On Sept. 28, people from D.C. and around the world gathered to honor their countries and cultures in a show of unity—not at the United Nations General Assembly, but for an even greater cause: cementing the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest pupusa.
Nearly 100 pupuseros, or pupusa chefs, banded together to make the traditional El Salvadoran and Honduran dish, successfully breaking the world record. At Fiesta D.C., the district’s Hispanic heritage festival, the pupusa measured at 20.2 ft. in diameter.
The previous official record, according to a spokesperson from Guinness, was set in November 2015 in Olocuilta, El Salvador, with a 14 ft. 9 in. diameter. Another record—which wasn’t verified by Guinness—was set in El Salvador in 2022 and measured 18 feet. The Sept. 28 pupusa beat both.
Pupusas, the national dish of El Salvador and popular throughout central America, are made with masa (corn) flour and stuffed with a variety of different fillings, similar to Colombian arepas. The DMV is home to the second largest population of Salvadorans in the United States and they are the largest immigrant population in the city. For those involved in the creation of the giant pupusa, breaking the record was a way to show the DMV Salvadoran community’s pride and unity at this year’s Fiesta D.C.
Photo by Sydney Carroll
“We came here to win,” Isidoro Amaya, one of the pupuseros, said. “It really represents us. The pupusa is originally from El Salvador, and I’m from El Salvador, so I’m really proud.”
Amaya started the Las Placitas restaurant alongside his two brothers in 1990, after immigrating from El Salvador with dreams of opening their own business. This world record attempt was a way to represent his home country here in D.C.
Amaya and the other pupuseros spent the morning preparing the masa before racing between the prep station and a 20-ft. wide hot plate fueled by propane tanks to start cooking. Wearing hazmat suits and heat proof knee pads, they covered the whole surface with pieces of dough, one small batch at a time. Instead of flipping the pupusa, the rest of the team covered a metal grate with hot coals that was lifted on top of the dish, since it was too big to transfer.
Photo by Sydney Carroll
Hundreds packed into bleachers and crowded around the barricade to get an up-close look at the pupusa during the full day of cooking.
Olga Hernández, a friend of one of the other pupuseros, came to support and see other Salvadorans. She feels cultural festivals like Fiesta D.C. have gotten smaller over time, but she sees how events like this allow the community to come together, Hernandez said in an interview with the Voice.
“Back in the day, in the early 2000s, it used to be huge,” Hernandez said. “It’s nice to see people and find cultural things and socialize.”
Others came not just to see the cooking of the giant pupusa, but to take a bite. Those who arrived at Fiesta D.C. early were able to get tickets to sample the finished product, which organizers estimated could feed around 2000 people.
Ben Koele is originally from Des Moines, Iowa, where he initially tried his first pupusa.
“They have a big farmers’ market in the summer, there was always a pupusa stand,” Koele said. “My dad would always take my brother and I, we would get pupusas every Sunday morning.”
After hearing about the festival, Koele and his friends arrived early so that they could take a bite of the 20-foot pupusa once it was ready.
The pupuseros successfully achieved the Guiness World Record after four and a half hours of baking. Spectators like Koele were able to taste the pupusa and celebrated as pupuseros were presented with a plaque to mark their record.
As Amaya said, many of the pupuseros weren’t as grateful for the record as they were for the chance to connect with the Salvadoran community.
“It’s a really big thing to us,” he said, as he helped cook the pupusa. “It means a lot.”
I’ll definitely be sharing this with my colleagues.