Comida Sin Par

1. Comida Sin Par Consumption of Mexican Food in Los Angeles

2. “Foodscapes” in a Transnational Consumer Society • Anthropologists view ethnic foods as an expression of cultural identity • But they also serve as an agent for change • And a means of empowerment, enhancing social & economic power within an ethnic community

3. Dislocated immigrants, patronizing Mexican restaurants establish links of solidarity within the community • Mexican restaurants open paths for immigrant labor to acquire status within a dominant, hostile environment • Mexican food empowers the community to break into the dominant economic & cultural system

4. We think of food as pleasure, disregarding hunger, food embargoes, and corporate control of the food system • We invest food with social meaning, power & discrimination • Ethnic enclaves formed around food establishments enable migrants to resist assimilation

5. A Duality • Traditional, authentic food on poorer Mexican neighborhoods • Standardized, Americanized food in affluent neighborhoods patronized by Anglos

6. The “Affluent Foodscape” • Patrons extol exotic experiences of the ethnic restaurant • Traveling to spaces of the “culinary other” • The Mexican entrepreneurs create a space of “staged authenticity” • Commodification of self conveys the dominant system’s consent

7. Pseudo-ethnicity • Romanticized restaurant images • Spanish missions • Sombreros • Mexican flags • Revolutionary imagery • Spanish señoritas • Appeal to liberal connoisseurs open to ethnic diversity & culinary adventure

8. Menus demonstrate that customers are considered as tourist diners • Lack knowledge to demand authentic Mexican food • Mexican food becomes a device for cooks to transform Anglos’ experiences into a “foreign” experience

9. When diners leave safe, affluent neighborhoods for true authentic Mexican food (East L.A.) • This fosters awareness of affluent restaurants as staged spaces & challenges stereotypical concepts about the ethnic Other

10. The “Authentic Foodscape” • In claiming authenticity of Mexican food in Mexican communities • Entrepreneurs resist Anglos’ claim to knowledge & appropriation of culinary practices of other ethnic groups • Names of dishes recall Mexico’s history, traditions, and cultural events—archives of culinary memories • Mole poblano

11. Authentic restaurants mark boundaries that set it off from the dominant society • “Anglos will never know the real taste of Mexican food because they do not dare to come here and buy our food” • Mexican food expresses identity & community & to empower the Mexican community by creating enclave markets that compete with corporations trying to enter the Tex-Mex market • The former are closer to their immigrant consumers

12. The tight connection between Mexican food and Mexican culture & its pervasiveness in American markets makes it an effective foodscape • Access to low-waged immigrant labor • Opportunities for entrepreneurship