Rocio del Aguilla
Rocio del Aguila earned her PhD in Hispanic Literature from the University of Texas at Austin and her BA from Universidad Catolica in Lima, Peru. Her research focuses on gender studies and postcoloniality. She has taught courses about Spanish language, Latin-American literature and culture, and social justice in Peru, Ecuador, Canada, and the United States. She started working at Wichita State University in 2014 and serves currently as graduate coordinator of the Spanish Masters Program. Rocio is married and has a baby boy.
While researching she found etiquette and recipe books that caught her attention. She has published scholarly articles on food representation in literature in Nineteenth Century Latin America and made presentations in national and international conferences on these and more contemporary topics, such as indigenous cooking technologies, authenticity in cookbooks, and the Asian diaspora through menus in Latin America. In addition to this, she participated in a film project about traditional foods in Ecuador. She is currently working on a project about immigration, storytelling, and culinary traditions.
A native from Peru, her parents came from areas of the country with different traditional cuisines and it´s possible to trace Indigenous American, Asian, and European influences in her family tree. Almost everyone in her mother's side of the family was a good cook and definitively a good eater. After dinner they would stay around the table planning the menu for the next meal. She began cooking at a young age and continues this practice as an adult. She has planned and executed menus for several events and community organizations.
This talk merges her interests of food and culture.