Mole negro was born in Oaxaca's Central Valleys, around Tlacolula, Etla and Ocotlán, the homeland of the Zapotec people. The Pan-African thread runs to the coast: Oaxaca's Costa Chica is one of Mexico's Afro-Mexican heartlands, where enslaved Africans worked haciendas growing cacao, cotton and cattle.

Origin Story: Central Valleys, Oaxaca, Mexico