Identity Essay On Food And Identity

Food and Identity Paper

J.R.R Tolkein once stated “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” This quote fully captures the importance and value that food plays on the human soul. Food is much more than fuel that sustains our bodies. Food ultimately plays a role in shaping a person’s identity. Every single aspect of food from what a person eats or chooses not to eat, the way food is prepared, the way food is served, down to the way food is eaten conveys and represents a person’s identity that nothing else can do so otherwise. I recently interviewed Viola Atencio, my grandmother, and not only did I discover more of her incredible life and see how courageous and loving of a lady she is but I also learned how she has used food to hold

Viola feels that being from two very unique backgrounds has shaped who she is as a person and is ultimately what makes up her identity. She feels that what we eat is a powerful symbol of who we are as people (Atencio). Viola used food not only as personal consumption, but also as a way of exchange, to show generosity, for gift giving, for creating bonds, and most of all as a tool to keep her identity alive. The food she ate was more than just sustenance to sustain her body. It taught her many valuable lessons that made her into the woman she is today. Viola states that it taught her discipline, to take pride in anything she does, hard work, and most of all what the love of a family means (Atencio). The food that she made represented who she was as a person, what was important to her, and what she took pride in it. It essentially was a representation of her ethnic identity. Viola loves her ethnic identity and she states that she wouldn’t be half the person and wouldn’t be where she is today without it