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

Lugo Velez, Monica E

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Description

Title

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

Author(s)

Lugo Velez, Monica E

Issue Date

2020-05-08

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Melendez, Mariselle

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Melendez, Mariselle

Committee Member(s)

• Goldman, Dara E
• Sotomayor, Antonio
• Goodman, Glen

Department of Study

Spanish and Portuguese

Discipline

Spanish

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Puerto Rico Food Studies Estudios de la comida Comida Identidad Nación Nacion Nation Identity Afro Puerto Rican Caribe Caribbean Tourism Turismo Mujer Género

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.

Graduation Semester

2020-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

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Copyright 2020 Monica Lugo Velez

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