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Mario Macías

Question: How can we understand the relationship between gastronomy and class during colonial
times in Mexico? What are the consequences that these practices have today in the culinary
dynamics in Mexico?

John Pilcher, (1998) “The Conquest of Wheat: Culinary Encounters in the Colonial Period,” in: !
Que Vivan los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican identities. University of New
Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

In this chapter, Pilcher takes us on a journey through the origins of a new gastronomy in the
Americas result of the syncretism and how food can be linked to stories of conquest and
exchange from the Middle East across the Americas. The author begins his journey with Mole (a
traditional dish from central Mexico) arguing that this dish not only represents a gastronomic
icon, but also a dish loaded with histories of assimilation of indigenous populations, imposition
of Western culture and the strong mercantile exchange characteristic of the colonial times. The
mole is a dish that combines pre-Hispanic and western ingredients and is associated mainly with
the central area of Mexico in the states of Oaxaca, Morelos and Puebla. Later Pilcher talks about
the legacy of the Middle East and Mediterranean cuisine in Spain that later strongly influenced
the cuisine in the Americas. Also, the author tells about the Creole influence in Mexican cuisine.
The author makes a good connection between history and geography and how these intercessions
have had an impact on the culinary aspect. Mexican cuisine has great French influence after the
proximity and strong culinary exchange between Spain and France. Finally, the author comes to
the importance that the wheat had in the region and its association with Creole populations.
Wheat represented part of the Spanish culture against corn as a substitute for grain. Following
the introduction of wheat in the Americas, land production and tenure systems such as haciendas,
a feudalist system of land tenure and labor would be developed. Despite the introduction of
wheat in New Spain, Maize continued to predominate as the most consumed grain, while wheat
was associated with higher classes and better purchasing power.
Mario Macías

Jeffry Pilcher, (1998) “Many Chefs in the National Kitchen,” in: !Que Vivan los Tamales!: Food
and the Making of Mexican identities. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

This chapter tells us about Western culinary forms as a form of imposition, and colonization of
the groups that inhabited current Mexico. From north to south, a territory where diversity
predominated and these gastronomic symbols have represented forms of identity, class,
appropriation, gender roles, among others. The author makes a great distinction between the
gastronomic relationship with class discourse. In this section the author seeks to explain how
some dishes and food processing practices were decisive for class reproduction and strong
radicalization of gastronomy. The Indian eats corn and the European wheat. Also, the author
highlights the gender roles that took place in relation to food preparation. The roles of suppliers
by men, and food processors by women, dominated the gastronomic dynamics in Mexico.
Affairs, break ups, and reconciliations would take place through dishes, their limiting between
groups and people as a form of inclusion or segregation. The last section talks about the link
between gastronomy and patriotism. Dishes as a form of resistance that result more in syncretism
than in assimilation. The prevalence of corn as an indispensable grain, the adoption of dishes
such as mole and tamales in the diet as a legacy of the colony and its part of identity.

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