrogant, egotistical, egocentric.
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Abolishion of Slavery
This year, Slavery was officially abolished, and black people were given freedom on paper, which allowed for the normalization of African-descent food like Cocada.
However, the freedom Afro-Colombians were provided was still very conditional. -
Industrialization, Commercialization and Entreprenuership
From 1830 to 1850, Colombia went through a period of Industrialization, which allowed for some opportunities of Entrepreneurship among the Palenquera women. Thus, they started going to the nearby city of Cartagena and selling their products, the most popular being Cocada. -
Cocada as a national candy: "Colombina e Ítalo"
With this company starts the mass production of Colombian candy like Cocada across the country, and thus candy mobilization. This easy accessibility of Cocada made it so most parts of Colombia became aware of this candy's existence and eventually turning the candy into a national symbol. -
International Spread
By this year, there had been created at least three more major candy companies in Colombia:
* Super de Alimentos (1948)
* Dulces La Americana (1948)
* Cadburi Adams (1953)
Collectively, these companies had spread their native Colombian candy-products like Cocada to at least 90 countries. -
Testimony on Cocadas- Yuli Rodríguez
In an interview, Yuli expressed the following sentiments on Cocada: "Detrás de cada cocada, de cada dulce elaborado por una palenquera hay una cultura, una sazón, una historia, un don."
Which translates to: "Behind every cocada, every sweet
crafted by a palenquera, there is a culture, a flavor, a history, a talent."