Quinoa is more a food of the South American cultures than the Mayan or Aztec. They called it the mother grain, and it was important in a lot of ceremonies of the Inca, and that freaked the spanish out so they actually made it illegal. In Mexico, the Aztecs had the same sort of respect for amaranth, and they made that illegal too.

These are both making quite a modern comeback. Of the two, i much prefer quinoa. The protein in quinoa is very high quality, and there is a good bit of it. All vegetarians should know about this, imo. The WHO has declared that the protein in quinoa is equivalent or superior to that of milk, and is pushing it as a replacement for infant formula ( thought they still recommend brest feeding bigtime) Quinoa is extraordinarily high in minerals too. It is very much a food of the future as well as the past, IMO. There are several different colors (yellow, pink, red, purple, black).

I love it, and pretty much live off it.

Here is a good article from NPR
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php