from A Peasant of El Salvador by Gould & Stearns

I directed a production of A Peasant of El Salvador in 1990 at the Wesley Foundation of Purdue. It was a political comedy/drama about life in El Salvador during the 1980s when it was controlled by an oligarchy.

One night as we were rehearsing it was getting late, and we were all getting punchy, and this line, which I know we read dozens of times before, suddenly came to the forefront. "'They stayed up all night drinking the Hot Corn Drink'? What the hell is a 'Hot Corn Drink'?" No one on the production, even those who were from Latin America, had ever heard of it before. Our imaginations got the best of us.

At the production party in my small apartment over Kinko's one of our crew made the nightmare version of the Hot Corn Drink, which consisted mainly of creamed corn and Jack Daniels cooked on the stove. We all got dixie cups full to toast the show.

It was the most vile thing I have ever put in my mouth.

Now, whenever I eat or drink something that doesn't agree with me I can always say, "I've put worse things in my mouth. I drank the Hot Corn Drink."

By the way, here is what the script was probably refering to - Atole de Elote - which actually sounds quite good.

40 for 40, #15