Caribeños at the Table : How Migration, Health, and Race Intersect in New York City

"In a work brimming with fascinating firsthand voices and in-depth interviews with Caribbean Hispanics (she focuses on individuals self-identified as of Cuban, Dominican, or Puerto Rican ancestry) with high levels of circular migration to NYC and with health professionals working among these groups, Fuster eschews common understandings that take on only cultural or structural factors in favor of studying Caribbean Hispanic foodways at the intersection of culture, history, and structural contexts. She argues that addressing health problems and inequities in immigrant and ethnic communities requires, yes, engaging with understandings of cultural factors and traditional food practice ideals (the approach conventionally taken by nutritionists working with these populations)-but also more. While culture is an important aspect guiding health-related behaviors, it needs to be considered along with key structural factors including race, gender, and social class. Fuster's intersectional approach brings into view how health disparities and quality of life measures are related to food access, health, behaviors and overall wellbeing of migrant communities. By viewing and understanding these communities within an inequitable, interconnected and global migration experience, Fuster finds that the same global forces that create migration flows are also creating distinct conditions and 'othering processes' that do in fact result in different health outcomes in the receiving countries"-- Provided by publisher Melissa Fuster thinks expansively about the multiple meanings of comida , food, from something as simple as a meal to something as complex as one's identity. She listens intently to the voices of New York City residents with Cuban, Dominican, or Puerto Rican backgrounds, as well as to those of the nutritionists and health professionals who serve them. She argues with sensitivity that the migrants' health depends not only on food culture but also on important structural factors that underlie their access to food, employment, and high-quality healthcare. People in Hispanic Caribbean communities in the United States present high rates of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases, conditions painfully highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both eaters and dietitians may blame these diseases on the shedding of traditional diets in favor of highly processed foods. Or, conversely, they may blame these on the traditional diets of fatty meat, starchy root vegetables, and rice. Applying a much needed intersectional approach, Fuster shows that nutritionists and eaters often misrepresent, and even racialize or pathologize, a cuisine's healthfulness or unhealthfulness if they overlook the kinds of economic and racial inequities that exist within the global migration experience. Melissa Fuster thinks expansively about the multiple meanings ofcomida, food, from something as simple as a meal tosomething as complex as one's identity. She listens intently to thevoices of New York City residents with Cuban, Dominican, or PuertoRican backgrounds, as well as to those of the nutritionists andhealth professionals who serve them. She argues with sensitivitythat the migrants' health depends not only on food culture but alsoon important structural factors that underlie their access to food,employment, and high-quality healthcare. People in HispanicCaribbean communities in the United States present high rates ofobesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases, conditionspainfully highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both eaters anddietitians may blame these diseases on the shedding of traditionaldiets in favor of highly processed foods. Or, conversely, they mayblame these on the traditional diets of fatty meat, starchy rootvegetables, and rice. Applying a much needed intersectionalapproach, Fuster shows that nutritionists and eaters oftenmisrepresent, and even racialize or pathologize, a cuisine'shealthfulness or unhealthfulness if they overlook the kinds ofeconomic and racial inequities that exist within the globalmigration experience Applying a much needed intersectional approach, Melissa Fuster shows that nutritionists and eaters often misrepresent, and even racialize or pathologize, a cuisine's healthfulness or unhealthfulness if they overlook the kinds of economic and racial inequities that exist within the global migration experience.