Black Cookstove: Meditations on Literature, Culture, and Cuisine in Colombia

In his book, Germán Patiño Ossa explores Colombia's cultural universe and national identities through the lens of traditional cuisine, focusing on the Cauca Valley and the Creole fusions that characterize it. He examines cooking, kitchens, labor division, flora and fauna, agriculture, hunting, fishing, hospitality, slavery, and literature using Jorge Isaacss nineteenth-century novel María as a realistic source. Cooking and food are essential for understanding the process of culture formation and transculturation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 112 pages
Publication date: 22 October 2020
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

Winner of the 2006 Andrés Bello Award for Memory and Ibero-American Thought, Germán Patiño Ossa presents an evocative exploration of Colombia's cultural universe and national identities through the lens of traditional cuisine. Focusing on the Cauca Valley, a fertile area in southwestern Colombia where Spanish, Native American, and African communities converged over centuries, Patiño Ossa delves into the food of these communities and its profound place in the region's culture. Drawing upon Jorge Isaacss nineteenth-century Romantic novel María as a realistic source for cultural practices among Colombia's slaveholding elite, Patiño Ossa examines cooking, kitchens, labor division, flora and fauna, agriculture, hunting, fishing, hospitality, slavery, and literature. Through the community of Afro-descendants featured in Isaacss novel, Patiño Ossa showcases how this culinary culture, originating in the cookstoves used by female black slaves, gave rise to the Creole fusions that define this geographical region of Latin America.

Cooking and food, as Patiño Ossa eloquently demonstrates, hold immense significance in understanding the process of culture formation and the origins, evolution, and effects of transculturation. This English-language edition of Patiño Ossa's award-winning book, translated by acclaimed scholar María Elena Torre, is a groundbreaking model for food and cultural studies. It appeals to scholars, students, and intellectually curious individuals alike, offering a captivating and insightful journey into the world of culinary traditions and their profound impact on society.

Weight: 184g
Dimension: 198 x 303 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271086989