Food and eating in Mexican American agrarian novels: cultivating a culture of sustenance hospitality in public literature

Abstract

ABSTRACT Literary novels on agricultural workers within the United States provide a context to explore representations of food, eating, and related socio-cultural practices for these people of mobility. This literature on farm labor appeared at junctures in U.S. history, when farmworkers were increasingly Mexican American immigrants, who entered the southwestern United States. Mentions of food and/or eating in farm labor novels highlight a culture of sustenance hospitality among characters from overlapping time periods. Authors crafted their farm labor novels, based on personal youthful experiences in agrarian settings, which provide being there authenticity that parallels the recent goals of “public anthropology,” which presents careful assessments aimed at social justice.