The Quest for Method

This project explores food as a method for understanding Afro-descendant histories and identities in the circum-Caribbean and more broadly, the Atlantic world. Through research supported by the CLACS summer grant, I conducted fieldwork in Veracruz, Mexico, and Cartagena, Colombia—two key Atlantic port cities shaped by slavery, migration, and African culture. Drawing from archives, kitchens, and conversations with community members, I examined how food functions as a living archive that reveals both resilience and erasure. In Veracruz, dishes like arroz a la tumbada and encacahuatado shed light on African heritage often hiding in the shadows of Mexican nationalism while in Cartagena, the struggles of rural communities highlighted how subsistence traditions confront pressures from tourism, urban expansion, and environmental change. Across both sites, food provided a lens into broader questions of memory, dispossession, and survival. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how meals are not only nourishment but also vital tools for interpreting history and society.