Fulbright U.S. Student
Grantee Newsletter

The Complexities of Studying Food in Italy

I came to Italy to study traditional food production and eco-gastronomic practices that promote human and environmental health. Food represents a complex intersection of local and global human relationships. A comparative inquiry into land use and food generates important implications for cross-cultural understanding. My exploration of food, in all its aspects, has provided me with uniquely intimate and broad parameters for understanding Italian culture and identity.

One of my first research points was a small agritourismo farm; an opportunity to acquaint myself - botanically and culturally - with rural Italian life. I discovered that wild foods are celebrated through many festivals and recipes throughout Italy. Little did I know just how close I would come into contact with my food.

One evening, I climbed the hills behind the farm, excited for my impending months of research. Without warning, I heard from behind me a gruff, guttural snort. I turned to see, standing less than 20 meters away, a wild boar or cinghiale in Italian, observing my moment of tranquility.

Any wild boar encounter was unfamiliar enough, but I was completely unprepared for an Italian wild boar. Suddenly, I thought of a tactical approach. A week of grammar drills in the garden had left my Italian host farmer exasperated with my insistent practice of the conditional tense.

"Enough should, would, could!" she had stated flatly. "In Italy, you tell me what you are going to do. Stop with questions; command!"

Katharine Millonzi, 2007-2008, Italy (with a half wheel of cheese)

"I love Italy!" I exclaimed, squaring my body humbly to his squat, brown one. "Molti bellissimi, these woods… Eh, uh, your woods. Let’s be peaceful.”

Another grunt. Perhaps of accordance?

His kin certain to be amongst my gastronomic samplings of the upcoming year, I tried to ignore mental flashes of delicious wild boar recipes; cinghiale e polenta, cinghiale alle mele… 

We stood in silence, trying to relax. I took note of his small, sharp tusks. When at last he turned and waddled towards the trees, I sprinted back into the kitchen, gasping for words.

"I see a pig… A pig who stays outside!" My beginner vocabulary hadn’t quite covered the uncultivated porcine family. "I see a pig who stays outside with sticks on his face!"

Cinghiale? My hosts looked at me incredulously. It was one of those precious moments of cultural confusion in which there is nowhere to hide. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between their expressions and that of the cinghiale, who had graciously spared me a true discomfort, namely the sticks on his face in my hide.

From the classroom to the woods, cultural insight certainly dons many guises. I have much gratitude to the Fulbright Program for this opportunity to experience the full gamut.

Being A Cultural Ambassador in Argentina

“What happened to all of your indigenous people?” asked a 10-year-old boy at a primary school in rural Argentina. I am an English Teaching Assistant in Colón, Argentina but I also give presentations in Spanish to younger students who don’t speak English. This was a very astute question, but not one I expected. I was prepared to answer all kinds of inquires about regional food and whether Americans take siestas, but not necessarily about the colonization of our Native Americans and why anyone would treat them so appallingly. Even more difficult was answering questions about slavery and the 9/11 terrorist attacks entirely in Castellano, which I speak comfortably but not with as much subtlety as English. I would even be challenged to answer these questions articulately in my native tongue.

Sarah Enelow, 2007-2008, Argentina

In my opinion, members of the human race are more similar than different. I continue to find countless parallels between American and Argentine culture (our two countries are enormous and have many distinct regionsto name a couple). The most obvious parallel I drew when I heard the question about Native Americans, was Argentina’s own history of European colonization of indigenous cultures, which Argentine adults are well aware of but perhaps not the children. Beyond these historical topics, there are many universal aspects of life that helped these kids regard me as a fellow human being, not an alien from outer space talking to them about life on the moon.

This is not to say that the U.S. and Argentina are the same; they are extremely different and each culture can learn many things from the other. However, I would venture to say that somewhere in Argentina is a town similar to your hometown where they would undoubtedly welcome you to visit.