Memory, food and indigenous migration in Netzahualcoyotl City, México

Abstract

The metropolitan area of Mexico City is inhabited mainly by migrants, mostly indigenous groups from the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Michoacan, Guerrero and Puebla, who arrived in the 1970s with the aim of finding better life opportunities. This afore mentioned event can be observed in the municipality of Nezahualcóyotl, which experienced a significant population increase in the 1990s, a decade in which the number of inhabitants of the municipality grew by 131% due to the large amount of immigration; This migratory phenomenon brought with it changes in the family contexts of the settlers (mainly indigenous) who settled in the municipality.

One of the first changes that migrant families faced was the transformation of their diet, as they changed the ways of cooking and the ingredients of the food. However, food is not only intended to satisfy a biological need, because integrates a cultural system that includes religion, rituals, knowledge of the environment and its management, social and family customs as well as nutritional culture. The objective of this paper aims to know how immigrant families changes the way they obtain, prepare and consume food to continue reproducing their culture.