Some trace the origin of sancocho to the Canary Islands: the slaves brought to the Caribbean by the Spaniards carried the dish (originally made with fish) with them. Others suggest that African slaves would leave a pot of sancocho to simmer gently in the morning, so they’d have a good stew to sustain them after working under the scorching heat. (It also alludes to the individuals themselves, boiling under the hot sun.) Some attribute the introduction of the dish to the indigenous Taíno peoples, brought by the Spaniards, as a vegetable stew rooted in their cuisine.
Like most food history, things tend to become confusing over time. There is surely truth in each version.
But it’s important to remember that the cuisine of each Latin American country was not created solely by indigenous and Spanish food cultures. African slaves prepared, influenced—and truly, invented—many dishes for the viceroy and the upper-class households. This significantly shaped the mainstream cooking of many countries. The African contribution to Latin American cuisine simply cannot be overstated.
Fried rice is a central ingredient in sancocho. Every Latin American culture has at least one version of a sofrito. The recaito, a cilantro-based sofrito, is commonly used in Puerto Rican sancocho. In fact, almost all food cultures have a similar basic element: a mixture of aromatic vegetables that forms the flavor foundation of a dish.
