Squash (Cucurbita sp.) forms part of the so-called “Mesoamerican triad,” together with maize and beans. These crops constitute the basis of the diet and of the social and religious organization of agricultural peoples. The significance of this fruit extends beyond food, becoming integrated into ritual practices and myths, and its aesthetic representations are abundant in Mesoamerican art. As a fast-growing fruit with rounded forms and multiple uses, ancient Maya associated squash with fertility, the womb, and abundance. It is even said that squash seeds were used by the gods to create present-day humanity.
Squash as a cosmological motif suggests an understanding of the plant as a microcosm, an object that contains and represents in miniature the force of the primordial womb. For this reason, in medical practices some varieties of squash were used to promote lactation in women. Today, they are used to treat conditions such as hemorrhoids or as an anthelmintic.
In some Late Classic myths, the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, are reborn from a squash tree after being killed by the gods of the underworld. Other mythical scenes describe the association of the maize god with water through squash bowls (jícaras) as his metaphor. Chaak, the rain god, uses these objects to pour water over the world. The primordial and generative nature of squash allows it to be understood as analogous to the Sacred Mountain, its seeds being the “essential souls” of beings and plants. This relationship with the agricultural complex and abundance is also expressed among the Mexica, who offered squash and its seeds to Chicomecóatl, goddess of the earth and maize. The cultivation of this plant followed the divinatory calendar.
The Purépecha version of the myth of the ages recounts that the couple who survived the flood were punished for eating dead deer. After their actions filled the sky with smoke, the mother of the gods sent a priest to kill the offenders. Instead, he struck them on the head with a squash and turned them into dogs. Some varieties of the Cucurbitaceae family had domestic uses as containers for carrying water or storage. Dried squash became ritual vessels, musical instruments, and symbolic objects in ceremonies. The Relación de Michoacán, for example, mentions squash serving as containers for storing small balls of tobacco prepared during war rituals. Other references describe the insignia of the Petámuti, or high priest, who carried a squash inlaid with turquoise on his back to signify his rank. The same object was carried by the Curitiecha, itinerant preaching priests who traveled to spread religious ideas and norms. In this context, the squash symbolized “carrying the people on one’s back.”