I’M SO LUCKY THERES A LIBRARY

Doing my research essay, the first thing I had to decide is the topic of my essay. I wanted to continue with the same topic as before, and so I did. My topic was “Food and Magic” and finding information about this topic was hard. When I typed in food and magic into the "EBSCOhost" database, there were no results. Finding scholar essays on food and magic was difficult, so I rephrase the words and typed in similar topics on food and magic. Magic is similar to witchcraft and rituals/sacrifices and with these practices, it includes food. The only negative thing about the research, was finding articles about magic and the food it posses. The library's online database was the most helpful in discovering article about topics. It gives you lists of scholar articles you can choose from to make your essay more powerful in examples. From all the research I've done, i think my essay will be very interesting.

Tortilla Soup: Leticia Naranjo

Leticia Naranjo is a conservative religious woman who lives with her father and her two sisters. Now you would think for an older sister, she would have a life but she doesn't. She a school teacher, with no boyfriend, no kids and not a spontaneous trait in her. The only thing that anyone knows about her is she a christian and she loves Jesus. The author would make Leticia more outgoing and more womanly, but since her sister have the looks and the men, the author choose a different attitude. Her mother die and her father lost the taste for good food. The author made Leticia like a blooming rose. As each petal peels back, Leticia opens up to her family. When each of her sisters at dinner reveal secrets about moving out, Leticia was growing more independent within herself. Why Leticia hide her true feelings?

Knowing the character from the beginning of a book or a movie, the watchers/readers would love to see drama unfold itself through the character's life. It makes the story more vivid. Seeing each detail and action, many people could relate to the story. In the beginning of the movie, Leticia was about her seriousness, organization and Jesus. But when she and her sister loosen up in the kitchen and broke dishes, I could see Leticia opening up. She met a baseball coach who at first sight she fell for him. From the fake love letters to the make-up, the author made Leticia into a romance hunter. She dresses up and made the attempt to get what she wanted. She pushed all of her insecurities aside and made the move. Even though the letters was fake and she embrarrasses herself, she didn't care. In the beginning, Leticia wouldn't wear a dress or make-up; she neither would follow her mind nor kiss Orlando at her job, in front of everybody.

The conservative and shy Letica is now becoming open and comfortable with herself. She found and married love, which was Orlando and she started living life.

A Tropical Christmas

Centuries ago, humans created holidays to strengthen the bond between themselves and family members. Holidays can serve to form a connection to your past by evoking memories or a bond across an entire society. Every culture has its different ways of celebrating Christmas. In Guyana, Christmas is like exotic birds in a jungle. The jungle holds the homes to numerous colorful, bold, small, big and lovely birds, which creates a diffusion of culture. Guyana is a Caribbean country that lies in South America. The name came from an American-Indians word meaning "the land of many waters." In all holidays, which includes African, East Indians, American-Indians, Chinese and Europeans. Since people don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Guyana, Christmas is the holiday when all of the food and presents are distribute all over.

Christmas in Guyana is quite diverse. My grandmother passed on many traditions to me. One tradition that my grandmother bested upon me was to acknowledge everyone cooking on Christmas. On Christmas day, my grandmother would get up the morning and cook some of the delicious, mouth-watering food that would bless my taste buds. She and my family would have dishes of food and go to other neighbors' houses to share. Because Guyana has so many ethnicities the food is diverse. Tasting all of the spices of the neighbor, which is mostly British, French and Portuguese, the dishes bring more connection within different families.

Why is food an important factor in Guyanese holidays? In Guyana, different food are made for Christmas in different families because of our diverse country. In most of these cultures, spices, hot pepper, and a lot of seasoning are used for food. Curry, roti, dulpri, cook-up rice, pepperpot, and cassava, which are the traditional food of Guyana, goes through a lenghty preparations. Cooks like my grandmother would learn from her mother or other cooks in the family. Metemgie Stew is one of my grandmother favorite thick soups to make. With some many culture, she also knows how to make chow mien and fluffy dumplings (Chinese dishes) which is eaten with fried fish or chicken. Bread making that includes pastries such as cheese roll, pine tart, and patties. From hundreds of dishes to choose from, this is why I love my culture. Fresh fish and seafood are a primary part of the food of the rural areas and along the coast. The crab soups, soups with okra and a popular dessert known as salara are the many reasons my family, my culture is rich. Rich with love and food.

Today, Christmas is still the same. Plenty of food, family and friend that fulls up my heart. The tradition that is represent in Guyana is to bring a dishes of your own heritage. Its not one important dish like turkey on thanksgiving nor candy on Halloween, but a togetherness of everything. This is the reason why, by the beginning of the new year, i had gain 10 pounds.

What Does Food Symbolize?

Food symbolizes life , it is energy that we borrow from earth. The food we eat is either artificial or basic ingredients that grows on farm, but which ever food that we choose to eat, there will be a natural sense of nurturing our bodies. The life that food gives us is pure and healthy. Not all food is healthy, like junk food, but the food that we get fresh from the market gives us energy to cook and love the members of our life which is healthy for our bodies and our sprirt. The comfort with food that people have is normal because it is what our ancestors used to supply their body with nurishment ever since man began walking. The energy that we borrow, would be transfer back through feelings and emotions. Meaning the food we store and buy, would get decomposed into our body and give off life and happiness. To humans, food is more than a means of survival, but a way to connect with our emotions, other people, and our enviorment. We use it as a tool to learn about numerous things, including ourselves.

"Like water for chocolate", the De La Garza family has a sensual connection toward food. Each chapter which is in months begin with recipes. These recipes are for the events the family may have or for medicine and other basic needs. Tita, the third daughter of Mama Elena is very familiar with these recipes and the kitchen. She and her sister Gertrudis are pros in the kitchen and also carry their heritage's recipes within them unlike their other sister Rosaura; who has no skill in cooking.
Other than the cooking, love arises in every person of the family. But the love that the women would have was forbidden love. Each women would have a love that their family members would frown on . Like Tita's love for Pedro; it was strong and young. But her mother didn't want this love to happen. She said that Tita would be by her side until she dies and with that, Tita wouldn't be able to get married or become pregnant. As if it couldn't get any worse, Mama Elena made Pedro married her sister Rosaura. It hurts to see the person you love go away far with someone else and that what Rosaura and Pedro did. Mama Elena had a sense that Tita and Pedro was getting to close and move him and his wife to live with another family.
This wasn't the only forbidden love in the family. Just like food, there was a secret ingredients of love with the women. One secret was with Gertrudis, whom ran away with a strange man that eventually she got married to. Even Mama Elena had a forbidden love before her children was born. To see Mama Elena with a love of a man instead of Tita's father, was outragous because her attitude is bitter and cold and to see that the love of her life was ripe out of her life, she was just protecting her daughter from life.
As love and food grow through the soul of the family, a revolution was going on outside the ranch and the village. Desruption also travel to the family and caused a spreration between Tita and Elena. As problems arosed from left to right, the soul and pleasure for food dies out. The relationship with food could either bring the family close or seprate them, but why? Why is food the core of the family achievements our disappointments?

The weirdest thing that I've experienced with food was when my cousin an I play Fear Factor. Our rambunctious minds were so creative that we thought of ideas that we should play for that afternoon. Fear Factor was a really popular show at the time and me and my cousin wanted to replicate it. We gathered anything that we could think of that was edible and mashed it together. I was up first and I put together a Gusher, pickle, peanut butter, yogurt and cracker combination for her to eat. Then she did the unthinkable. She created a chocolate ice cream bar, cooked leftover noodles, mashed potatoes, oranges, bread and tons of hot sauce sandwich. She laughed and put the combination in the microwave, thinking I wasn't going to eat it, but i was. To show her that I was able to hold my food because I was older, I took a big bite out of the sandwich. The hot sauce oozed down the side of my face as the obnoxious taste hit me. I wanted to spit it out but I had to show her that I be better than her. The moral of the story is never make your younger cousin make food for you... I thought I was fine, until I ended up in the hospital for food posioning!