On Monday, February 22, we had the visit of cook, Adriana Mojica Haslam, in the Spanish literature class From Texts to Table: Food, Literature, and Culture in Latin America.
Adriana cooks for the farm "Molten Family Orchards" in Benton Harbor, Michigan and writes on food for the magazine Edible Michiana. She came to the class to offer a demonstration in Spanish on how to prepare tamales (a long tradition in her own Mexican family) and brought tamales for the whole class!
In every class we explore from different perspectives and with different activities (that many times includes having the students cook or visit a store / restaurant where they can research about the preparation of a certain dish or ingredient) the connections between food and literature. The class goal is not only to become aware of the cultural connections implied in cooking and eating but also to become ourselves more active and conscious consumers of what we eat and the processes involved in having a plate of food in front of us.
A summary of the class readings associated with tamales, as well as Adriana's recipe and video demonstration can be found in the class blog (The readings and demo is in Spanish and Adriana's bio and recipe is in English):
The blog contains literary analysis and creative works by the students in the class written in Spanish. It also offers links to other works and projects related to the study of food history.
Take some minutes of your time and enjoy this culinary trip through wonderful literature pieces from the Latin American world!
