Pensar el alimento, el caso costarricense

Résumé En

The imaginary world of the table in the Costa Rican Caribbean has continued to evolve and change over the centuries. A variety of heritages, layered upon one another, act both as overwhelming forces and instruments of resistance from different cultural areas. These heritages sometimes conceal each other, sometimes are rediscovered at certain times, thanks to changes in political, economic, and cultural perspectives. This makes the table an object in constant re-elaboration, both materially and mentally. The composition of the food itself may vary over time, but it is above all the way in which it is perceived that evolves. Eating a banana, drinking a cup of coffee, concocting a tamal: these simple and seemingly innocuous gestures carry a heavy symbolic load, to be considered in terms of a known past and of course, read and reread according to the needs of the moment.There is also another question, which has become crucial with the marked development of tourism in the region: how can we show others what we are eating? The others are those who don't have access to a common Caribbean imagination, to the language of images that is superimposed on the words of the table and makes it a shared knowledge. In other words, how and why should we stage food practices in such a way as to turn them into essential issues, economic ones no doubt, but also linked to the survival of certain cultures that are periodically under threat, both economically and intellectually? The goal is to exist without being swallowed up by burdensome legacies or global influences from outside. The path to be found is complex, but it is currently the subject of some very interesting explorations that will undoubtedly lead to future developments.Food, the way we think about it, and the way we make visitors think about it, is undoubtedly an issue to be integrated into the problems linked to the defence and promotion of certain cultures in the current context of generalized globalization. The table generates an imaginary world that is flexible and changing, yet robust and enduring in the face of time, exile, and the upheavals of history.To think about food in the Caribbean is to sketch out a rich, living, shared imaginary: the task is immense and has only been sketched out here, but it needs to be pursued, extended, and supplemented by viewpoints with different perspectives.