"BLACK FOODS"

Throughout the history of African slavery, masters and overseers largely determined the basic diets of slaves, which were often regulated by slave codes. But as with many other impositions, slaves resisted. They altered and supplemented their diet, adding their own recipes and ingredients, okra for example.

In Cuba, Puerto Rico and other past slave societies, the diet of the enslaved was a combination of two opposing forces. On one hand, imposition; imposed foods consisting of mostly imported staples such as dried, salted codfish, tasajo (beef jerky), rice and locally cultivated plantains, cornmeal and chicharos (split peas).

On the other hand was the force of resistance, foodstuffs produced by slaves when, and if, they had access to provision grounds, where they raised pigs and chickens and cultivated plantains, okra, corn and other vegetables. Slaves pressured their masters, often successfully, for access to provision grounds and free time on Sundays to work on those plots.

A fellow Cuban historian shared with me a humorous (but also sad) story of the day he visited a Cuban sugar mill to give a historical talk to an audience of workers. All was going well until he quoted from Manuel Moreno Fraginals' book "El Ingenio" ("The Sugar Mill"). The average slaves' daily diet, my friend told the audience, consisted of 200 grams of tasajo or salted codfish, 500 grams of cornmeal or rice, 70 grams of other animal protein, and 13 grams of fat.

When the workers heard that — it was probably lunchtime — they exploded in choteo, the African-derived — according to Fernando Ortiz — Cuban practice of intense mockery, shouting back phrases like "bring slavery back!" and "I want to be a slave!"

It was the early 1990s, the start of the economic crisis of the Special Period. Beef was scarce, as it had been for decades — only individuals diagnosed with cancer and other debilitating diseases received prescriptions allowing them to buy small amounts of beef; codfish was a distant memory; plantains were rationed, when available, and so were small amounts of substandard Vietnamese rice. One slave diet item was still reasonably available in ration bodegas, chicharos, the unwelcome staple food of the Special Period.

ON BECOMING BANANAFIED

Of all the "black foods" of the Caribbean, none is more ubiquitous than the plantain. Immigrant peasants from the Canary Islands helped popularize plantains in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, turning them into the staple food of a predominantly white peasantry.

The plantain became a symbol of creole identity and even nationalist sentiments. "Aplatanarse" which roughly translates into "to become bananified" is a metaphor for creolization. One of Puerto Rico's most iconic paintings, Luis Paret's "El Jibaro" (the peasant, 1776) is a self-portrait in which the painter appears dressed in peasant garb, carrying a bunch of green plantains over his right shoulder. "El Jíbaro" is the Spanish-born painter's certificate of bananafication. Jose Marti, the martyred leader of the Cuban War of Independence, used the symbol lyrically and politically. He wrote about Cuban wine made from plantains — another Cuban food metaphor. "Even if it turns sour," he stated, "it is our own wine."

Plantains are a versatile foodstuff that can be consumed when green, half-ripened or ripe. Just like the human body turns starches into sugar, ripening turns starchy green plantains into sweet plantains. Unlike fruit bananas, which are eaten ripe without processing, their larger cousins have to be cooked either by frying or boiling.

Fried slices of green plantains are signature foods in Spanish-speaking Caribbean cuisine. Tostones are made by frying small chunks of green plantain that are smashed to make them flat and fried one more time. Slightly fried chunks of green plantains are also mashed and mixed with fried pork rinds (chicharrones) salt, garlic olive oil, and cooked onions to create the round-shaped mofongo, one of Puerto Rico's — and my — favorite dishes. Their counterparts in Cuba (fufu) and the Dominican Republic (mangu) are similar but made with half-ripe plantains.

Talk about transculturation and bananafication ... Cubans creolized the Spanish tortilla (omelet), substituting potatoes with fried slices of ripe plantains; Puerto Ricans are fond of pastelones, essentially lasagnas with elongated slices of fried plantains in place of boiled lasagna pasta. Another Puerto Rican dish, the pionono (a deep-fried, batter-drenched ripe plantain stuffed with ground beef), appear to be named after Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono, in Italian), but a more plausible explanation is that the Puerto Rican pionono got its name indirectly, from a Granadian pastry that goes by the same name.

The Cuban/Caribbean banquet continues in next week's column.

Luis Martinez-Fernandez is author of "Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba." Readers can reach him at LMF_Column@yahoo.com. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www. creators.com.

Photo credit: mygraphx at Pixabay