Salsa long ago surpassed ketchup as the top-selling condiment in the United States—and it’s big business: salsa sales reached nearly $800 million in 2012. The term “salsa” means sauce, and although it was coined by the Spanish, the condiment itself has been around long before the Spanish were exposed to it—perhaps as far back as 3000 BCE when the Aztecs combined chilies with tomatoes to create something that is now familiar to us today. In this presentation, part of Deschutes Public Library’s “Know Cultura” series of programs, Robin Martinez will give a history of salsa while also showing you how easy it is to make your own at home.

Robin Martinez is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Humanities Department at Central Oregon Community College, where she also serves as an instructor of Latin American History in the Social Sciences Department. She spent time in Mexico as a teenager studying Spanish, Latin American culture, and the history of Mexico while living in Guadalajara.





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