When green plantains are mixed with sweet plantains or a root vegetable, it's called mofongo mixto or bifongo. Trifongo, as the name implies, is a mix of green plantains along with two other starches.

Mofongo is a traditional Puerto Rican dish combining influences from the cultures of the Greater Antilles Island decending from Spain, West Africa and Taíno, where Puerto Rican culture gets its roots.

Mofongo has a cross-cultural ancestry, with roots in Taíno, African, Spanish and North American traditions. In the early 1500s, Spanish conquistadors arrived in Puerto Rico and subjugated the Taíno, Puerto Rico's Indigenous people, forcing many to work on their plantations and in gold mines.