1. Genre: Legend (an old story
telling great deeds of a hero)
Examples: Abraham Lincoln, Rosa
Parks, Anne Frank.
(adapted to help give students
background information)
How can a young
girl become a hero
in her village?
By Rudolfo Anaya
Illustrated by Amy Córdova

2. The First Tortilla
Glossary
 jade – a precious stone in ancient Mexico
 rebozo – a shawl worn by Mexican women
 pozol – or posole, a corn and meat stew
 elote – an ancient Mexican word for ear of corn

3. The First Tortilla
Glossary (continued)
 metate – concave rock where corn is ground
 mano – smooth rock with which to grind corn
 masa – dough
 tortilla – traditional Mexican bread

4. The First Tortilla
Mother is crushing dry
chile pods in a metate.
Father is weaving
Jade is a basket.
sleeping
on a
hammock.

5. The First Tortilla
Jade and her people believe the Mountain
Spirit lives on the peak of the volcano. Jade
prays for the spirit to send rain to help the
plants and feed her people.

6. The First Tortilla
Jade went to the almost dry lake to fill her pot with
water. She came back to the garden and began
watering the plants. A blue hummingbird flew in front
of her and whispered to Jade. It tells her to go to the
Mountain Spirit to ask for rain and to take a gift. Jade
knows the spirit sends messages through birds, so she
must listen. The bird will show her the way to the spirit.

7. The First Tortilla
Jade came home and told her mother about the
bird. Her mother told her of a hummingbird that flew
over her crib when she was a baby.
It was a sign from the Mountain Spirit.

8. The First Tortilla
A while ago, Jade’s people had lots of rain and
good crops. The people forgot to thank the
Mountain Spirit or bring gifts to the mountain and
now the Mountain Spirit is mad.

9. The First Tortilla
Jade offered to take a gift to the Mountain Spirit, but her
father said it was not safe for a girl to climb the mountain.
Her parents left to the store and the bird spoke to
Jade, “the Mountain Spirit will listen to you.”

10. The First Tortilla
Jade’s father had warned her it was dangerous to go up
the mountain, but she knew her village would not have
rain if she didn’t. She took a bowl of beans and squash
with chile up to the mountain.
She wore her rebozo or shawl and followed the
hummingbird up the mountain when the mountain
shook and big rocks came rolling down.

11. The First Tortilla
As Jade went up the mountain, she stepped out of the
way of the rolling rocks. Finally Jade and the
hummingbird came to the home of the Mountain Spirit.
There were butterflies flying around colorful flowers. A
waterfall came down into a clear, blue lake.
The Mountain Spirit asked Jade why she came as it
filled the sky with smoke and thunder.

12. The First Tortilla
Jade asked the spirit for rain and told how the rain
was needed to grow the plants for food. The
Mountain Spirit told her the people aren’t thankful
for it, but Jade showed the bowl of beans and
squash filling the air with a pleasing smell. The spirit
was happy and told Jade she was brave to bring
the offering to it. It promised to send rain.

13. The First Tortilla
The spirit also told Jade it would give her a gift. She
would get the food stored by the ants in the cave.
Jade thought the ants were carrying pebbles but as
she looked closer, she saw they were carrying corn
seeds that grew on the mountain. One ant offered
her a taste of a kernel and it had a sweet flavor.

14. The First Tortilla
The ants told her the corn came from Corn
Mountain, and they collect and store the corn in a
cave. There were many piles of corn. One of the
ants told Jade the corn is a gift from the Mountain
Spirit and she could take all she wanted.

15. The First Tortilla
Jade put all the corn she collected in her rebozo or
shawl. She was thankful to the spirit for giving her the
corn. Jade thanked the hummingbird for showing
her the way. She thanked the ants for sharing their
corn and headed to her home.

16. The First Tortilla
Mother and Father had returned from the
market when Jade entered the house. She
brought in the the corn carried in her rebozo
and spilled it onto the floor. Her father wanted to
know what she had brought in.

17. The First Tortilla
Jade told him it was corn from the Mountain Spirit
and to taste it. After her father tried the corn, he
couldn’t believe how sweet and tasty it was. He said
the corn was hard to chew.

18. The First Tortilla
Her mother said she could boil the corn in a clay pot
to make pozol. Jade’s father tasted it and thought it
tasted so good. He wanted to thank the Mountain
Spirit for the corn.

19. The First Tortilla
They spread the corn kernels in the garden. They
gave a prayer of thanks.
Clouds gathered on the mountain peak and it
began to rain. Many days later, the corn plants
began to grow.

20. The First Tortilla
The corn tassels blossomed and corn began to
appear on stalks.
Jade picked the corn and said, “Elotes.”

21. The First Tortilla
That evening mother made corn, beans, and squash
flavored with red chile. Jade and her family ate it for
their meal.

22. The First Tortilla
After the corn was dried, Jade placed kernels in a
metate and crushed them with a mano.
She added water to the cornmeal to make a thick
dough called masa and patted it back and forth in
her palms until it was flat and round. Then she
cooked it on a hot stone near the fire.

23. The First Tortilla
Jade’s father asked what the good smell was and
Jade said it was the masa. It was baking into a
bread. She offered some to her parents. Jade
named it a tortilla. Her father was proud of Jade.