María Elena García is a cultural anthropologist whose work is at the intersection of Indigenous studies, Latin American Studies, and Animal Studies. Her most recent book, Gastropolitics and the Specter of Race (UC Press 2021), was awarded the 2022 Flora Tristán Prize for Best Book on Peru, a recognition given annually by the Peru section of the Latin American Studies Association. You can listen to an interview with García about the book here. And you can find a short blogpost about this project here.
In recent years, Peru has experienced a transformation from a war-torn country to a global high-end culinary destination. Connecting chefs, state agencies, global capital, and Indigenous producers, this “gastronomic revolution” makes powerful claims: food unites Peruvians, dissolves racial antagonisms, and fuels development. Gastropolitics and the Specter of Race critically evaluates these claims and tracks the emergence of Peruvian gastropolitics, understood as a biopolitical and aesthetic set of practices that reinscribe dominant racial and gendered orders. Through ethnographic analysis and critical readings of high-end menus, culinary festivals, guinea pig production, national-branding campaigns, and other elements of Peru’s gastropolitical complex, this work explores the intersections of race, species, and capital to reveal links between gastronomy and violence.