In Latin America, what you eat and how you make your living depends on where you live. People in big cities buy their food in supermarkets, and many work in offices. In the countryside, many people still grow their own food and prepare it as they have since pre-Columbian times, using ancient tools like the metate and the ceramic water jug. They may sell their harvest in order to buy what they need at their village's weekly marketplace.

 

pre-Columbian describes the period in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans.

A metate is the lower part of a tool used for grinding corn and other grains. The grain sits on the metate, and is ground by the mano rolling over it.

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