La comida y sus historias: Food-centered Life Histories of Two Mexican Women Living in the U.S.

An examination of the interaction of foodways with personal history, collective memory, and identity formation, through the food-centered life histories of two Mexican women, first generation immigrants living in the U.S. Discusses espacios de convivencia, social relations orchestrated on women’s terms, the centrality of corn in the household’s diet (and changes due to the implementation of new technologies), and the significance of festive meals in relation to personal identity, to draw conclusions on women’s agency in preserving collective memory and knowledge through foodways. Includes Chicana feminist theories on women’s spaces and ways of knowing.