Vanilla is deeply rooted in the identity of Papantla, a city in eastern Mexico where reinas of festivals are anointed with a vanilla-made crown.
In this Mexican city, some girls dream about a crown made of vanilla. Papantla adorns its Corpus Christi festival reinas, or queens, with the vanilla orchid's thick brown stems woven, twisted and bejeweled into aromatic crowns — a nod to the spice's place in the town's history. Centuries ago, the Totonac people here used the orchid Vanilla planifolia as a perfume; then the conquering Aztecs started mixing it into a chocolate drink in the time of Emperor Moctezuma.
She then sat down and looked through a photo album from when she was a teacher, before she won the money for the kindergarten the crown helped build. Tania Zayas didn’t want to be queen. But her high school pressed so hard for her to be its candidate in the Corpus Christi festival that the then-17-year-old gave in. 'I was embarrassed,” said Zayas, who now teaches physical education at a Papantla elementary school. She now doesn't shy away when people seek her out as a former queen.