Food with a Human Face

If there could be a title for Dr. Gary Nabhan's workshop at UTEP last Friday, it might be "Food with a Human Face" - an overarching theme of his life's work. With the background of the new alliance, Sabores Sin Fronteras (Flavors without Borders), Dr. Nabhan motivated the participants to think about food traditions of their families and their place on the frontera - to do some "cultural memory banking".

Sabores Sin Fronteras "is a new regional, bi-national and multi-cultural alliance to document, celebrate and conserve farming and food folkways that span the U.S./Mexico borderlands from Texas and Tamaulipas on the east to Ambos Californias on the west."

His work to "document, celebrate and conserve farming and food folkways" of the borderland stems from an old thesis of his: there can be no biodiversity without cultural diversity. Uproot a culture, assimilate it, destroy it, homogenize it and the genetic diversity of its food stuffs will be lost. Conversely, to preserve the great biodiversity of foods, one must preserve indigenous human cultures. This thesis is particularly apparent in his book, Enduring Seeds, among others.

You can join this new borderlands foodways alliance and receive updates or request information by emailing saboressinfronteras@gmail.com.