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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Food and eating
• sustenance hospitality
• literary representation
• farmworkers
• food production
• Mexican American immigration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this research.

Notes on contributors

Keith V. Bletzer

Keith V. Bletzer is Adjunct Faculty in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, and Adjunct Faculty Instructor in Social Science at Pima Community College. Formally trained in medical-cultural-social anthropology and public health, his research activities have focused on immigration, farm labor, health education, and indigenous peoples. He has performed single-investigator studies and worked with multi-sited team projects. He has taught at both college and secondary school levels.