Moctezuma's table : Rolando Briseño's Mexican and Chicano tablescapes
/ edited by Norma E. Cantú
- 1st ed.
- College Station : Texas A&M University Press , c2010.
- 174 p. : col. ill. ; 26 cm.
- Rio Grande/Río Bravo: borderlands culture and traditions ; no. 17 .
Briseño's exhibit, La mesa de Moctezuma/Moctezumas's table, was held at the Instituto Cultural Mexicano, San Antonio, and later at the Instituto de Mexico, Montreal, Canada.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [163]-166).
Foreword, "The table of Baroque feelings/senses" / by Wilfrido Ávila García -- Artist's statement / by Rolando Briseño -- pt. 1. Botana/cocktail snack, antojitos/hors d'oeuvres, and an entremés/appetizer -- How we got our buenos fideos / John Phillip Santos -- Moctezuma's table and its many readings: meal as art, art as meal / Graciela Kartofel -- Moctezuma's first dinner / Timothy J. Knab -- pt. 2. Sopas aguadas y secas/soups -- Feeding the soul / Daniel del Valle -- Musings on Moctezuma's table / Isabel Rico -- La mesa de Moctezuma y la memoria/Moctezuma's table and memory / Blanca Garduño Pulido -- pt. 3. Platos fuertes/entrées -- Of moles and maíz: rehistorization of Mexican and Chicano culture / Amalia Mesa-Bains -- The use of Aztec, Maya, and American popular sources in the work of Rolando Briseno / Jacinto Quirarte -- Indigenous heritage, culinary diaspora, and globalization in Rolando Briseño's Moctezuma's table / Rubén C. Córdova -- The globalized table / Kaytie Johnson -- pt. 4. Frijoles/beans, side dishes -- Nopales, amor y corazón: legacies of food through love / Josie Méndez-Negrete -- El pleito / Sandra Cisneros -- pt. 5. Postres/desserts -- Precious vessels: recipes old and new for chocolate and all other earthly and celestial delights / Frances Treviño -- Briseño / Roberto Santibañez -- Epilogue: Rolando Briseño: an artist's life.
The table provides the food that sustains physical life. It is also the setting for people to share the fellowship that sustains cultural, community, and political life. In the vision of artist Rolando Briseno, food is a powerful metaphor, a way of understanding how culture nurtures the spirit. When cultures collide-as they inevitably do in borderlands settings-food, its preparation, and the rituals surrounding its consumption can preserve meanings and understandings that might otherwise have been lost to the mainstream social narrative.