Keeping Christmas traditions has become a luxury for the people of Lara State, who see the possibility of being able to prepare ‘hallacas’ (a traditional corn and meat pie) and other typical dishes of this season is becoming an ever more distant possibility every day. According to some estimates, a family requires a little more than $300 to cover the traditional Christmas basket.
Yanitza Martínez // La Patilla Correspondent
Although the food retail sector has promoted alternatives that allow consumers to have access to these products, many more claim to be unable to purchase them.
For this reason, promotions are very common, as well as the “combos hallaqueros”, which include enough beef, pork, plantain leaves, corn flour and vegetables for approximately 50 hallacas for about 40 U.S. dollars.
Mrs. Virginia Colmenárez stated that as a family they get together to make the hallacas a few before December 24th (Christmas Eve). She remembers how in previous years they could make 100 to 150 hallacas which, as is custom, they shared with family and friends. Now, reality has changed all that and currently they only make about 30 hallacas. Only enough for Christmas and New Year’s dinner.
Chicken replaces the traditional pork leg roast
In Barquisimeto, the price of a kilo of pork is between 10 and 15 U.S. dollars, depending on the commercial establishment, a price so high that many consumers have opted to substitute this roast for other non traditional dishes for dinner, such as chicken, which can be bought at about 80 bolivars per kilogram (about $1.00 a pound).
They point out that two chickens are enough for a family of six, and thus they could save a considerable amount of money.
On the other hand, the rest of the items present in the Christmas basket, such as ham bread, salad, desserts and drinks, which when added together, their cost exceeds 70 U.S. dollars for a single dinner.