Gastro-Politics, Race, and Species in Peru

FAIN: FEL-262382-19

Maria Elena Garcia
University of Washington (Seattle, WA 98195-1016)

A book-length study about the recent culinary boom in Peru that has made Lima one of the top food destinations in the world.

Since 2000, Peru has gone from being a war-torn country to being a premier culinary destination. Connecting chefs, state agencies, global capital, and Indigenous producers, the “gastronomic revolution” makes powerful claims: food unites Peruvians, dissolves racial antagonisms, and fuels development. This project critically explores these claims and tracks the emergence of gastro-politics, understood as a bio-political and aesthetic set of practices that reconfigure dominant racial and gendered orders. Although scholars have examined the cultural politics of post-war Peru, this project provides a unique view into how the interactions of race, species and gender shape the consequences of culinary nationalism. Placing ethnographic findings in conversation with readings of novels, production manuals, high-end menus, national-branding campaigns, and other visual texts, this work reveals how gastronomy connects to histories of violence, mestizaje and nation making.

Associated Products

Gastropolitics and the Specter of Race: Stories of Capital, Culture, and Coloniality in Peru (Book)
Title: Gastropolitics and the Specter of Race: Stories of Capital, Culture, and Coloniality in Peru
Author: María Elena García
Editor: Kate Marshall
Abstract: In recent years, Peru has transformed from a war-torn country to a global high-end culinary destination. Connecting chefs, state agencies, global capital, and Indigenous producers, this “gastronomic revolution” makes powerful claims: food unites Peruvians, dissolves racial antagonisms, and fuels development. Gastropolitics and the Specter of Race critically evaluates these claims and tracks the emergence of Peruvian gastropolitics, a biopolitical and aesthetic set of practices that reinscribe dominant racial and gendered orders. Through critical readings of high-end menus and ethnographic analysis of culinary festivals, guinea pig production, and national-branding campaigns, this work explores the intersections of race, species, and capital to reveal links between gastronomy and violence in Peru.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520301900/gastropolitics-and-the-specter-of-race
Primary URL Description: University of California Press book page
Publisher: University of California Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780520301900
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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