Creating a Common Table in Twentieth-Century Argentina: Doña Petrona, Women, and Food

Title Page, Copyright

Creating a Common Table in twentieth-century argentina This page intentionally left blank Creating a Common Table in twentieth-century argentina Doña Petrona, Women, & Food Rebekah E. Pite the university of north carolina press chapel hill This volume was published with the assistance of the Greensboro Women’s Fund of the University of North Carolina Press. Founding Contributors: Linda Arnold Carlisle, Sally Schindel Cone, Anne Faircloth, Bonnie McElveen Hunter, Linda Bullard Jennings, Janice J. Kerley (in honor of Margaret Supplee Smith), Nancy Rouzer May, and Betty Hughes Nichols.© 2013 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Set in Miller and The Serif typefaces by Integrated Book Technology Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pite, Rebekah E. Creating a common table in twentieth-century Argentina : Doña Petrona, women, and food / Rebekah E. Pite. — 1 [edition]. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-4696-0689-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — isbn 978-1-4696-0690-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Gandulfo, Petrona C. de. 2. Cooking, Argentine. 3. Cooking—Argentina. 4. Women—Argentina—Social conditions—20th century. 5. Feminism—Argentina— History—20th century. I. Title. II. Title: Creating a common table in 20th-century Argentina. tx649.g36p58 2013 641.5982—dc23 2012034766 The epigraph (p. vii) is from Margaret Sayers Peden, ed., A Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Salisbury, Conn.: Lime Rock Press, 1982), and is used with permission of the publisher. Frontispiece (p. iii): Petrona C. de Gandulfo (far right) and fellow ecónomas, ca. 1930. Courtesy of Archivo General de la Nación. cloth 17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1 paper 17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1 To my mother, lindalea pite ludwick, and my grandmother, sara skolnick pite And what shall I tell you, lady, of the natural secrets I have discovered while cooking? I see that an egg holds together and fries in butter or in oil, but, on the contrary, in syrup shrivels into shreds; observe that to keep sugar in a liquid state one needs only add a drop or two of water in which a quince or other bitter fruit has been soaked; observe that the yolk and the white of the egg are so dissimilar that each with sugar produces a result not obtainable with both together. I do not wish to weary you with such inconsequential matters, and make mention of them only to give you full notion of my nature, for I believe they will be occasion for laughter. But lady, as women, what wisdom may be ours if not the philosophies of the kitchen? —sor juana inés de la cruz, mexico city, 1690 ...