Alfonso in Umami, a widower and an anthropologist who studies the concept of Umami. He defines it as “one of the five basic flavors our taste buds can identify. The other, the ones we all know, are sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Then there’s umami, more or less new to us in the West. We’re talking a century or so. It’s a Japanese word. It means delicious.” (152) Him describing what umami is, tends to be a point of conversation he repeatedly has with many important people in life such as Linda and his dead wife Noelia. Umami touches those around him, asking them to think more about their own individual food ways. Alfonso lives in a house called Umami. He also expresses how umami is the reason why he married his wife as it was a concept that intrigued her and begun their future relationship. Umami has contributed to so many aspects of his life, but when his wife dies, it’s almost as if one of his five flavors die, his umami dies. After the death of his wife, he drowns in grief and looses parts of himself such as his devotion to amaranth, he takes a sabbatical and spends his days drinking and uninspired.
This is a productive reading! Your use of umami as a critical category reminds me of our nixtamalization discussions at the beginning of the term. From this vantage, we might also consider Luz as the umami of Ana’s family. I wonder how you would interpret Alfonso’s ‘resurrection’ of Noelia, the way he converses with her and begins to write her/their story. There is joy and tenderness in those parts… Does this inject umami back into his life? Help alleviate his grief? Or are ‘drinking and unspired’ days all he has left?
I really liked Alfonso’s post because he made umami more than just a taste. He connected it to his life, showing how it affected his relationships. When he lost Noelia, it was like losing a part of himself, and that made me think about how grief can change everything. It was relatable and made me reflect on the ways our experiences shape us. Overall, his story about umami was touching and showed how personal connections can have a big impact.