The Poetics of Fire
Metaphors of Chile Eating in the Borderlands
Published on 15. November 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-0-8263-6554-5 (ISBN)
Description
In The Poetics of Fire, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and Chicano author Victor M. Valle posits the chile as a metaphor for understanding the shared cultural histories of Chicanx and Latinx peoples from preconquest Mesoamerica to twentieth-century New Mexico. Valle uses the chile as a decolonizing lens through which to analyze preconquest Mesoamerican cosmology, early European exploration, and the forced conversion of Native peoples to Catholicism as well as European and Mesoamerican perspectives on food and place. Assembling a rich collection of source material, Valle highlights the fiery fruit's overarching importance as evidenced by the ubiquity of references to the plant over several centuries in literature, art, official documents, and more to offer a new eco-aesthetic reading--a reframing of culinary history from a pluralistic, non-Western perspective.
Reviews / Votes
A deep exploration into the ontology, mythology, epigenetics, and place-making (or indigenizing) of chile."-Enrique R. Lamadrid, coeditor of Water for the People: The Acequia Heritage of New Mexico in a Global Context"Valle's work makes resounding contributions to the fields of food studies, ethnic studies, Mesoamerican history, and philosophy. This book is bound to become essential reading for scholars, chefs, and chile eaters alike!"-Joseph Tuminello, contributor to Food Justice in US and Global Contexts: Bringing Theory and Practice Together
"In this brilliant analysis, chiles emerge as protagonists in the multicultural wars that date from the sixteenth century to the present. Victor M. Valle calls out all the contradictions that entangle culinary practices of heat and flavor with prejudice, misunderstandings, and derision and offers instead erudite theorizations of meaning and power through a taste-based methodology that respects the botanical product as much as its fiery eaters--both equally qualified warriors of memory and dignity."-Maribel Alvarez, coeditor of Hungry for Change: Borderlands Food and Water in the Balance
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albuquerque, NM
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8263-6554-5 (9780826365545)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2023
Simon + Schuster LLC
€25.70
Available for download
Person
Victor M. Valle is a professor emeritus at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. He writes extensively on urban politics, economy, and food for a variety of media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies. He is the author of Recipe of Memory: Five Generations of Mexican Cuisine.