Making place with the food voice in the san Luis Valley of Colorado

Abstract

Food-centered life history interviews have been collected since 1996 in my fieldwork in the small Mexicano town of Antonito in the southern San Luis Valley of Colorado and the. The relationship between voice and place in anthropological method and theory can be explored along two paths. One path is how these interviews gathered in this place have created a space for my own writerly voice at the same time as they have posed questions about insider vs. outsider location, relation, power, and authority. The second path is how Mexicanas’ diverse constructions of landscapes, rivers, homes, gardens, kitchens and the like portray culture, express gender, construct history, and establish powerful claims to space. Stories about places by traditionally silenced people like the rural Chicanas I interviewed are particularly important in enriching the historical record. Their food-centered life histories contest stereotypes about the relegation of women to the home and about Chicanos’ disregard for environmental conservation. They reveal longstanding roots in the land, which can provide cultural legitimacy and economic sustenance, hallmarks of Chicano cultural citizenship.