ABSTRACT
In exploring the history of food culture in Puerto Rico, Ortiz Cuadra presents the interesting idea of the palate memory, a bond that unites food with vital experiences and remembrances. The humour of a child's greatest ambition being to eat a delicious treat is underscored by the very serious desire to exercise choice and control over one's food as such control is symbolic of freedom. Thus, it can be argued that the slaves used foodways in much the same way that other migrant groups do in order to regain a sense of community, dignity, heritage, and connection to the past and to each other. It has been calculated that, over a period of 400 years, about 20 million Africans fell victim to the Atlantic slave trade. By analysing the depictions of foodways in slave narratives it is possible to note how foodways brought from Africa helped forge humanity in the midst of the greatest inhumanity.
