paper 1

Lydia Garcia
Eng 101: Composition 1
    Throughout history people have consistently invented new and creative technology to improve the way we eat. Despite many differences, people in 1911 and 2011 have many similarities. The method in which food is prepared, bought, and eaten has vastly changed, but the way people eat according to their social class has not.
    The difference in which food was prepared is that they used big steal pots and place them over a fire or would hang them on a chain over the fireplace. It was only the more of wealthiest of households that can afford to install and run an oven. Unlike now in 2011 we use gas stoves to cook all of our food. On the other hand the way food was bought is different as well. They killed animals to get meat. In our time now we have supermarkets to buy our food from. Lastly is how our food was eaten that was a major difference. 100 years ago there was no seasoned food and everything was mostly eaten raw. It was definitely fresh meat but tasted very plain. People would migrate around bodies of water like rivers and lakes because water was a big necessity and was good to hunt around for food. They ate as a family all of the time there was no such thing as restaurants.
    There are similarities that have not changed. It’s the different types of social class from 1911 till now. There have always been the higher class families and the more lower class. There hasn’t been any change with that because the rich still ate lavishly and the poor had trouble seeking their food and had a more difficult way of living. In 1911 they still had what we have now to live and that goes for,  most importantly having water to drink, having meat to eat whether it was cooked differently or not they still had there ways of producing food that we still have today in 2011.  Farming and crops of fruits and vegetables are still the same but now we have large farms that produce for massive populations and is exported and imported from around the world while in 1911 their crops were grown individually.
    My ancestor Jesenia Cruz Fuentes from San Juan Puerto Rico was someone I didn’t know personally but heard much about and learned how her food was raised, bought, prepared, and eaten. I learned it hearing from my great grandmother who was raised in that era. It was very much different and similar from the way I eat today. My main meals eaten daily is macaroni and cheese, pizza, arroz con gandules ( Puerto Rican rice and pigeon peas), steak , white rice and eggs, pan con queso ( bread and cheese) etc. I personally always eat out at restaurants where the food is made or at home where my grandmother cooks for the family. One hundred years ago it was very family oriented. Food was always cooked at home and always eaten together at a table. They had no refrigeration so they would take the meat they killed and dig a whole in the ground to where it was cool enouph to keep it as fresh as possible. This is why people came out with a lot of diseases because of the dirt that they surrounded there food with. 
    In conclusion patterns of eating in Puerto Rico have not changed as much as you think. Although there lie many differences in the way they ate as opposed to the way we eat and prepare the food, similarities in social class still exist till this day. Even after one hundred years you can still see that the Puerto Rican culture of food has had a large impact on our nation and the diversity in which it consists of.