The Meaning of Food in Costa Rica: Implications via advertisements

This week as I was asking my mom the questions for this blog, I came to realize that my interpretation of her responses probably does not paint the most complete picture of Costa Rican food customs, however, I will relay as much as I have found out. Firstly, most of the things that she finds "weird" of other's eating practices and food is the food itself. She told me that in Guanacaste people eat a small animal called tepesquinte, which she finds to be repulsive (or at least that's what her facial expression while she was giving me an explanation led me to believe). She also finds that eating different animals such as monkeys, dogs, or even rats--which apparently people eat in Argentina--quite weird and even gross. I think that we could probably agree from a United States-ian perspective that those are quite weird eating practices for us as well.

As far as what food "says" about a person, my mom told me that when she sees someone that is very very skinny she thinks right away that they are unhealthy and that they don't eat enough. Similarly when she sees someone that is very fat, she thinks that they eat badly. I took notice at this distinction between not eating enough and eating badly because I thought that she would have said that the fat person ate too much, but instead it was more of a matter of what they ate. She also says that if she sees someone who is slightly fat, then she thinks that they eat well. This view is somewhat similar to the United States-ian one, however, as far as I can tell, it seems that there is more of an emphasis on being skinny or underweight in the US then there is here.

While I was wandering through San Jose looking for food advertisements, I found that most advertisements having to do with food did not have images of people in them. This is somewhat different from what we have in the US. Immediately Hardees commercials with girls with microscopic waists and voluptuous bosoms who are scantily clad in a tight t-shirt and denim miniskirt while taking huge bites out of a juicy looking burger come to mind. We tend to use people/models in advertisements, I think probably to make the food look good and also probably justify eating the food because the people in the advertisements do. These advertisements also convey the ideological, while at the same time impossible, body image to achieve, which is a reminder about the judgements that exist within the United States-ian society about what food says about people.

As far as what the advertisements in Costa Rica "say": it seems like they are selling a state of mind more than they are selling food itself. For example, my picture says "saborea la magia," which means "taste the magic." This ice cream is an experience more than it is sustenance. This tactic/strategy is also used in the US. For example, "taste the rainbow," the slogan for Skittles comes to mind right away. The "rainbow" is this ideological experience/state or mind that you can achieve if you try this product. This also really conveys the message that food is not just a biological need, it is a want, an experience, and a way of life.