Pineapples!

This week’s conversation with my Tica mom about pineapples was somewhat surprising.  When asking her about how the pineapple is eaten, she responded much like I expected her to.  She said that it is very commonly eaten raw, and for breakfast, but that there were so many other ways that it is used in Costa Rica.  She went on to talk of the different varieties such as jams, candies, pastries, juices, etc. that we have all witnessed since we have been here. She also added in that she uses it for seasoning in some of her meals, and that it is used in many of her different fruit juices.  She discussed how pineapple flavored or filled things are sometimes eaten as snacks and often desert as well.

When I asked her about the different types of pineapples being sold she said that there were a couple different kinds, I am going to guess these are the white and the gold one that we have discussed, but that the “piña dorada” is the most popular kind.  This was interesting because when I went to Mas X Menos the pineapple that I found advertised was the piña dorada, which we know means the golden pineapple.  As I took a closer look I became even more interested because the Dole tag said, in English, Tropical Golden Pineapple.  I found it very fascinating that the tag of a pineapple being sold, and produced, in a Spanish speaking country was being advertised with an English tag.  This made me think directly back to the Pineapple Cultures reading and the complex relationships that are formed between producing and consuming countries.  I wonder what type of relationship has been created between Costa Rica and the consumer countries it sends pineapples to.  I am going to guess that they are not great relationships, and seeing this type of thing for myself really encourages me even more to think about the implications that come along with the food I choose to eat.

As I asked my Tica mom about the pineapple’s important to the country, I got a pretty surface level answer.  She said that the pineapple is important to their diets and their economies.  The production of pineapple here has increased and their exporting of it does help their economy noticeably.  However, she did not go much deeper than this.  Luckily when I asked my Spanish teacher about bananas last week she touched on pineapples as well.  She said that she thinks pineapples are the new bananas.  They are more important to Costa Rica’s economy now, but she also mentioned how many disadvantages there is to their production.  She mentioned how the production and export is so bad for the workers and the environment that she refuses to eat them.  Granted, my Spanish teacher is more on the extreme side than most people, but it was still very interesting to hear this side of the story.  She mentioned how she knew that they were important for the country, but that she wishes their production could stop because of how harmful they are.

The conversation became surprising when I asked my Tica mom what pineapples symbolize because she did not have a real answer.  She did not speak with pride or cultural significance, she just retouched on the idea that they were good for the economy.  This brought me back to the readings, and those complex relationships.  I mentioned on my RCS for Pineapple Cultures that I would like to hear how the tropics feel about the ‘civilization’ of the pineapple, and I think that I indirectly got my answer through this blog’s prompt.  I occurred to me that it is us who create the high status and symbolic meaning of the pineapple through glorified ads and media.  We play off of tropical fruits, and tourist provoked traditions such as the pineapple in Hawaii, but in the producing companies it is just another export.  I also thought that Silvia’s take on the pineapple showed one side of that complex relationship.  She knows the cost that pineapples come at and she, being from a producing country, thinks about the implications that were mentioned in Pineapple Cultures.  I really loved this week’s prompt because of the conclusions that it has brought me to!

The pineapple is used in so many different ways here in Costa Rica that we would not usually, if ever, find in the U.S.  The pineapple is obviously eaten fresh, but it is also used as an ingredient for many things.  On our weekend trips there have been many instances where we would find pineapple jam or jelly with breakfast.  This is one the forms that we would rarely find in the U.S.  We also know that the pineapple is used in all kinds of juices and drinks.  There are simply pineapple juices, there are juices with pineapples and other fruits, and pineapple juice is more commonly used in the cocktails here compared to the U.S.  When I went to Mas X Menos to observe pineapples there I found that there were many different pastries and baked goods that use pineapples for flavoring and even filling.  Beyond this, there are even snacks that are pineapple flavor.  Pineapples are everywhere in Costa Rica!  In the U.S., we most commonly eat pineapples raw, or use them for their flavor in special dishes, but here pineapple can pretty much be used for anything.  I think that it is great that they are using the resources that they work so hard to produce