Before they are milled, the cacao beans, corn and spices are roasted at home on comales or earthenware pots over a wood fire. For large batches, this procedure can take several hours. Plain chocolate, simply flavored with sugar and sometimes cinnamon, is made everywhere. Once the women toast and peel the cacao, they bring it to the mill and grind it with plenty of sugar.

  Maria Erlinda Ramos Tunay, a young widow and the mother of five from Samayac, an old and thoroughly Maya town, carries home a 50-pound bag of cacao and sugar paste on a motorized bike taxi. With the help of her two older daughters, she molds the still-warm mass into large blocks and pats them hard to make them compact. Once the blocks are unmolded, she cuts them into long, narrow strips and rolls them into cylinders. Then she cuts each into disks, and her daughters cup them up with the palms of their hands and roll them on the smooth surface of the worktable to round the edges and give the chocolate some shine.

  For daily consumption, the people of Suchitepequez enjoy refreshing cold drinks made with dried cacao, pataxte, toasted corn and a variety of seasonings dissolved in water. The names and composition of the mixtures vary from town to town and cook to cook.

  Chocolate and cacao drinks carry the essence of the Maya and are a living link to the rich past that defines the Guatemalan national identity. Their survival in the hands of women poses a moral imperative to Guatemala's government, private institutions and farmers: Abandoning caco is not an option in a country where the livelihood of thousands of women and their families depends on it.

To make the hot chocolate, bring the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the chocolate and stir with a wooden spoon until it dissoves, about 1 minute. Stir in the salt and any other additions that you'd like to try. Taste and if desired, sweeten with a little sugar. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens to the consistency of chocolate sauce, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve at once. Make 1 serving.