Food and resilience in mountain communities: Gendered perspectives from the Andes and Appalachia

Abstract

Mountain women are tough, resilient, and reliable providers of hearty meals. We hear this repeatedly, in Appalachia, in the Andes, and in other mountain communities around the world. These “character traits” not only provide opportunities for women’s entrepreneurial opportunities as demonstrated by numerous Etsy accounts; during crises, women’s social networks can quickly mobilize to solve problems. It is not surprising that women’s leadership is globally recognized when it comes to the provisioning of food. However, despite this dominion over “kitchenspace,” women are still largely excluded from discussions around broader food systems and the political realities that continue to impoverish mountain communities.

Feminist organizations continue to push for true bottom-up approaches to resolve issues of poverty and injustice and often embrace images of the kitchen and language about food when they describe themselves, their creation, and organization. The Bolivian radical feminist María Galindo who co-founded Mujeres Creando describes herself first as a cook. She goes on to include, “street agitator, graffiti artist, radio broadcaster, writer, and public lesbian” but it is meaningful that she starts with the word cook. The Feminist Constitution that she helped to create “was drafted in a large kitchen while we peeled the potatoes and the children helped with the peas.” (quoted in Chandler and Galindo 2024). Using examples from mountain communities, this talk will examine the role that food provisioning and “kitchenspace” continues to play in creating pathways for women’s leadership, radicalization, and community resilience.