Cocinando lo auténtico: La comida como patrimonio cultural en la producción discursiva puertorriqueña, siglos XIX-XXI

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the discursive representation of food as a critical tool for understanding the cultural constructions that emerge from the 19th century to the present in different Puerto Rican publications. The primary texts analyzed are cookbooks and agriculture manuals, food advertisements in newspapers and women’s magazines, literary works, and websites that promote tourism in Puerto Rico. The analysis of these publications focuses on how certain foods and culinary practices were preferred by the privileged sector of society and how the consumption of certain foods that were conceived or designated as part of Puerto Ricans local identity were marketed to a foreign audience. The theoretical framework that guides the study is based on what is known as Food Studies, an interdisciplinary methodology that deals with the relationship between food and human experience (Miller & Deutsch 3). This dissertation traces the nineteenth century identity construction of the Puerto Rican jíbaro as the quintessential representation of the native Puerto Rican to assess the intersections between food and culture and its impact on what is construed as a national identity. The first chapter discusses how criollo food associated with the jíbaro –consisting of dishes that are associated with Puerto Rican’s native agriculture– renders invisible the afro-cultural culinary influence in what we associate today with Puerto Rican food. The second chapter explores advertisements in women’s magazines published at the beginning of the twentieth century to understand how food played an instrumental part in the way in which women articulated gender identities. Chapter three examines Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá’s La noche oscura del niño Avilés, in his attempt to rescue from national oblivion the African influence and impact of what is considered as typical Puerto Rican food. Chapter focuses on the analysis of images created by the tourism industry in media outlets to convey the idea of how Puerto Rico can be experienced through food.