Hola a todes,
This week’s poems have been thrilling reads. Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s Making Tortillas was a vivid introduction to the relationship between queer (lesbian) love and tortillas. Today, though, I would like to discuss Caridad Moro-Gronlier’s Tortillera Poems, specifically Entry and Compulsion: A Chronology.
While there is a lot I would like to discuss about these poems, the main theme I would like to center around today is the role of food as comfort and food as resistance within these poems. In Compulsion: A Chronology, Moro-Gronlier says “She is mean, but I taste her love in the steam that rises from rose-studded porcelain bowls she collected one dish a time…Así comen las niñas buenas, she says, approval thick as stew in my spoon.” This passage (stanza 2, lines 4-5, 9-10) was, to me, reminiscent of Tuesday’s reading, The Mystery of Survival, when the narrator was offered elote by her mother, but decided to eat coconut instead. I know that in my own life growing up in El Salvador, families don’t always comfortably speak love to one another, especially the men in our families. But they will give us food: we share food, we go out and bring food home, we bring food when we visit friends, we never show up con las manos vacías (empty handed). As shown by this poem, it is the same for our Cuban writer, as was the same from Gaspar de Alba’s Chicano perspective.
I also really enjoyed how, in Compulsion: Chronology, we can see how a specific food/edible items are used by Moro-Gronlier to represent specific points in her life and in her struggle with her sexuality, body-image, self-control and family dynamics. This reminded me of a poem that I wrote as a part of our midterm project. For my midterm project, I created a poemario, a collection of poems. The poem that reminded me the most of Compulsion is my poem, Tortilla Con Huevo. Overall, reading Tortillera reminded me of why I have been loving food studies so much, and why I am now so in love with poetry about food: specific food items carry so much history, cultural context, family history, self-image, self-control, and as we see so poignanty, food items represent love, and as maíz tells us, it represents resistance… All in a simple food item! Que vivan las gastronomic interjections! Here are my poems. Poem 1: Tortilla Con Huevo is written chronologically and also ties in specific food items to specific chapters of my life.
Nos vemos pronto mis querides!!!
(Posted 9:33 AM Nov 9th)
Hi Yolanda.
I have the same thought as you that my family members back in China also do not know how to express love and care to each other. Food and meal is the way to say “thank you” or “I forgive you” instead of words. It is the process of giving and receiving, which also indicates the relationship of lovemaking to some extent.
Also, love your cute poemario work, especially “Tortilla con huevo”, which reflects the locational change and personal feelings about food. Qué chevere!
Hello Yolanda,
Thank you for touching on the important role of food as a language, especially as a language of love. This reminded me of how when i’m sick, my dad doesn’t say anything or tend to me, but he will always make me sopa de pollo. It is his way of taking care of me, through food expression. Often we don’t discuss what people are conveying by sharing food, making someone else food, or inviting someone to cook. These actions are all unspoken. But like you said, I was so happy to see how the narrator from The Mystery of Survival spoke through her food choice. I would love to hear you’re poem, Tortilla Con Huevo! And all this talk of food is making me hungry!
~Sofia