Product Code Database
A pupusa is a thick griddle cake or flatbread from El Salvador and Honduras made with cornmeal or rice flour stuffed with one or more ingredients including cheese, beans, chicharrón, or squash. It can be served with curtido and tomato sauce and is traditionally eaten by hand. Pupusas have origins in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica but were first mentioned in 1837 by Guatemalan poet José Batres Montúfar. In El Salvador, the pupusa is the national dish and has a day to celebrate it.
Salvadoran linguist Jorge Lemus argued that the word pupusa does not have Nawat roots, stating that the Pipil people referred to pupusas as kukumuzin. In book Quicheísmos: Contribution to the Study of American Folklore..., he believed that the word pupusa originated from a combination of the K'iche' words pop (meaning "sphere") and utz (meaning "good thing"), forming the word poputz meaning "good sphere"; however, the term poputz does not appear in any K'iche' language dictionaries.
The pupusa's origin was discussed during negotiations for the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA–DR) in 2003. El Salvador wanted to patent the pupusa as an exclusive export. Honduran negotiator Melvin Redondo ceded the right to El Salvador, stating that Honduras did not intend to challenge El Salvador on the matter. In 2018, the World Trade Organization listed El Salvador as the pupusa's denominación de origen ("designation of origin").
The earliest mention of modern pupusas was made by Guatemalan poet José Batres Montúfar in 1837. In a letter to his family, he described encountering a dish similar to pupusas in Nicaragua known as rellenas. The letter remarked their similarity to pupusas, which he attributes as being from San Salvador. The pupusa was also mentioned by Honduran Alberto Membreño in Diccionario de Hondureñismos where he described it as an empanada "composed of cheese, beans, etc., enclosed in a tortilla and cooked on a comal" ("escompuesto de queso, frijoles, etc., encerrado en una tortilla y cocido en el comal"). At this time, pupusas were most commonly eaten by the poor and prepared in rural areas. In the late 1930s, corn became scarce and some Salvadorans replaced the corn flour to make pupusas with rice flour. This method of creating pupusas, known as pupusas de arroz, began in Olocuilta. Pupusas de arroz further spread during the Salvadoran Civil War due to further corn scarcity. The popularity of pupusas grew in the United States as refugees began preparing the dish in the country.
Guinness World Records has recognized a records for the largest pupusa created. , the record belongs to a pupusa made in Washington, D.C.
Pupusa sales play a significant role in the Salvadoran economy. According to the Ministry of Economy, pupuserías generated US$22 billion in revenue between 2001 and 2003. In 2004, the Salvadoran Chamber of Consulting Entrepreneurs estimated that Salvadorans consumed around US$1.6 million worth of pupusas each weekend. By 2005, around 300,000 people made pupusas for a living, with a majority of them being women.
The city of Olocuilta is nicknamed the "city of pupusas" ("ciudad de las pupusas"). Olocuilta has four locations known as pupusódromos where several pupuserías are located in close proximity with each other. Salvadoran director Héctor Mojica produced a miniseries titled Las Pupusas about the dish. It was released on Amazon Prime Video in 2022 and 2023.
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