Monday, September 10, 2007

Event #1 - Gendered Space in Central Mexico

Making women visible: Gendered space in fiesta food preparation in central Mexico
September 5, 2007
223 Engel Hall

Dr. Maria Elisa Christie presented her findings of an 11 month field study in three Mexican towns: Tetecala, Ocotepec, and Xohimilco. Her research consisted of qualitative methodology (i.e. participant observation, interviews, progressive contextualization, etc) in order to determine how men and women relate to food preparation within the society. She actually worked in the gardens with the women and helped wash dishes after fiestas. She mainly discussed Feminist Political Ecology dealing with gendered knowledge and gendered space. The results of her studies showed an extremely close relationship between women and the environment. This closeness means that changes in the environment greatly affect women’s lives. Abundant food will mean the women are happy and have easier days, while deforestation leads to long, hard days with little findings. Most of the focus was placed on women’s relationship to food preparation with minimal details on men’s relationship. The resounding outcome was that women of Mexico are becoming extremely affected by degraded environment. Looking at the landscape, a distinct difference could be seen between where men and women worked. Men worked in large fields in the front of lots, while women worked in small gardens hidden behind the house. Women also showed a greater knowledge of food preparation especially when determining food quality. As an example, Maria discussed that when purchasing hicuma the best quality hicuma is the one that is cracked and full of dirt. This means that they are actually so sweet that they are bursting with flavor. Many people, especially men, would not know this and would thing this hicuma was bad.

I found some connections between the event and our class. When discussing where the genders where located on the landscape, it is obvious that the men are out in front to be seen while the women are hidden from the public eye. The kitchen is the main sector that women are in charge of. It is believed that this is where the reproduction of culture and society occurs. Women must figure out how to feed their families here and also it is where young people learn about life, especially for girls to learn about cooking. Also, I found out that women are not allowed to ride bicycles in Mexico. They are allowed to walk beside a bike while pushing it; however, men are the only sex able to actually ride the bike. I saw this as a clear example that sexism is also prevalent in Mexican societies.

I was somewhat surprised by the event because at one point Maria scolded western feminists for critiquing how women in Mexico live. She said that these feminists urge women to get out of the kitchen and into different jobs. Maria declared, “The fact is that women spend a lot of time there and if you want to understand Mexico you must look at the kitchen.” Mexican women are proud of their kitchens and understand that their work there is extremely important to the Mexican societies. Everyone works together in the kitchen and the women are not in isolation as feminists believe. I think the event actually confused me more than taught me. It seemed the presentation was not very organized and contradicted itself in many areas. Although it was interesting to learn about the Hispanic culture, I look forward to learning more in another event.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

definitely sounds like an interesting (and I would agree... confusing event)... good write up!