Month: September 2026

09/26/26

I am Poem

I am from olives
from Ancient Lake Bed
and Xochimilco.
I am from the lime, 
Sun-bleached and neon.
A sudden splash of bright green juice that stains the cutting board.

From the gentle giants who can hear the clouds rumbling miles away with their enormous ears.
From Rafaello
and Betita.
From omeoprazol
and nopal.

I am from the molcajete
crushing,
popcorns,
jacarandas,
and eating Lebanese food.
I am a Mexican student studying International Relations. I enrolled in this course because I needed an elective and wanted to combine my elective with something political that interests me. So I chose a course that talks about my country and I hope I can learn more about how food and food systems can be related to politics in Mexico and across borders.
09/25/26

I am

I am where potatoes split beneath the weight of a fork 

I am where Sunday roasts and tea become cold over chatter 

 

I am from the red blend of tomatoes and peppers

Throw into a blender 

From rice stained red, smoky bottom of a pot everyone reaches for 

 

I am suya smoke rising 

I am hibiscus 

Zobo in one home 

Kakadé in another 

One flower, one continent 

 

I am from the Sahel to the banks of the Nile 

I am hands tearing bread, dipping into ful and molokhia 

Hummus filling a table, as chairs run out 

 

I am also the things I was not born beside 

I am the olive harvest 

Bread carried through Jerusalem on a Friday 

A cup of coffee placed in front of me before I even think to ask 

 

I am my tongue that has never understood borders 

 

I am what my Grandma keeps memorized with an eye and with a heart 

What strangers placed before me eager to try 

 

Pull up a chair 

And I will show you my plate, like the lines in my palm

 

 

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah, and I am in my final year, currently in the Honours program in Sociology and minoring in Latin American Studies. This course really stood out to me, as I have always seen food to be such a poetic aspect of life, Being mixed and moving around to many places, food has always allowed me to connect to a specific place and time instantly, and with my specific identity, it is something that is a form of resistance. I often enjoy noting down family recipes and attempting to do justice to them. And in my spare time, I love to travel and write a lot, and create memories using food 🙂

09/24/26

I am from marigolds

I am from marigolds,

from a sinking city built on a lake

and Burrard inlet

 

I am from molcajetes,

strong and durable

scents from previous generations invade my senses

From smiling at lightning as God was taking pictures

From Graciela

and Marcela

From sage

and hydrangeas

 

I am from the comal,

Roasting, searing, blistering,

Chorizo,

Cherry blossoms

and camping

 

 

Hello everyone! My name is Andrea Palafox Lerma, and I am a 3rd year Psychology major. I would describe myself as a caring, hardworking and loyal person. I work as a behavioural interventionist, so I support neurodivergent kids with skills like emotional regulation, speech, and daily habits to support their independence! I babysit some kids weekly and I love hearing their imagination at play. I also work as a lifeguard and swim instructor!

I enrolled in LAST315 because I’m originally from Mexico City but I moved to Vancouver in 2007, so I don’t have a strong connection with my Mexican heritage. I have taken many Spanish courses to learn more, such as the History in Spanish culture, Spanish Linguistics and interpretation.

I’m excited to learn more about the food and its impact on culture because my grandma really enjoys cooking so I want to be able to connect with her on this topic too!

09/23/26

First Foods (key concept, Sept 23)

“First foods” involves those plants, agricultural practices, and food systems with a long history in a particular community. First foods are a staple crop, but their meaning and implementation often go far beyond consumption. “First foods” comprise a central element of a community’s relationship to the land, and communities frequently come together in the cultivation, production, distribution, and consumption of its first foods. Beyond comprising a core part of a group’s foodway, first foods are often important to cosmological, medicinal, and philosophical practices, and they are frequently integral to rituals, celebrations, and livelihood.

With reference to maize and the Haudenosaunee (the Iroquois) of North America, as well as potatoes and the Quechua and Aymara peoples of the Andes, Kaylena Bray and Melissa K. Nelson clarify that “first foods” are specific to a particular ecosystem and cultural tradition: “They represent livelihoods and age-old traditions that bring people together around food cultivation, production, and eating. And they serve as valuable entry points from which we can understand the vast landscape of cultural beliefs, customs, and traditions of Indigenous peoples around the world” (48). Similarly, Peña et al observe that recovering “first foods” is a central component of recent alternatives to globalization. They define first foods as “food and foodways grounded in the ancient millenary knowledge of Indigenous peoples and based on our relations with plants, animals, soils, water, and our use of these for cooking eating, and sharing food” (xx). Peña et al note that, by returning to first foods and related practices, Indigenous communities evade “the subjugated spaces of the global commodity chains that characterize the neoliberal capitalist agri-food system” (xx).

*Outside of Indigenous Studies, the concept of “first foods” often refers to the early liquid or semi-solid foods that are fed to babies. Breastmilk and baby food (e.g. vegetable or fruit puree) are typical first foods in this non-specialized sense.

Bibliography (works cited/consulted)

Bray, Kaylena, and Melissa K. Nelson. “Revitalizing Native Foodways.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 30, no. 3, 2015, pp. 48-49.

Donatuto, Jamie, and Eric E. Grossman, John Konovsky, Sarah Grossman & Larry W. Campbell. “Indigenous Community Health and Climate Change: Integrating Biophysical and Social Science Indicators,” Coastal Management, vol. 42, no. 4, 2014, pp. 355-373.

Peña, Devon G., et al. “Introduction: Mexican Deep Food: Bodies, the Land, Food, and Social Movements.” Mexican-Origin Foods, Foodways, and Social Movements: Decolonial Perspectives, edited by Devon G. Peña, Luz Calvo, Pancho McFarland, and Gabriel R. Valle, U of Arkansas P, 2017, pp. xv-xxxiii.

09/21/26

I Am From

I am from sage

 

from limestone hills and dense live oaks

 

and the Colorado River

 

I am from an overgrown rosemary bush

 

dense, fragrant

 

leaving a sticky, pine-scented oil on my fingertips.

 

 

From my mother

 

and Rachel

 

From thyme

 

and bluebonnets

 

 

 

I am from the mortar

 

grinding and crushing

 

from cloves of garlic,

 

the towering cedar tree

 

and evening walks when the temperature finally drops

 

 

Hello! My name is Zachary, and I’m a second-year at UBC, majoring in Latin American Studies. Having taken many courses about the Spanish language and Latin American culture, this class seemed very unique in that food was not only included, but the main focus. It is common that in discussions about culture, food isn’t mentioned as a core idea if at all, and so this course seemed really interesting and unique. I am looking forward to learning from this new perspective! In my free time, I enjoy spending time outdoors and often go hiking.

09/21/26

I Am From Citrus Trees

I am from Citrus trees,

From wind-swept chaparral

and the moody Pacific Ocean.

I am from electric tea kettles-

Humming, industrious.

Cosy.

 

From the greenroom hidden in the shore break,

from Hal

and Aida Rosa.

From clove

and milkweed.

 

I am from grunion-run fertilizer,

silvery bodies mixed with soil,

From tomatoes,

Poppies,

and Seco smoothed reunions.

 

Hello! My name is Aubery, and I am a fourth-year History major. I took this class because I am super interested in learning more about all the endless ways food and food systems impact our day to day life! My grandparents on both sides of my family grew up farming corn (my grandfather in Dust-Bowl era Missouri, and my Abuela in Chiriqui!), and I have always been fixated on the ways they connected with each other over that shared background, as well as the habits and wisdom they passed down to their respective children as a result of that childhood! I also just love food as a way of connecting with people, with many of my most cherished memories coming from sharing recipes and techniques while cooking together, and finding community around meal times, weather it be at home, in a restaurant, or snowed in with strangers.

Outside of school, I love gardening, reading, everything to do with the ocean, watching movies (especially going to the cinema!), and of course, cooking! I am looking forward to this class and am super excited to learn all about Maize and Milpa with all of you 🙂

09/21/26

I am from golden fields

I am from fields of wheat, golden under blue skies

From gardens of mirrors and concrete rooted over summer-ripe orchards

Where bitter water churns against crumbling cliffs

We sit at a table older than I; older than my brothers, my father and my mother

Creaky and warped

Stained with the prints of elementary art

Smooth and warm

 

From awesome red-fleshed trees far more epic than the human heavens

From my mother

My father

From sweet ginger and honey tea

And rolling carpets of wild mustard yellow

 

I am from flavor burnt, heavy lidded pots

Bubbling indefinitely

Thick tomatoes slowly simmering

Tomatoes from my father; my father’s father

And the garden-sweet sauce canned by my mother

The taste of bright summer labors as light falls to water

09/21/26

I am from Sunflowers

I am from sunflowers,

sturdy and tall, facing the light.

I am from maple trees, colour-filled in 2 weeks.

From pear trees and raspberries.

From warm summer nights and frigid winter days.

I am from the coupons carefully clipped and the meals with rushed minds.

I am from pickles,

from the grand river to the lakes,

from tulips,

from the thunderstorms and wind.

I am from manicured sweet cornfields,

for as far as the eye can see, just past those busy streets.

I am from the earth. And the earth is a part of me.

 

Hello! My name is Sierra (They/Them). I am a 5th-year student in Global Resource Systems, focusing on Food security and Food system sustainability within the Americas! I am super excited for this class and to learn about food systems and foodways in Mesoamerica. I love the intersection of people, food, culture and community and the relationships people have with their food and why. I began my degree in Nutrition; however, I quickly realized food means so much more than nutrients and calories. I really love diving deep into what is beyond that and the systems in place around the world that encourage or discourage equitable access to food for all people at all times (food security), and how we can make these systems more just. I am really looking forward to learning about the different Indigenous cosmologies around Mesoamerica and their relationships with food(Maize and Milpa).

Outside the classroom, I love to cook, host dinner parties and appreciate different forms of art (live music, dance, poetry, comedy). I have been trying to keep up with learning Spanish, and I would love to travel all over Latin America someday soon. I have also been heavily involved with Agora Cafe at UBC, UBC Farm, xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden, the VOC (Varsity Outdoors Club), Surf Club, and more(feel free to ask me questions if you are interested)! I like to stay active, especially with friends, and play volleyball, basketball, do yoga, hike, and have recently been learning how to dance (Rueda and HipHop). I am someone who is always down for a bit or a fun adventure. 🙂

I really look forward to all the discussions we are going to have in this class together and all the insightful perspectives each one of you brings to the table.

09/21/26

Nixtamalized Poetry: Foodways in the Borderland

(Sample post by Tamara)

When Rubí Orozco Santos discusses her new project, she explains that she proposed to create a new set of poems inspired by “the practice of nixtamalization in the borderland.” This metaphor stayed with me, as it seems particularly generative and nuanced for many reasons. First, as Orozco Santos points out, nixtamal comes from Nahuatl and means “formless dough.” Thus, the word contains both alteration and enhancement (nixtamalization as the chemical softening and enrichment of corn) and potentiality and formlessness (the dough has not yet been shaped and cooked). This made me think of poetry. Both processes take crude materials (inedible corn, words) and turn them into something pleasing and palatable and nourishing. And yet, what emerges in both cases is unfinished. The “unformed dough” needs additional labour (rinsing, hulling, grinding, shaping, cooking) to be edible while the poetry needs an audience (to be read, and in some cases read aloud; to be ‘chewed’ and contemplated). By conceiving of her poetic work as ‘nixtamalized,’ Orozco Santos invites us to participate in the creation of the work.

Later, she observes that the alkaline process varies based on its geographical location; in the U.S. Southwest, juniper ash is used while the Olmec civilization employed oyster shells. I recently read that, in Chiapas, they use snail shells for this process (Chiapas 329). This detail underscores how the local environment and knowledge systems are integral elements of the process, and thus, a widely used and far-flung technique is grounded in a particular area and community. Similarly, Orozco Santos situates her work—“the nixtamalized poetry of the borderlands”—in a Mesoamerican past, while also nodding at the new roots she has established just north of the Río Bravo/Grande.

Reflecting on all of these associations, nixtamalization emerges as a particularly powerful way to think about creativity and life in the borderlands. Did you identify other reasons that this metaphor is so potent to think through “foodways and wordways”?

321 words

Bibliography

Chiapas, viaje culinario. Secretaría del turismo, 2014.

Marrufo, Richie David, host. “Episode 35: Rubí Orozco Santos.” The BWOMS Podcast, episode 35, Power at the Pass, soundcloud.com/bwoms/ep35.

09/21/26

I am from the teff grain

 

I am from the Teff grain

Strong, reliable, foundational

Fermented and poured with skill and precision

I am from coffee

Sitting around a table celebrating with family

Endless aunts uncles and cousins

The rich smell of beans and burnt old clay

From sharp spices

Intense from the first bite till the last

I’m from hearty meat and vegetables stews

Carefully prepared nights before to sustain me the way is sustained my ancestors

Hi, my name is Lydia I am a psychology student who has an interest in history and anthropology. I was born and raised in Vancouver by Ethiopian immigrants where food is considered especially important and communal. In my free time I love to paint and art in general. I usually use watercolour and gouache and enjoy trying different types of mediums. I also like baking and often make something on holidays, usually brownies or cookies.

I’m taking this class because looking at history through the lens of food sounded very different and interesting. I never really considered the ways food can affect history from an higher academic perspective even thought it makes sense since it’s so significant and unavoidable. I’ve also been very interesting in Mayan history and cosmology in the past so knowing that we’d be covering that I was very interested.