"Why should I not take an apple or a fruit if I wash their underwear?" Food, Social Classification and Paid Domestic Work in Mexico

This paper presents a case study of food relations between female employers and non-indigenous domestic workers in the city of Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. The paper argues that food and eating are still powerful racial and class markers among people in Mexico regardless of their ethnic adscription...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of intercultural studies 2012-04, Vol.33 (2), p.121-137
Main Author: Saldaña-Tejeda, Abril
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cities
Class
Classification
Domestic Work
Domestic workers
Females
Food
Food Relations
Fruit
Gender
Mestizaje
Mexico
National Identity
Race relations
Racialisation
Racism
Women workers
Workers
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Summary:This paper presents a case study of food relations between female employers and non-indigenous domestic workers in the city of Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. The paper argues that food and eating are still powerful racial and class markers among people in Mexico regardless of their ethnic adscription. The paper describes the history of food relations in Mexico and illustrates the parallels between ideas of culinary and human mestizaje as imagined founders of Mexico's national identity. In doing so, it identifies the complexities of addressing racism among a group of women workers that, in theory, are imagined as mixed while, in practice, are part of an occupation that has been and is still heavily racialised.
ISSN:0725-6868
1469-9540
DOI:10.1080/07256868.2012.648325