Eating Puerto Rico: A History of Food, Culture, and Identity

Latin America in Translation

by Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra

Available for the first time in English, Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra's magisterial history of the foods and eating habits of Puerto Rico unfolds into an examination of Puerto Rican society from the Spanish conquest to the present. Each chapter is centered on an iconic Puerto Rican foodstuff, from rice and cornmeal to beans, roots, herbs, fish, and meat. Ortiz shows how their production and consumption connects with race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and cultural appropriation in Puerto Rico.
Using a multidisciplinary approach and a sweeping array of sources, Ortiz asks whether Puerto Ricans really still are what they ate. Whether judging by a host of social and economic factors--or by the foods once eaten that have now disappeared--Ortiz concludes that the nature of daily life in Puerto Rico has experienced a sea change.

408 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2013

Reviews

[Waleska Ayuso Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting information

Such an interesting compilation of facts. If you're like me raised in the 70s and 80s and feel like some distinctive flavors are fading from our cuisine, this book will have you hunting down those ingredients that you forgot about.