Cacao attracted the ambition of the Aztecs to Soconusco just before the Spanish conquest. It seems that the precious seed had also attracted groups of immigrants, possibly from Teotihuacan, who settled in the Pacífic coast some time after AD 400. It remains to be determined whether this was an actual conquest of parts of the coast by Teotihuacan warriors, but we do know that they brought their religion, artistic style and iconography. Their figurines, vessels and ceramic censers combine Teotihuacan motifs with those derived from local tradition. One of the most important examples is a censer lid that depicts a character with butterfly headdress and wings, adorned with flowers on each side and a large mirror on the chest, emerging from an open cacao pod. Cacao pods also form a base for the composition.

The religious importance of cacao in the Pacific coast manifests in the effigies of gods and goddesses that seem to personify the tree itself, since their bodies and heads sprout abundant cacao pods. Female effigies are the most frequent, recognizable by their feminine clothes and headdresses, and by their breasts, sometimes confounded with cacao pods.

In Classic Maya art, there are indications of an association of cacao with the mythology of the Maize God. A vase in the Chamá style fo Alta Verapaz shows human heads sprouting as fruits from trees. These and other fruits sprout from the main trunk, in the manner of cacao, but the scene is also close to a myth from the Popol Vuh. The lords of death hung the head of Hun Hunahpu on a gourd tree that suddenly bore fruit, so that the skull could not be distinguished. Attracted by the prodigious tree, a maiden became pregnant from the saliva deposited on her hand by Hun Hunahpu's skull, and gave birth to the hero twins. Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who eventually avenged their fathers's death. The narrative is not explicit, but this tale is closely related to the myths of the Maize God in Mesoamerican religion, which involve his initial defeat and culminate with his triumph over the lords of death. The vase apparently shows a variant of the myth, where the gourd tree has been substituted by cacao tree.