Category: Uncategorized

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.

09/17/26

I am from rye

I am from rye stalks

and hop bines

from peaks and valleys

and the icy rivers running

through.

I am from pots and pans

steaming,

inviting you

to have a taste.

From cold river plunges

and sisterhood

and warm embraces

before a good night’s sleep.

From bruises and bug bites

and arnica

and calendula too.

I am from spätzlepresse;

drops of dough falling

into baths of boiling water,

egg noodles and stew

on cold

winter nights.

From lupin and cedar,

and the wisdom found in dreams.

Hello! My name is Ruby and I am a 3rd year, Global Resource Systems major. The focus of my undergrad is on sustainable food systems and community. Food is one of my biggest interests—how it is grown, prepared, and eaten; how it shapes our days, our personal worlds and the larger world around us; and what happens to our food “waste” after it leaves our kitchens. I hope to be a part of making the world a place where all of us are able to access food that nourishes us (biologically, emotionally, spiritually) and nourishes the world’s ecosystems.

Outside of school, I enjoy spending time with my friends and family, reading fiction, and dancing flamenco. And maybe most of all, I enjoy cuddling my cat Fred. My favourite books are Matrix by Lauren Groff, the Idiot by Elif Batuman, and the Summer Book by Tove Jansson

I look forward to learning about the rich history of maize and milpa and how it is intertwined with Mesoamerican cultures, and I especially look forward to doing this learning with all of you!!

 

 

09/16/26

I Am From Avocado Trees

I am from avocado trees,

from evergreen mountains

and rain puddles.

I am from lime juicers-

bright green,

efficient.

hefty.

 

From “it helps you breathe”,

From Mom,

and  Papa.

From lemon cough drops

and blackberry bushes.

 

I am from the Metate y Mano-

crushing, grinding,

from homemade chocolates

from dandelions

and spending Halloween in Mexico.

 

Hello! My name is Ana-Sophie and I’m a 2nd year psych student! I’m taking this class because It looked really interesting and I wanted to learn more about Mesoamerican food ways to learn more about my culture. Outside of school I really like listening to music, playing guitar, drawing and watching movies.

 

09/16/26

Controlling What We Eat

Despite the imperative role which food plays in human life, it remains an understudied factor, often forgotten in favor of more ‘exciting’ parts of culture like war and religion. In Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom, Sidney Mintz explores the ways in which food has been forgotten from culture, specifically from anthropological view. Touching on theories of gender, biological necessities, and social order, Mintz explains how food has been viewed as “an instrument for the study of other things” within academic tradition rather than one substantial enough to stand alone (3). Perhaps because food is “not separate from humanity but is an integral part of it” and that every human consumes food, it receives less attention (4). Just in knowing that food consumption is universal, it loses its academic intrigue, its novelty and cannot be exoticized in the same way that other aspects of culture can. Despite its universality in consumption, the way and why food is actually consumed is vastly different and varies significantly from culture to culture with each entailing their own specific set of societal rules governing ‘how’ and ‘why’. Some of the food rules we still conscribe to today in western society have origins in the recent past when new foods were introduced with the idea of social control.

Control, a lesser studied aspect of food and food consumption is one that greatly interests me. There are many pathways of by which the control which food exerts could be followed; for example, Mintz writes how “every act of eating can thus be made into a test of will” especially when it comes to negative food-related behavior like anorexia and bulimia which often manifest as way by which to “control and manage and discipline the body” (6).  Mintz further explores the institutionalization of sugar, “produced mostly by mass coercion” and “marked the first time a working class anywhere became deeply dependent on foods” (12). Beyond these written examples, I suggest that so many of the social facts surrounding foods are further examples of food-related control which are so ingrained in our understanding of life that we cannot separate them. For example, there are now national organizations like the FDA and Health Canada that almost entirely govern the overall social consumption of food. Traditional methods of consumption and procurement are no longer deemed acceptable which has brought a curt end to hundreds and thousands of foods-related tradition and cultural subsistence in favor of manufactured ideas that return power to a central authority rather than to the mouths of those who are consuming the food. Food studies offers great insight into the ways of how current society is structured and has been built by turning a biological necessity into a weapon of social control and structure.

 

Mintz, Sidney. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom. 1996

09/14/26

Gossip, Drudgery, and Disciplinary Bias

(Sample post by Tamara)

In Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women, Silvia Federici traces how, prior to the sixteenth century, the term gossip was used to denote feminine forms of community, care, and exchange. In premodern England, gossip implied “companions in childbirth” (35), designating the close friends and relatives of a pregnant woman who gathered to care for and accompany her during labour. The term’s meaning soon expanded to signify close-knit circles of women that maintained a life and community outside of their marriage (36). Through these relationships, women exchanged crucial information, such as medicinal, social, and cultural knowledge, and gossip comprised a means of memory keeping (41). Federici examines 16th- and 17th-century plays, historical treatises, and legal documents to show that men were increasingly threatened by women’s tight friendships, and she points to literature, laws, and torture devices that evidence men’s concerted efforts to rein women in and isolate them. Concomitant to these efforts, the meaning of gossip shifted from an empowering feminine social network to petty chatter (38).

I offer this foray into the etymological roots of gossip as a mode of commenting on Warren Belasco’s “Why Study Food?” (2008). Belasco’s chapter opens by offering a rundown of why food, and food consumption in particular, have not been given “serious” (3) attention in academia until recent years, including a privileging of the mind over the body (2), ingrained gendered bias against all things domestic (3), and the perception that food is “gross” (3). While I found the chapter convincing and provocative, the portrayal of women’s work in the kitchen as mere “drudgery” (3-4) falls prey to the same disciplinary biases that Belasco seeks to critique. Reading Belasco with Federici reminds us that, while arduous, food preparation and similar activities offer women (or anyone who finds themselves in a kitchen!) a chance to share knowledge, establish community, and exchange vital information for thriving and surviving under patriarchy. Trained as a Historian at the University of Michigan and Professor Emeritus in the University of Maryland BC American Studies Department, Belasco can be forgiven for these shortcomings. But recognizing them will hopefully help me be aware of my own disciplinary and cultural limitations while we approach the study of maize together this semester.

366 words

Belasco, Warren. Food: The Key Concepts. Berg, 2008.

Federici, Silvia. “On the Meaning of ‘Gossip.’” Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women. PM Press, 2018, pp. 35-43.

09/12/26

I am from agave

I am from agave

From green hills and forests

And the Lynn River

I am from novelty mugs

Loved, fragile

Warm to the touch and cozy

 

From beauty

From Tina

From Jenny

From mint

And lavender

 

I am from the molcajete

Grinding, mixing

Pozole

Tulips

And dia de los reyes

I am from agave

From green hills and forests

And the Lynn River

I am from novelty mugs

Loved, fragile

Warm to the touch and cozy

 

From beauty

From Tina

From Jenny

From mint

And lavender

 

I am from the molcajete

Grinding, mixing

Pozole

Tulips

And dia de los reyes

My name is Sofia and I’m a fourth year student, hoping to graduate this year. I love to read, particularly science fiction and fantasy, although I somehow avoided a lot of the more popular series and jumped right into books few people have heard of, my favourite being The Reader by Traci Chee which has one of my favourite magic systems ever and there’s little details that really help the story come together hidden in the pages. I also really enjoyed Contagion by Erin Bowman and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Ancillaary Justice in particular did really cool things with spaceships and robots that I didn’t know I needed. I do also like watching TV, one of my all time top shows is Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. It’s hilarious in ways that persist through rewatches and just completely wacky in the most fun ways imaginable.

I wanted to take this class mainly because my parents are from Mexico and I wish I knew more about the history of the country they grew up in. Although I was especially interested when I saw that this class would be about food because I’ve taken some classes about cultures but they didn’t really talk about food all that much, which is a little strange. So the fact that this class was not only about Mexico but about food too? That was just too good to pass up.

09/11/26

I Am From Potatoes (Emma K.)

I am from potatoes

from big green fields and far away mountains

and the Fraser River. 

I am from tea kettles, 

          whistling, warm. 

          Sweet.

 

From flowers are food. 

From my mother,

          and for my mother, 

          and all the other mothers I’ve adopted over time. 

From peppermint

and huckleberry, 

and the bushes that bloom in the spring. 

 

I am from the frying pan,

          melting, sizzling

          the half a dozen eggs my brother cooks himself each morning.   

From mashed potatoes and pasta bakes,

Towering cherry trees,

and Saturday night movies.   

 

From the house I don’t live in anymore but still call home. 

I am from everywhere,

And of everything. 

 

Hello everybody! My name is Emma (she/her/hers) and I am a third year English major here at UBC. This is actually my first semester at UBC, having completed the first two years of my degree at Langara College, and I’m super excited to start my journey here! I moved out of my childhood home almost exactly one year ago now and currently live and work in Downtown Vancouver which honestly still feels surreal sometimes. I love anything crafty/creative, and my dream job (at the moment) would be to work in some form of marketing where I can combine my love of design with my love of writing! I also love to read – my goal is 36 books this year! – and I recently invested in a HelloFresh subscription which has so far been life-changing. 

I originally signed up for this course because my partner is from Mexico, and I am able to experience first hand how big of a role food plays in his (and, by extension, my) daily life. I see how it affects both him and his family, how it connects him to home, and can recognize that food plays an entirely different role in his culture than mine. I have spent the last ten years of my life not eating meat, and when my partner and I first met, this was actually a pretty big point of contention between us. I am very interested in learning more about the history of food within/throughout Latin America in hopes of a) better understanding my partner and learning more about his culture, and b) better understanding my own relationship with food and learning about practices/attitudes that differ from the Western ones I grew up with!

09/9/26

I am (from and of what?)

I am from volcanoes and lakes,

from coffee plantations,

and Xolotlán.

I am from word incarnate in flesh

From the silver bridge that unites the Being

           Of a crimson drop, expiatory in nature,

           from a self and an other,

           I am of the feet that walks the soil.

From a here-and-now, from a here-and-after

From an ever-now, an a before-the-after

and from sprout in soil,

From mugworth and hibiscus.

                  I am from pirul

 From wax, wick, fire; blood ‘n’ sweat,

Of the beans, maize and squash.

From stardust that is and sprouts.

Hello! My name is Leo. I like to read. Some genres and forms I enjoy are fiction, non-fictional novels, plays, philosophical fiction, short stories, cosmic retribution. Some authors & works I enjoy are: Playing with Fire by Dahlia de La Cerda, H.P. Lovecraft, Medea (play), the Living Autobiography trilogy by Deborah Levy, Margurite Duras’ The Lover, Annie Ernaux’s The Possession, Ave Barrera’s The Forgery and Shakespeares’ Hamlet and Macbeth. I enrolled in this course to learn more about foodways in Latin America, particularly the literature, scientific, cultural, spiritual and political approaches to foodways in Latin America. I’m in my third year at UBC.