• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Eating the other: Ethnicity and the market for authentic Mexican food in Tucson, Arizona. Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Cox, Jay Ann. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 10:11:51 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186179 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. V·M·I University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. MI 48106·1346 USA 313/761·4700 800/521·0600 Order Number 9322681 Eating the other: Ethnicity and the market for authentic Mexican food in Tucson, Arizona Cox, Jay Ann, Ph.D. The University of Arizona, 1993 Copyright ®1993 by Cox, Jay Ann. All rights reserved. V·M·I 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI48106 EATING THE OTHER: BTHNICITY AND THB MARKET POR AUTHBNTIC MEXICAN FOOD IN TUCSON, ARIZONA by Jay Ann Cox Copyright © Jay Ann Cox 1993 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the COMMITTEE ON COMPARATIVE CULTURAL AND LITERARY STUDIES (GRADUATE) In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE CULTURAL AND LITERARY STUDIES In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 9 9 3 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by ___J_a~y~_A_n_n __ C_,o_x ______________________ __ entitled ___________E_a_t_i_n~g~t_l_1e_· _O_t_l_1_e_r_: ___F._,t_h_n_i_c_l_·t_y~_a_n_d _____________ the Market for Authentic Mexican Food in Tucson, Arizona and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of noctor of Philosophy 10· //(' ·03 Date ¥o Jq-s Charles M. Tatum Date Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's sabmission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certifY that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and r~commend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ,//:7;7·/:/0.0. /1 < b~;~··21 Dissertation Director Date Barbara A. Babcock 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I must thank my parents for moving me around the country in search of good things to eat, and for settling in Texas, where I learned about "ahs tea," BBQ, and Tex-Mex. I am eternally grateful that my father decided to teach me how to "cook a fire." I also thank all the church ladies who shared chicken enchilada pie recipes, and for the "boys"--the undocumented workers on the ranch in Abilene--who taught me how to make real fajitas. I especially thank my mother for staving off my hunger one afternoon in 1969 by making me the first taco I'd ever seen. "It's like a Mexican sandwich . ." In Texas, I remain grateful to Don Graham and Betsy Berry. Michele Mika de Atley and Jon Tate have kept after me all these years to finish, and have always supported my somewhat eccentric endeavors. At the Institute of Texan Cultures, I thank Phyllis McKenzie, Laurie Gudzikowski, Sylvia Reyes, Christine Hanson, and Dedra McDonald for reminding me of my gifts, and sharing lunch with me. Special acknowledgement and profuse thanks go to Teresa Zertuche who convinced me I could cook, and maybe even someday be as good as her. In Arizona, I am most grateful to Barbara Babcock for employing me in all my anomalies, and for making me go to the library to explore the interdisciplinary road less traveled. I am proud that Jim Griffith includes me in his circle, doesn't require a translator for my frequent lapses into Texan, and likes to eat lunch as much as I do. I especially am grateful to Chuck Tatum for his unflagging support, editing skill, reliable advice, and all-around good nature. This project owes a debt to Barre Toelken and the Fife Folklore Conference of 1992, for their immediate support and friendship, the opportunity to do some heavy duty food discussion with Tim Lloyd, Kathy Neustadt, Ted and Lin Humphrey, and some heavy duty eating with Meg Glaser, Joan Rabinowitz, Craig Miller, and Carol Edison, among others. Among the steadfast friends and family in Arizona are Bill Wright, Michele Hanson, Mabel Lebam, Jim Klingenfus, Jack A. Klingenfus, Alisa Slaughter, Brooke Fredericksen, Amy Tyler, Chris Arbuckle, David Wetherbee, Dick Arnold, Mary Fitzgerald and Alexandrea Jay Arnold, and Pam, Kazem and Roxana Haji. Pam Haji read this manuscript and has helped me far above and beyond the call of duty--"thaink yew, hon." Thanks and love to Judy and Kyle Freeman, who lately have helped me keep this project in perspective, reminding me of what is really important. And finally, a well-deserved thank you to Dr. Vaughn Huff, mentor and friend, who taught me the best lessons of them all. 5 DEDICATION To Sasha and B.C., for constant and unconditional love; and to Charlotte Cox, for continually showing me what strong stuff we Cox women are made of. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES 7 LIST OF FIGURES 8 ABSTRACT 9 1. Mexican Food, Ethnicity, and the Gastronomic Tourist. 11 2. uTucson Eat Yourself": Food and Communitas At a Multi-Ethnic Festival . 44 3. Deciphering the #3 Dinner: The Grammar of Sonoran Style . 103 4. Taking Ethnicity Home: The Salsa Mystique .. 152 5. Tourist Commodities and Stereotypes. 205 WORKS CITED . 212 7 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: MEXICAN RESTAURANT NAMES AND ADDRESSES 109 TABLE 2 : TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MEXICAN RESTAURANTS 110 TABLE 3 : FOOD ITEMS ON SELECTED TYPE I AND II MENUS 111 TABLE 4 : SALSA LABEL INFORMATION FROM SOUTHWEST FOLKLORE CENTER EXHIBIT 171 TABLE 5: ADDITIONAL SALSA LABELS FROM COLLECTION OF THE AUTHOR 176 8 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: DIAGRAM OF EXPERIENCE FOR TYPE I RESTAURANT. 113 FIGURE 2: DIAGRAM OF EXPERIENCE FOR TYPE II RESTAURANT 114 FIGURE 3: ROLE OF HABITUS IN GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE . 127 FIGURE 4: RELATIONSHIP OF AUTHENTICATION AND STYLE IN BORROWED HABITUS . 130 FIGURE 5: TWIN LAWS OF VARIATION IN CULTURAL PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTION . 137 9 ABSTRACT The sharing of Mexican food in Tucson at festivals, restaurants, and grocery stores between Euro-American and Hispanic groups performs a number of functions beyond nutrition: it signifies the desire for harmony, it perpetuates negative cultural stereotypes, and it re-enacts the social drama of 500 years of contact. In this gift exchange, a hybrid cuisine--"Sonoran style"--is invented, mytholigized, and marketed as authentic. Food sharing both engenders cultural exchange ~ turns a profit, and ethnicity reinvented as an "orientalized" tourist commodity. "Eating the other" requires a symbolic supply/demand economy, and the recognition and negotiation of ethnic identity and cultural taboos and boundaries. The result of cross-cultural eating is complicated by the implications of consuming and incorporating the other in order to understand and negotiate difference. An introduction posits the "gastronomic tourist" as a model for food sharing and cultural cannabalism. The events taken as texts and read as examples of Victor Turner's social drama, are secular ceremonies and rituals that often resemble the touristic. One such arena is Tucson Meet Yourself. Unlike carnivalesque festival, this local celebration cultivates neutral ground where diverse groups assemble and sample "otherness" through food, music, and dance. Ethnic 10 food initiates and sustains the communitas of this temporary quasi-pilgrimage even though actual performances of traditional foods are truncated to serve large crowds. The third chapter offers a close reading of Bourdieu, and considers local restaurants where distinctions of Sonoran style and its constant reinvention suit the supply/demand of producers and consumers, and show how ethnicity is invented and authenticated by powerful consensus, and mediates across boundaries; yet it also perpetuates stereotypes through the rigid "grammar" of the Sonoran style meal.

Load more

  235

Copy Link