Voices In The Kitchen Analysis

Folklore, folk meaning people and –lore meaning stories, can derive from many different accepts ranging from music, dance, food, stories (written and oral), traditions, and many others. Folklore can give symbolic meaning to one’s life. In the case of Marybeth Harper, she is one who deals everyday in the practice of folklore by cooking all different types of food. Food is the burning fuel that makes her much as part of Folklore as any one else. From growing it, to cooking it, and sharing recipes, food, for Marybeth Harper, is symbolic in which the way she cares for the people she loves, family and friends; to the care she shows for others. Marybeth Harper interview connects to crucial topics talked about in the text read in class. This paper …show more content…
She was born, adopted, and raised in El Paso, Texas which is enriched with Mexican-American Folklore. However, her adopted mother was not the one who taught her the art of cooking. She gives credit to the person who did teach her how to cook, her ex-mother in-law (her name was not shared to us). In the book Voices in the Kitchen, the kitchen “can represent an of multiple changing levels and degrees of freedom, self awareness, subjectivity, and agency. The social interactions of daily life that that unfold within a given space define its significance.” Marybeth’s life changed when she married young and had children, so cooking was essential to keeping not only herself healthy but her loved ones healthy as well. However, this carried on into her every day life. During the time she was an educator she stated that she saw many hungry children, and she knew that was not right. Feeding those who needed help the most motivated her to do what she does today by feeding the hungry and those who do not always have access to food. Food and feeding someone(s) was not just some obligation she had to, she learned that cooking is a greater gift in …show more content…
Teachers can be the mother, grandmothers, aunts, or other women. Marybeth does fall into this category of a teacher; and the audience, according to the text, engages with the community and how they define or judge this art. Marybeth teaches this art to her friends or family that want to know how she creates this scrumptious jams, or to whoever wants to know who it is done. She even offered to show myself and my interview partner how to make it if we truly want to learn. There is also a small connection to the teacher aspect of how she shared the art of growing and cooking the food grown to the children at delta. Both are forms of art that she passed down to others. An art that she is more than happy to share freely with anyone who truly wants to