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Example research essay topic: Mother In Law Racial Mixing - 2,049 words

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Que Via Los Tamales (1) Does food form national character? May the ancient idea that everything has to do with everything also be applied in the field of social relations? These are the questions, which Jeffrey Pilcher tried to answer in his book Que via los tamales. He promotes a Liberal agenda in his book, but despite this, it is not altogether deprived of any logic, as one might expect. Important is author was able to recognize the inner relation between the living standards and the person's racial affiliation. Pilcher follows the development of specific Mexican dishes, which originated in time, when the types of food, consumed by the people with different social status, also corresponded to their racial composition.

Even in Europe, the fine white bread used to be eaten mostly by the representatives of nobility, while rougher wheat bread was the prerogative of peasants. The similar situation could be found in Mexico, at the beginning of 20 th century. At that time, about 80 % of Mexican population was already consisting of the products of racial mixing, but there was still a large portion of population unaffected by it, which traced it roots directly to Europe Mexican aristocracy. Quite naturally, these people were able to notice that the much lower standards of living, among mestizos, could not be exclusively explained by the unfavorable social circumstances.

On the subconscious level, the descendants of Spaniards were aware of the fact that mestizos are simply much different from them, but they wrongly attributed this to the fact that mestizos were using corn flour, instead of wheat flour, like the nobility. Therefore, the idealistic White people, who nevertheless lacked the understanding of the basic laws of genetics, had concluded that, in order to improve the quality of mestizos, as social group, they should be fed the fine white bread: When large-scale industrialization began during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz (1875 - 1911), the vast majority of the rural population contributed little to the market economy. The ruling cientificos (scientific party) sought to explain this low productivity, but the racial theories of Anglo-American Social Darwinism had little appeal because both the elite and the masses were predominantly mestizo. Instead, they resorted to the newly developed science of nutrition and claimed that the Native American staple, maize, was inferior to the European grain, wheat, and that progress would be impossible until the masses were weaned from the former and taught to eat the latter (Pilcher). Whatever the childish such theory might sound to our ears now, it was being seriously considered in Mexican scientific circles, at the time. Pilcher rightfully criticizes it in his book, but he criticizes it from the left.

I personally think that it is much appropriate to do it from the the right. There is no doubt that every society and every nation is stratified. The most democratic countries in the world divide its citizens on lower, middle and higher classes. Despite the universal equality concept, which is being promoted by medias in Western countries nowadays, it is a fact that people are not equal. Watchdogs of political correctness explain this by different social reasons. This approach fails to explain why Mexican Americans of even middle class have generally much lower IQ level, comparing to Whites.

Apparently, the root for social stratification is anthropological, or racial one. The theory of Bell Curve, which is now being accepted by great many sociologists, effectively proves the fact that inequality, among people, is not socially but biologically based. In his book, Pilcher draws a parallel between people's racial background and the type of food they consume. It is not a secret that maize flour is much darker than the wheat flour. Also, it is well known that for more primitive people, the intensity of a feeling replaces its finesse. This explains the fact why Mexican food is so spicy: I took a bite and suddenly felt steam come boiling out my ears.

My subsequent dance around the house, culminating with my head stuck futilely under the kitchen faucet, has become a family legend (Pilcher). The shortcoming of Pilcher's book, in my opinion, is the fact that, even though he admits that there is a connection between the food and national character, he fails to explain the essence of such connection. But one does not have to be the scientist, in order to do this. We can talk all we want about the diversity, we can look and the Malevich' painting The Black Square and suggest that it is filled with deep meaning, we can try swallowing a live insect, like it is done, while eating some dishes of Vietnamese cuisine, and say that it was unique, after having stop barfing, as the result. Fact remains a fact the more primitive people like more primitive food. This is very natural and should be respected.

But things should be called for what they are. (2) We cannot talk about the Mexican cuisine as something homogeneous, as it varies greatly from region to region. In the Southern Mexico people still use an old Mayan recipes, which involve such an exotic ingredients as iguanas or the rattlesnakes. The eastern Mexican food is known for the variety of spicy vegetables, used in its dishes. Also, as it moved northwards, the Mexican food had adapted itself for the taste of average American. The Mexican restaurants in America use much more moderate approach, when it comes to spicing up the food, as they do not want to be sued, if one of their customers receives a heart attack, after having tasted peppers of Quatatarango, for example. Actually, many restaurants offer customer to choose whether he wants any spices at all to be used in his food.

It is well known that the American salsa is much different from what it is in America. In the supermarkets we can find all kinds of this product, ranging from fiery hot to extra mild, but it way too saucy, comparing to Mexican original, as it based more on tomato sauce, rather then on pepper juices, which come out of the vegetables, during the process of brewing. The most of the dishes that we refer to as Mexican authentic, come from the Northern region of this country, where European influences were the strongest. Therefore, the North-Mexican food can be considered as the most adapted for the American taste, as it is heavily based on such ingredients as beef and wheat: The foods seen most often in the United States tend to come from the north, a region of Spanish settlement where wheat and beef were the preferred says Pilcher in his book, admitting the fact that racial links are much stronger than the cultural or the religious ones, as the Spaniards and White Protestants did not have much in common, except for their anthropological constitution. (2) This brings us to the question of whether the Mexican food, known to Americans is more regional in its definition, or can be referred to as having a nationwide properties. The answer is evident, from the context of what was being said earlier. Here we deal almost exclusively with the North Mexican cuisine, as the most adapted to our taste, in more sense then just one.

It would be appropriate to attach a metaphysical meaning to the word taste, under these circumstances. Wheat, beef and pork were being traditionally used in Europe, since thousands of years ago. It points out to the non-nomadic nature of Europeans. The meat in their dishes comes from the animals that require intensive farmer's care. Wheat also need to be closely tended, while growing, while maize can grow on its own, as simple weed. I personally like spicy Mexican food, but apparently, there used to be a lot of resistance against it becoming socially acceptable, as Pilcher points out: What I found in nineteenth-century Mexican cookbooks bore little resemblance to the tamales and gordian I had so recently learned to prepare.

Those volumes ignored popular street foods, based on the pre-Hispanic grain, maize, and instead gave recipes for elite Spanish and French dishes. I had stumbled on the culinary expression of Mexico's national identity crisis: a mestizo or mixed-race people who inherited the European disdain for their Native American ancestors (Pilcher). Even in our time, Mexican restaurants are having a hard time, trying to stay out of bankruptcy, in the regions with predominantly White people. And the most peculiar thing about it is that these people actually like Mexican food, but they subconsciously associate it with the illegal immigration, which they strongly oppose for variety of reasons. Once Mexican food store moves into the area, it instantly attracts illegals, who simply hang out around it all day long, without any particular reason, eventually becoming drug addicts. It is becoming a haven for the representatives of foreign culture, who do not respect the laws of the country where they came and who strive for nothing less than creating their own society, within the society, which lives by its own rules.

This, of course, cannot go on unnoticed forever and this is the ultimate reason for the people becoming increasingly disturbed about the illegal immigration and not their bigotry, as Liberal medias try to portray. Filcher describes his mother in law as somebody who simply does not want to learn English and he finds it cute and amusing: She never learned to speak English and my Spanish was quite rudimentary at the time, so the lessons were conducted the old fashioned way, by touch, smell, and taste (Filcher). But I personally don't think that hordes of illegals, who can't speak our language can be thought of as the subject of amusement, no matter how tasty their food can be. (3) The idea that the ethnic culinary is related to the formation of the nation is very fresh. But we cannot think of the food as something that defines national character, it is rather other way around.

For example, in Mongolian cuisine the dishes are not named after the ways of food preparation or after the regions, where they had originated from, but strictly indicate the parts of the animals, which were used for cooking. Literally they are translated: head, leg, tongue, tail. Usually, the cooking takes place right after the animals were being butchered, with the pools of blood nearby. But who would expect better from the nomadic tribe, whose full time occupancy used to be destroying cultures? Mexican cuisine is much more complexed, it is the result of mixing of cultures and traditions, still, its best dishes derive from Spanish cuisine, where such ingredients as beef, rice and beans are still used more than any other. But it is also influenced by the native recipes, which added certain richness to it.

But I think it is wrong to suggest, like Filcher does, that maize flour is a some kind of cement, which unites all Mexicans together. Food is a food and nothing else, it can be uneatable, like Mongolian food, it can be eatable but gross, like Ukrainian food, it can be more art than food, like Japanese dishes, or it can be tasty and fun to eat, like Mexican food. There is no need to suggest that the national spirit is concentrated in the piece of meat, which was being fried in some exotic way. But it is also a truth that ethnic food is often associated with the ethnic minorities's oil conduct. Still, the food itself, has nothing to do with it. National cuisines only reflect the national character, but they do not define it.

Filcher's book is interesting to read, but the impression is spoiled by the fact that author tries to push Liberal agenda, upon the readers. He suggests that the racial mixing should be promoted, but there is enough scientific data, which tells us otherwise. Filcher, as the author, is entitled to hold his own views. But it seems like that he cannot even comprehend the fact that there may be other people, who have different opinions. Also, his food-nation theory is utterly one dimensional, because it does not consider other, more important, aspects of nations' formation. We can think of his book in the same way he used to think about his mother in law - amusing.


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Research essay sample on Mother In Law Racial Mixing

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