The Jocotes de Corona Wallpaper

Here’s yet another gift for those Guatemalans living abroad, the jocotes de corona wallpaper that you can download from here at 1200×900 pixels. Several of you wrote to me to let me know that you haven’t had jocotes in a long while and since I’ve been given the gift to think ahead about your suffering, I took some close-up shots of jocotes de corona (crown red mombin), so you can torture yourself in the intimacy of your computer desktop. Go for it! The other day I was brave enough to enter the mercado of Antigua Guatemala, camera in hand. 😉

For those who have no jocotes idea what this Guatemalan fruit is, this is what Cindee share with us last time we talk about jocotes (can somebody help with the pronunciation?).

Jocote or Ciruela Roja

Known in English as Red Mombin and Hog Plum, jocotes are tree fruits, produced by Spondias purpurea of the Cashew Family, which is native to tropical America. Often jocotes are eaten raw but Mexicans also like to mash them in water, add sugar, and drink the water like Kool-Aid. They are 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) long. Jocotes are usually reddish, but can come close to being yellow.

Ciruela, or Spanish Plum

Ciruela or Yellow Mombin, Spondias mombin. Sometimes known in English as Yellow Mombin, the Spanish name ciruela means “plum,” and these tree fruits look and taste a lot like northern plums. They are very closely related to the above jocotes, being in the same plant family and genus. They are Spondias mombin. Note the large, white, very hard, boxy seed. After growing on leafless tree limbs for months, the fruits ripen at the end of the dry season, in June or so. They are good raw and also make tasty preserves.

About the pronunciation, this is what Carmen had to say about it:

“hawkottes” That reminds me of “free – hall – eat- us.” Actually, Manolo, hehehe, based on my research, which could be wrong… but I doubt it. Haha. Jocotes can be pronounced /hoe-ko-tes/ That middle o has the long sound. I suppose /haw/ and /hoe/ could be similar, but I fear we can get into a whole phonetic discussion/debate, which will include (undoubtedly) perspectives on region, accent, and so on… and so I’ll just point you in this direction. See, you used the Hawk card (/aw/ sound), I used the Long O card (/o/), I can’t put that line on top of the o to denote the long sound.

© 2008 – 2020, Rudy Giron. All rights reserved.