Andrea Cadelo has reviewed Food Studies in Latin American Literature in the September 2025 issue of the Bulletin of Latin American Research.
“Through 13 essays organised in four sections, this book explores pivotal moments in Latin American history in which foodways played a key role in forging the continent’s identity politics. … This book is fascinating to read. Given the limited scholarship connecting food and literature in the region, it is an excellent contribution to the field and the first to provide, in English, an overview of Latin American literary food studies.”
Food Studies in Latin American Literature presents a timely collection of essays analyzing a wide array of Latin American narratives through the lens of food studies. Topics explored include potato and maize in colonial and contemporary global narratives; the role of cooking in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s poetics; the centrality of desire in twentieth-century cooking writing by women; the relationship among food, recipes, and national identity; the role of food in travel narratives; and the impact of advertisements on domestic roles.
The contributors included here—experts in Latin American history, literature, and cultural studies—bring a novel, interdisciplinary approach to these explorations, presenting new perspectives on Latin American literature and culture.
Food Studies in Latin American Literature is part of Food and Foodways, a series from the University of Arkansas Press that explores historical and contemporary topics in global food studies. We are committed to representing a diverse set of voices that tell lesser known food stories and to provoking new avenues of interdisciplinary research.