Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

Cualli 135
After the rabbit has been roasted, sauté finely minced onion in butter;
once sautéed, season the onion with vinegar and sprinkle in cloves,
saffron, pepper, and ginger. Cut the rabbit into pieces and put it in with
the spice and onion mixture to simmer briefly. Lay some slices of
bread on a plate and top with the rabbit pieces. (23)
With their arrival in the New World the Spanish fervently wanted to reproduce
civilization as they knew it: that is a Spanish society with Spanish cuisine. Food was
symbolically very important and banquets were the most common form of expressing
identity, religious unity, and a sense of victory or celebration. As compared to their
successful efforts to introduce the Spanish language to the colonies, the effort to bring
food culture to the New World faced several challenges. An important early challenge
was the absence of particular plants that were considered essential for a people who
were Christian and civilized. Most important among these were wheat and grapes,
with olives also high on the list of foods necessary for a civilized life. In the early
conquest period Spaniards had little choice but to eat indigenous foods, especially corn
and cassava. In addition, food preparation was universally the province of indigenous
women, even in those instances when Spanish women were present. This factor also
increased the probability that early Spanish households would essentially be
consuming indigenous-style meals, or at least meals with indigenous ingredients,
cooked in ways common to the indigenous people.
The primary foods of Nahua Mexico included maize or corn (the most
important), beans (frijoles), squash, many kinds of chiles, cactus (nopal and maguey),
sweet potatoes, cacao beans, Muscovy ducks, dogs, turkeys, and large quantities of
fish, turtles, salamanders, and algae (Cook and Borah 134-35). The early Mexican
was very frugal and most of the time ate a meager, but nutritious diet that emphasized
simplicity. No breakfast was consumed; atolli, a maize porridge sweetened with
honey was eaten at 10 AM after some hours of work, with a main meal in the middle
of the day. Maize-cakes, beans, pimento or tomato sauce and sometimes tamales were
the common fare. Rarely did any meat accompany the meal. Water was the common
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