FS 015 PZ -Latinx Food, Identity and Resistance

Institution: Pitzer

Description: In this course we will study the food ways and political economy of Chicanx/Latinx communities. We will start with the history of food in Mesoamerica, the significance and permanence of certain plant staples (corn, squash, beans, chilis, herbs) in the Chicanx/Latinx diet, and the hybrid diet that developed with European contact. We will cover the significance of Chicanx/Latinx and indigenous groups participating in food production in Las Americas, as a continent. At the present time we will study the labor struggles and injustices that Chicanx/Latinx food producers/ laborers had confronted and resisted. Ironically, in the U.S. Chicanx/ Latinx and indigenous food producers who work in the fruit and vegetable crops often cannot afford to eat a healthy diet, or live a healthy life, given the low wages, and terrible working conditions that they endure. The question remains can we as a Chicanx/Latinx community decolonize our diets given these conditions? [Instructor: Maria Soldatenko]

Prerequisite(s): None

First-Year seminars are not listed on the course schedule. Incoming students will be assigned to a first-year seminar and registered automatically.