Marion: I think your mother knew how to cook morisqueta, as most recipes I
see are mentioned in the same way your mother cooks. However, my
mother-in-law's recipe differed - I sometimes wonder if it was because her small town
(El Valle de Guadalupe) was mostly light skinned Mexicans, and perhaps their
traditions closely resembled that of Spain?

Santos -- glad to see your name in print again----I read somewhere that
surnames that end with "ez" as are names that begin with "al" are derived from
our Arabic/Moorish ancestors who dominated Spain for over 700 years. I also
come to think about Shimon Peres, who was Jewish, born in Poland, and was an
ambassador for the middle east conflict some years ago. One would initially
wonder what a surname such as Peres is doing in Poland, but when one remembers
our history about Queen Isabella expelling the Jews in the late 1400's, then
they would have fled throughout Europe and some would have arrived in the new
world. Interestingly, a Jewish man whom I know just began his ancestry
search, and found out that he was not a Russian Jew as previously thought, his
Jewish last name was also Perez, with his family having originated from Spain.
His poor mother hasn't been the same since (smile).

In a message dated 10/25/2006 10:19:01 A.M. Central Standard Time,
marionicia@yahoo.com.mx writes:

My mother use to do morisqueta: she cooked the rice with plain water, when
almost done she added salt; next she fried onion, garlic and red tomato and
added to the rice and blended. I had know that morisqueta is the rice cooked in
water with no salt added.

Santos Luna escribió: Reading Prima Esperanza's
message below, peaked my interest on an old subject.

I recall, my mother saying, that she had cousins that were "Arabe", but that
the bloodline was by marriage. I have always been curious about the Arabic
surname, and have followed some of the lines of my mothers cousins, but have
not found any surname with the possibility.

This past week, I met a lady whose grandparents immigrated to Mexico from
Lebanon, in the early 1900's, but they did not meet until years after their
arrivals. In order to blend in, they changed their given names to the more
traditional Spanish names.

And the mysteries continue.....
Helyn

Latina1955@aol.com wrote:

Looking up "morisqueta" in our dictionary, I found out that it was an arabic
term used for rice, that was made in just the same fashion as my
mother-in-law's soup. It was then that I realized the close connection
between the two
cultures (Arabic) and (Mexican), via Africa!