[Sca-cooks] Food and racism and colonialism

[Ana Valdés]

Suey, our families, my and yours :), don't seem to fit with the general comment I made. First of all, this is an historical fact, every empire tend to send as colonisers or settlers the people not needed in the main land. The Pilgrims come to the US as religious prosecuted, the French sent to la Nouvelle Caledonie anarchists as Louise Michel and other convicts of political unrest. The Spaniards sent here to Uruguay families from the Canary Islands and they felt themselves as political refugees.
My ancestors come from Asturias in Spain and became wealthy civil servants in Cuba. My great grandfather was a teacher from Spain who came here to teach at new grounded university and married my great grandmother, a wealthy widower.
But your family and my family were exceptions, not the norm, dear Suey.
Ana 

Skickat från min iPhone

13 sep 2012 kl. 22:22 skrev Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>:

> On 9/7/12 9:52 PM, Ana wrote:
>> Interesting discussion about racism as taboo topic in this list. For
>> me, born in Latinamerica but living in Europe for the most of my adult
>> life, it was not easy to reconciliate myself with my Spanish
>> ancestors, a part of those Europeans who emigrated to the New World in
>> the 16th century.
>> They plundered and killed and stole all the food we eat now, corn,
>> potatoes, tomatoes, chili, beans, coffe, sugar, spices. They were
>> deeply racists and didn't see one of the cultures they met as their
>> equals.
>> Quite a joke. The biggest part of Englishmen, French and Spaniards
>> were illiterate, many of them convicts and felons. They met Maya and
>> Inca civilizations which were superior than them, but lacked weapons
>> and horses and weels. It was the only reason of their victory.
>> The whole history of food is an history of colonialism and racism.
>> Weird not being able to discuss it here.
>> Ana
> My great-great-great grandfather's brother ventured to the Americas but as a university graduate. He was the second son of titled nobility married to a tiltled lady. They  ventured to the new world in the 16th century for adventure like James Mitchener's description of US college grads venturing to Iberia in the 20th Century.
> Neither he nor his wife, nor his children were convicts, illiterate, felons or what have you. On the contrary, they were as aristocratic as the Mendozas from Spanish cardinal's family.
> Family accounts led my family up to the 19th century which consisted of blacks and native Indians as staff members at their homes. My American ancestors did not kill on the contrary our records reveal that one was attacked by the natives and lost his right arm because of an arrow from that. By the 17th C descendants of the founding father in America were all university grads thanks to their parents sending the sons to Europe and founding universities in America.
> The class system remains in many Latin countries. As our family accounts testify, blacks can only enter the home through the back door. Laborers never enter the home but we Latins take care of our people like family. Gringos do not understand the difference between class lines and protecting our servants. Perhaps that is a difference between Gringos and Latins.
> Food history is another chapter concerning class system history. Tomorrow - enough for today.
> My cats are begging for tuna fish. And you?
> Suey
> 
> 
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