The growth of cities has, in some cases, led to the decline of practices with clear peasant and rural roots, as well as the knowledge associated with culinary practices: harvesting, planting, production, preparation techniques, conservation management, storage, and waste treatment. At first look, it seems that these two spaces - city and rurality - are opposed, and that the former, in particular, represents a serious threat to the peasant and rural world (Leyva Trinidad and Pérez Vásquez, 2015). However, the peasant universe has managed to survive and has reinvented itself amidst the concrete and the consumption and lifestyle logic that cities propose. It is worth asking how and why these cuisines, despite the seemingly attractive model of city life, still persist; what makes them remain in the midst of the media boom of modern cuisines. The study of peasant culinary is an excellent field to investigate continuity, change, and cultural clash in the formation of food culture. With this said, the peasant culinary universe presents itself as a sort of laboratory where change and permanence, adaptation, and clash produced by lifestyles can be observed.

Traditional cuisines are not easy to conceptualize, but Sánchez (2020) has characterized them as follows: “There are four factors that help us understand traditional cuisine: the history and knowledge behind each product that goes into the kitchen; the remembrance that accompanies it, which is nothing more than the unconscious desire to maintain our spiritual unity, harmony with memory and culture; identity and belonging to a place and a human group, and finally, solidarity as a value associated with the act of feeding and sharing the table, or in other words, the eternal struggle of human beings against hunger” (Sánchez 2020, p. 74).The study of traditional kitchens is one of the fundamental factors for understanding the diversity and richness of ingredients and techniques, as well as the habits of a specific social group. The lack of knowledge around these cuisines makes it difficult to spread, protect, and show tangible and intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO 2014), putting at evident risk the features and factors that constitute societies.

What’s important is the peasant cuisine of the municipality of Bello, its continuities and changes, understanding the complexity of this reality, especially when it is understood that these cuisines, given the singularity of constant change and social dynamics, could cease to be served, and with them the rural cooks, as well as the chain of meanings they possess. It’s important to emphasize that the dangers and the risk of disappearance of cuisines with a marked rural accent are given by globalization, since, as Contreras (2019) mentions in Contemporary food between globalization and patrimonialization, criticizes how since the 1960s there was a trend towards food homogenization, as there was a shift from having diverse crops to ultra-specialized agriculture that has had negative impacts on the environment, food diversity, and the cultural aspect around it. Also, he mentions that due to this globalizing process, people have lost food references, that is, the identity by consuming local, own, or native products has been lost, but Contreras highlights the need for people to generate identity and have a connection with the origin, for this reason:

“Rescue” operations of local varieties, as well as “artisanal”, “traditional”, etc. products have been undertaken. These are responses based on “specificity”, “tradition”, “quality”, “the known”, “the artisanal”, “the homemade”, “the flavor”, “the own” […] It has been the progressive globalization of food that has caused a relative “nostalgia” for “culinary heritage” (Contreras 2019, p.30).

Therefore, the importance of this research process is highlighted, which emphasizes and rescues the traditional and rural cuisine of the municipality of Bello that are also threatened with disappearance by sanitation laws that prohibit the use of leaves or wood to pack or manufacture preparations, as well as culinary fashions. It must be said, in the interest of impartiality, that thanks to The Policy for the knowledge, safeguard, and promotion of food and traditional cuisines of Colombia, there has been a marked interest in knowing, studying, making, eating, and showing rural and traditional cuisines from different regions of the country, a task that has been accompanied by scholars on the subject (Ricardo Malagón, Enrique Sánchez) and committed to tradition bearers.

Additionally, it is necessary to consider within the study how modernization influences traditional cultural practices. The preservation of traditional culinary arts is not only a matter of cultural identity but also of sustainability and community resilience in the face of the dynamics and logic of the neoliberal discourse that prevails in the modern globalized world. While modernization has brought technological and economic advances that have improved the quality of life for humanity compared to other historical periods, it cannot be overlooked that it acts as a homogenizing force that threatens cultural diversity. This can lead to the loss of ancestral knowledge and practices that not only define a community’s identity but also sustain its capacity to adapt and thrive in a changing environment.

In many cases, Western economic and cultural models imposed by modernization do not consider the complexities and specific needs of local communities. This imposition can result in cultural alienation and the dissolution of traditional social structures, making communities increasingly dependent on external systems and less on their own resources and knowledge.

Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a political and ethical stance that values and supports cultural diversity as a vital resource to preserve traditional community practices and thus contribute to their permanence over time. Research like this one, which aims to preserve and celebrate the traditional culture of a community, is crucial in addressing the challenges we face. By recognizing and nurturing cultural diversity, we not only safeguard cultural heritage, but also foster sustainable and equitable development. This ensures that communities can thrive in the modern world while preserving their unique identity and cultural legacy.

Methods

The research on the rural kitchens of the municipality of Bello was carried out using a qualitative and ethnographic methodology, which allowed for a deep understanding of the culinary customs and traditions of the municipality. It began with a bibliographic review to establish a theoretical and conceptual framework, followed by an ethnographic immersion in the daily life of the tradition bearers of the municipality. This immersion included visits to representative places and participant observation in gastronomic establishments to identify knowledge, techniques, and representative elements of rural cuisine. Field diaries and photographs were used to document the experience, based on the methodology proposed by Hernández Sampieri (2014). Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with inhabitants of the rural paths, using a guide built from the specific objectives and categories of analysis, which allowed for generating and gathering information about the phenomenon under study, as well as generating preliminary hypotheses and identifying key individuals for the study. This integrated approach ensured the validity and depth of the findings, contributing to an investigation of the culinary heritage of Bello.

Furthermore, to better understand the impact of modernization on traditional practices, anthropological and sociological perspectives that consider the unintended consequences of modernization were employed. This approach highlights the significance of cultural diversity and sustainability. Authors like Escobar (1995), Wallerstein (1974), Berman (1982), Scott (1998), Harvey (1989), and Shiva (2016) have provided a comprehensive overview of development and modernization, emphasizing the importance of preserving local practices and promoting social and environmental justice.

Discussion

This article provides an overview of peasant cuisine in the municipality of Bello, Colombia. It explores the continuities and changes in this culinary tradition, and promotes the knowledge and dissemination of traditional kitchens in a territory that has been known for other aspects (such as crime and vandalism), based on three axes: culinary and food systems, ruralness as a trait of identity, and the rural kitchens. It also addresses modernization from an ethical perspective, understanding the changes it brings in different spheres of community life.

Historical Background of Bello

Bello is located north of the Aburrá Valley, between two mountain ranges of the Central Cordillera. The Aburrá or Medellín River flows through it from south to north.

Archaeological evidence shows that 6,000 years ago BC, according to Aristizábal Espinosa (2018), the territory where the municipality of Bello is now located was at the bottom of a valley closed by steep mountains and the hills of Ovejas, Angulo, Quitasol, Medina, and Granizal. This valley was covered by a lake that, with the evolution of nature, opened a passage through the Ancón de Copacabana, following the course that the river has today, leaving the territory free for navigation. The first inhabitants were the Niquía indigenous people led by the Cacique Niquía. They ate corn, beans, and guinea pigs; they had dogs for hunting and were known for being mute. They lived in bohíos, were experts in the art of weaving, and were mostly anthropophagous. Until the middle of the last century, much of the municipality of Bello still had a very rural dynamic. It fulfilled the basic precept of the traditional peasant economy: the family productive unit had to be able to provide its own food.

The question of peasants emerges in the work of Redfield (1944) during a trip he made to Tepoztlán in 1931, Mexico, where he became interested in the study of human communities even though the concept of peasant did not yet have an analytical value. Now, this oncoming into anthropology, and the social sciences in general, was revisited in the 1970s by Wolf in “Peasants” (1971) who refers to peasants as “[…] farmers and rural livestock breeders; that is, they harvest their crops and raise their livestock in the countryside, not in greenhouses located in the middle of cities nor in pots arranged on terraces or window sills […]” (pp. 9–10). For the author, a peasant is a person who brings progress to a household, not someone who acts like a business in economic aspects as someone who only focuses on producing and generating utility with the commercialization of what is produced. The peasant, the inhabitant of the rural environment, of the campus, transforms the land and raises domestic animals for the sustenance of the family.

Based on the above, it could be derived, in principle, that the peasant aspect is immersed in the rural, that it is not something that should or can be separated for analysis, at least not in this particular case. Let’s break down the term to try and clarify the matter. “Rural” comes from the Latin ruralis, which means countryside, or pertaining to the life of this space, and it is a notion that, according to Suárez Restrepo and Tobasura Acuña (2008), can be conceived from a series of elements, where demographic, territorial, and symbolic aspects have a place. Thus, the authors define the rural as “[…] a set of forms, actions, and meanings of life in the countryside and of the perceptions of those who live there […]” (p. 4484). In this way, the term ruralness can come to represent idiosyncrasy and identity for a collective residing in the countryside.

In the same way, Giménez (1999) argues that territory is not merely a geographically located space that serves as a container for social life or action and culture, but it exists in a way that allows the development of economic, political, social, and cultural life; that is, it serves as a refuge or means of subsistence in which there is historicity, a collective memory, and it generates identity in people who not only inhabit it but also transform it. In this sense, there is a dialogical relationship between the territory and the people who inhabit it, as from the ecological and environmental means provided by the former, the latter develop processes of material and symbolic order. The same author also adds that:

We have said that territory results from the appropriation and valuation of a specific space. Now, this appropriation-valuation can be of an instrumental-functional and symbolic-expressive nature. In the first case, the utilitarian relationship with space is emphasized (for example, in terms of economic exploitation or geo-political advantages); while in the second, the role of the territory as a space of symbolic-cultural sedimentation, as an object of aesthetic-affective interventions, or as a support for individual and collective identities is highlighted. (Giménez 1999, pp. 28–29).

Consequently, exploring the life of the peasant in the rural context reveals the complex interaction between the individual, their territory, and their identity. This deep connection between the peasant and their environment, as observed in fieldwork, highlights the vital importance of the territory as a space that shapes not only agricultural and culinary practices but also cultural identity itself. For the municipality of Bello, specifically in the villages of Sabanalarga, Ovejas, La China, Cuartas, Cerezales, El Tambo, Tierradentro, La Unión, Las Meneses, and in the district of San Félix, traditional cooking and the foods that are produced and consumed in this rural setting become powerful symbols of the community’s history and culture, joinning the essence of peasant life and its deep-rooted connection to the land.

Specifically, for the municipality of Bello, rural cooking not only reflects the Antioquian culinary tradition but also becomes a historical link between human beings and food, a relationship that has evolved over time, transforming both the foods and those who consume them.

Therefore, it is found that during their evolutionary and historical process, humans have developed a strong link with food, a link as a biological being and another as a cultural being: we are the only species that has transformed food, and these have ended up changing human beings both materially and symbolically. Not only that, but we are also the species that has created food through the domestication of plants and animals. Thus, corn or pork as we eat them today are impossible without human intervention. In this dynamic, cooking has definitely become part of the events that mark the evolutionary history of our species. In fact, what defines us as human beings, such as bipedalism, brain development, and tool-making, are directly or indirectly related to the invention of cooking (Pollan 2016). in consequence, humans are not only the only animals that cultivate their own food, as just read, but also transform it and, around this making, have created another way of communicating. In this long process of relationship, humans have taken advantage of this singularity to define themselves, so, it can be read and inquired that certain populations recognize themselves as people of corn, civilizations of wheat, or millet eaters. This should not be seen merely as a metaphor; in fact, it is almost natural for humans to recognize themselves in what they eat, that is, foods are not only good to eat but also good to think about: they have been engines of bonds and recognitions, and also, of course, have served to justify the invasion and extermination of the Other. It is important to keep in mind what are the functions of food, and why it has helped to define the very idea of “human”. Essentially, foods have in principle, four functions: to feed, to nourish, to generate pleasure, and to act or serve as socializers.

However, due to the processes of modernization, these food systems have gone out of focus as a characteristic of identity, and it is necessary to address this topic beforehand. Modernization, understood as the process of transformation towards modern characteristics and practices of life, has generated criticisms and controversies that have given rise to a wide debate in the Social Sciences. Different authors have provided critical perspectives that offer a more complex and nuanced view of modernization and its implications.Authors such as Escobar (1995), Wallerstein (1974), Berman (1982), Scott (1998), Harvey (1989), and Shiva (2016) provide a complex overview of the relationship between modern development and local life in communities. These critical perspectives dialogue with each other, revealing the multiple dimensions and effects of modernization in the spheres of culture, politics, economy, society, and environment.

It has been argued that modernity can be seen as a form of neocolonialism, where Western economic and cultural models are imposed on other societies. This process of imposition not only disrupts traditional social structures, but also creates economic and cultural dependencies between developing and developed countries. The criticism extends to highlight how modernization perpetuates inequality between the center and the periphery, enabling economic and cultural exploitation and marginalization of less developed nations.

Modernization has also been associated with constant change and innovation, which can lead to alienation and loss of identity among individuals. Berman (1982) argues that this process destroys communities and traditional values, pushing people towards individualism and leaving aside collectives, leading to the fragmentation of community life.

The importance of sustainability and social justice in the context of modernization is another crucial dimension of this debate. Shiva (2016) argues that modernization often leads to the exploitation of natural resources and marginalization of local communities. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a just and sustainable approach that respects ecological and cultural diversity, promoting development models that integrate social equity and environmental protection.

These debates prompt us to reconsider modernization not only as a process of progress, but also as a phenomenon that can disrupt and homogenize local cultures, impacting their cultural, social, and identity dimensions, as well as the degradation of the places where they reside. Consequently, it is crucial to recognize cultural diversity as an ethical and political imperative to resist the forces of the modern world and strive for sustainable and equitable ways of life for communities.

The relationship between culture and food has been extensively explored and analyzed by Montanari (2004), Estrada (1982), Illera (2017), Cruz Cruz (2002), and Sánchez (2020), to name just a few authors. To address these topics, it is necessary to delve into two key fields that constitute the culinary universe: the food system and the culinary system. The food system is essentially understood as everything concerning food: origin, production, distribution, acquisition, consumption, and the ways in which the waste generated from these is treated. Besides, the culinary system brings together the techniques of food transformation and the symbolic aspect that different societies give to them. These conceptual derivations allow locating the contents that underlie culinary practices to inquire about the change or permanence in terms of meanings that the products maintain, for example, when the environment, the diner, or the cook changes (Ministerio de Cultura 2012).

In the context of research, the kitchen is a fundamental axis to know the traits that characterize the culinary identity of the municipality of Bello. So, the Kitchen can be interpreted in three ways: a space where food is cooked, that place where culinary knowledge is materialized and made edible; the complex of recipes typical of a region or a cook; or, the way in which food is transformed for consumption (Moreno Blanco, 2016).

Following the previously outlined discussion, when talking about traditional cuisine or culinary tradition, it refers to what Sánchez (2020) stated: “Behind every dish, there’s a story, an aesthetic, a sensitivity, a way of being” (p.73). Consecuently, traditional cuisine refers to what is inherent in terms of what a society produces, cooks, and eats. It is what is brought to the table giving identity and becomes constitutive of culture, helping to differentiate it from others. This same author posits four pillars of traditional cuisine:

Traditional cuisines have a component of history and knowledge of what is eaten; the remembrance that accompanies it and leads to maintaining the spiritual unity of the diners with their own, the past, and the domestic; it has an identity that roots to a distinctive idiosyncrasy; finally, traditional cuisine contains strong ties of solidarity that mobilize the abundance of food at the table and sharing. (Sánchez 2020, p. 74)

In the same direction, Sánchez (2020) mentions the specific characteristics of traditional cuisine: it is evocative, local, rooted in a specific place; it is offered abundantly, likewise, these are preparations that express the peasant and the popular, because they are dishes prepared with the intention of satisfying the needs of hard work and long days in the field and in the city of the working class. Of course, these characteristics are not exclusive to the peasant and rural, but it is in these contexts, where these characteristics are clearly appreciable, at least in the ruralities of Bello.

Considering the outlined and what concerns this case study, it can be said that the rural kitchens of the Municipality of Bello are rooted in traditional Antioquian cuisine, as these are the representation and materialization of the gastronomic culture of this region, due to its location and the peasant, day laborers, workers, and Antioquian people who reproduce them.

Rural kitchens represent a symbolic and material universe intensely anchored in peasant culinary identity. These not only correspond to spaces for food transformation but also to venues where ancestral customs and knowledge transmitted from generation to generation converge. In the municipality of Bello, within the rural kitchens, there’s a link between the peasant and the land, resulting in the choice of fresh and local ingredients (leaf cheese, potato, carrot, cilantro, spring onion, vitoria, just to name a few), many of these, cultivated and harvested by the same hands that cook them. The implementation of traditional utensils, made from clay, wood, and stone, as well as wood-burning stoves, allows for the conception of preparations with unique flavors and textures, ranging from simple elements like a hogao, to complex elaborations like a bean and shrimp ceviche. Each recipe is the summary of a peasant life story and embodies the close link between human beings and the nature of the municipality. In summary, these are examples of the aspects that constitute the peasant culinary identity of the municipality of Bello.

However, the concept of rurality has undergone changes, leading to what is known as “new rurality,” a multidisciplinary model whose aim is to reconsider the concept of rurality, and consequently rural spaces, from the recognition of how heterogeneous this domain can be. The transformation of an agrarian society into a more diverse one and the connection between rural and urban are characteristics of this idea. This seeks to propose rural environments from a more structured scheme that combines employability, social relations, and other functions that are created from these spaces in contemporary society (Bórquez and Ventura 2009; López Santos, Castañeda Martínez, & González Díaz, 2017). Being consistent with this, rural cuisine becomes a mixture where traditional (rural) and modern (global, urban) elements converge, thus becoming a place where not only flavors, ingredients, and knowledge dialogue, but also, strategies that seek to transform economic and social realities of the region.

In the area of new rurality, the kitchen emerges as a space where economic and social changes can be very concretely manifested. Continuing with the considerations of authors like Kay (2009) and Rubio (2003), part of the Latin American markets have entered into devaluation, aggravated by the presence of countries like the United States in spaces where the local producer regularly has prominence. Traditional cuisine, in this medium, transforms into the painting where the resistance of agricultural activities is expressed and the identity of the peoples is manifested in a globalized economic context, as can be seen in what was posed by Granja González and Ramos Hurtado (2022) regarding ancestral customs related to the crops and uses of rooftops, as mechanisms of resistance against societal changes. For the case of the municipality of Bello, place of study, in its rural kitchens, some fresh and local ingredients are the indisputable protagonists. Following the ideas of Ramírez Miranda (2014), a return to the roots (to the ingredients of the municipality, department, and nation) is promoted where local farmers are the providers of the products that enable the materialization of the culinary gastronomic heritage of the region.

According to Schejtman and Berdegué (2003), as cited in De Grammont (2004), the incorporation of rural economies into the globalization mechanism and the breaking of borders in food markets are key and particular elements that define the dynamics of the new rurality. Rural cuisine, consequently, is impacted by this new functioning, adjusting and re-signifying itself in a way of global communication, where the multiplicity of flavors, knowledge, and local traditions faces the uniformity strongly incited by the current market. In this way, within the ethnographic analysis, the permanence of establishments that, from traditional preparations like beans, stews, sancochos, arepas, and sausages, to name a few, resist through stoves to the rapid changes of the globalized world. In accordance with what is exposed by Zocchi et al. (2021), the importance of this lies in the preservation of the native culinary traditions of the region, such as wood-fired cooking, the food of abundance, what is made with the thecniques like smoked, boiled, and roasted, as creators and forgers of the identity and food heritage of the Bellanita people. Thus, traditional preparations become living testimonies of local identity, are recipes that are transmitted from generation to generation, that are spread in wpatord of mouth, and that subsist in the imaginary of the peoples.

An example of the cuisine that resists the changes proposed by the globalized world, as evidenced in some paths of the municipality of Bello, is proposed by Feuer (2015) from his approach to the reality of Cambodia, a food actor with little dominance on the global scene, but that persists in the preservation of its national cuisine. Despite the cultural models introduced in the territory, rural culinary habits persist (for example, establishments offering traditional Cambodian soup) that evidence the local population’s connection to the land. Thus, traditional cuisine can be re-signified in the context of “new rurality” not only as the exhibition of native preparations but also as a union of foods and knowledge commonly consumed by the urban population, nuancing the relationship between rural and urban in the consolidation of a culinary identity. From there, in some of the most urbanized areas of the municipality of Bello (Niquia, La Cumbre), recipes that are part of the rural culinary heritage are conceived: aguadulce, cortado, leaf cheese, mogas, powdered meat, mazamorra, and arepas, just to name a few products from the wide pantry of this region.

In adittion, the kitchen cannot be considered merely as a way to please the being and its senses but also as a component that transports people through roots, and consequently, through the cultural identity of a social group or a community. Traditional cuisine is, in accordance with what was stated by Figueiredo et al. (2022), a connection to the origin, the authentic, the cultural identity, and the heritage of the territory. The fact that arepas, mazamorra, tamales, empanadas, and other fried foods (cakes, corn cakes) are consumed in Bello obeys a cultural identity that has been consolidated through one of the cereals consumed since centuries ago: corn. Milk and its derivatives, talk about leaf cheese, butter, cream, and yogurt; beans projected in majestic potages; soups and broths of as many vegetables as the field offers; the slow and prolonged cooking; the wooden and stone utensils; as well as the abundance and hospitality around the table, function as elements of cohesion within the traditional Bellanita population, allowing a look through the cultural identity that characterizes this conglomerate.

In accordance with the above, Malagón Barbero (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) raises the importance of studies around the gastronomic traditions of the Colombian territory as a way to know and evidence the versatility of the local cuisine, and consequently, of the culture that envelops it: practices, knowledge, ways of harvesting and transforming food, from an ethical and nature-friendly stance. The recognition of traditional cuisine enables the safeguarding of the nation’s intangible heritage, in an environment that is increasingly globalized and threatens to modify the cultural tradition of the peoples. In this lies the importance of research on the rural kitchens of the municipality of Bello, as a study that allows understanding the meaning of identity rooted in gastronomy in its cultural habits. Additionally, the preservation of these culinary practices is fundamental for sustainability, as they use local ingredients and preparation methods that respect natural cycles and promote the responsible use of resources. In this context, the traditional kitchens of Bello act as a bastion of resistance against globalization, offering healthier and more sustainable alternatives to the fast food and ultra-processed products offered by the food industry. Furthermore, preserving these culinary practices is essential for sustainability, as they use local ingredients and preparation methods that respect natural cycles and promote responsible resource use. In this context, the traditional kitchens of Bello serve as a bastion of resistance against globalization, offering healthier and more sustainable alternatives to the fast food and ultra-processed products offered by the food industry.

The traditional cuisine of the municipality of Bello is born in the rural environment, in the countryside, just like the Antioquian cuisine (department to which the mentioned municipality belongs), this can be supported in what Estrada Ochoa (2017) refers to when he mentions that “Antioquian cuisine is fundamentally a cuisine of peasant origin, or better, a rural cuisine before urban” from there, that the preparations mentioned previously have a completely peasant matrix.

Globally, gastronomy has transformed into a sign of identity for regions that contribute to the preservation of culinary heritage (Bessiere, 1998; Roberts and Hall 2001). Kiossev (2002) presents traditional Balkan cuisine as a mechanism of cultural identity, as an element that allows recognizing other members of the same collective. Baklava, musaka, or feta cheese are traditional preparations that reflect the natural, cultural, and historical of the Balkans region (Bradatan 2003). The delight of local products enables consumers to connect with the roots and cultural identity of the peoples (Bardone and Spalvēna 2019). The promotion, dissemination, and advocacy of these promotes the territory, preserves the culinary wealth of the region, and provides relevant economic resources for local communities. (Vuksanović & Demirović Bajrami, 2020).

Now, for the case of traditional cuisine in the municipality of Bello, it is a clear manifestation of the mixture between living traditions, customs, knowledge, the material and the immaterial, as mentioned by Zocchi et al. (2021), the tangible and intangible elements of the specific food landscape of a territory and its community, these in key of what was defined by Bowen and Master (2011) and Littaye (2016) include food, ingredients, utensils, techniques, symbolic efficacy and, logically, culinary preparations. The latter are conceived from the transformation of food using traditional practices. According to Csergo (2018) and Romagnoli (2019) there is a need to preserve these elements that configure the culinary cultural heritage, understanding its importance to determine the identity of local communities.

Therefore, Food and culinary cultures are closely linked to the region under study and the nation to which they belong. For this reason, they are backed and protected by the Policy for the knowledge, safeguard, and promotion of food and traditional cuisines of Colombia (Ministerio de Cultura 2012). Aditional, the study of the rural kitchens of the municipality of Bello translates into an opportunity to strengthen cultural identity and safeguard local knowledge and customs related to cooking.

Consequently, during the ethnographic work, the following significant findings were established that help to clarify the food and culinary systems that constitute the identity of rural cuisine in the municipality of Bello:

Most of the paths of the municipality of Bello do not have a type of kitchen that is open to the general public, they are kitchens that are used for the preparation of delicacies destined for family consumption. However, although these spaces do not have a gastronomic establishment, they are largely dedicated to livestock and agriculture, being these, essential elements for the generation of rural cuisine. Commercially, much of the gastronomic offer is roadside featuring kitchens that are quite literally open to the diner’s view. There, the peasant transforms their crops, with methods and techniques that are part of traditional peasant cuisine, some of these stated by Gaviria (2016): smoked, pounded, roasted, boiled, fried, whistled, breaded, pickled, sautéed, among others.

In that sense, to think that rurality and cuisine have no relationship at all, is like believing that beans are born from a plastic package and have no connection with a plant. The peasant skillfully manages the land, knows the appropriate space to sow, and extends its fertility (Martínez Velandia 2016, p. 178). The peasant not only provides the food but also contributes to the dissemination of traditional culinary knowledge. This set of broad knowledge about food transformation possessed by rural inhabitants, makes them the main cooks and bearers of a tradition that evokes the history and food culture of a territory.

Rurality in the municipality of Bello should not be seen merely as a stage to transcend but as a source of knowledge and customs that contribute to sustainability. Escobar’s (1995) critical stance argues that the peculiarities of modernity often underestimate local cultures, imposing development schemes that do not consider the needs and values of local communities. Additionally, positions such as that presented by Alonso et al. (2018) claim that in some cases, traditional knowledge “[…] can offer a useful repository of alternative technologies that are particularly compatible with local food systems and cultural models, accessible, familiar, easy to use, and low cost […]” (p. 122). In this way, this knowledge can contribute to improving food production and the safety that must be maintained during its transformation.

Rivera (2014) argues that the diet, or rather, the Antioquian culinary culture, is based on a food system centered around corn, beans, plantain, and cassava. Accordingly, the culinary system of the region is represented by corn arepas, hoofed beans, sancocho, crackling, sausages, mazamorra, and claro, among others. Similarly, he notes that the preparations reflect specific aromas and flavors of a region; therefore, it’s not surprising that the bandeja paisa consists of these same ingredients, which are nothing but the representation of the Antioquian gastronomic culture. As previously mentioned, the beginnings of the corn and bean diet, over time, were not alien to the dynamics surrounding the Antioquian culture, where clearly, there is a sample that is the product of mix race and centuries of flavor and knowledge transformation originating from the ingenuity of culinary artisans.

During fieldwork in the rural area of the municipality of Bello, it was observed that the paisa arepa stands out as one of the most representative foods, as it is commonly present at breakfast, lunch, and dinner of Antioquian families; it is also known to be nationally recognized as a fundamental part of the Antioquia’s culinary system.

According to Moreno Blanco (2016), in Antioquia, an arepa is “made from pounded, cooked, ground maize spread on a grill” (p. 108), and it can be shaped into a ball, thick, or thin. For breakfast, the arepa is typically served with fresh cheese, butter, and calentao (rice and bean mixed), and often accompanied by chocolate, aguapanela, or coffee. This is a demonstration of the abundance on the table, a notable characteristic of traditional peasant cuisine.

Given the foregoing, for the municipality of Bello, the arepa is, by far, the most prevalent culinary system in its rural kitchens, as it is found accompanying lunches, breakfasts, and dinners. Based on the typologies expressed by Gaviria (2019), arepas such as the so-called telas, for their thinness, in ball shape, and the classic ones are identified, in addition to other varieties like yellow, white, peeled corn, boiled, and chócolo arepas.

In addition to this preparation and as mentioned by Rivera (2014) in the book on Traditional Paisa Cuisine, in the Municipality of Bello, gastronomic establishments offer dishes like sancochos (traditional soups), calentados (reheated beans and rice), mondongos (tripe soup), sausages, corn cakes, beans, guandolo de limón mandarino (a traditional drink), mazamorras (corn-based dessert), claros (a type of light broth), blood sausage, Antioquian tamales, among others that are part of the traditional Antioquian cuisine, but also of the cuisine of Bello, as they generate identity. They represent that gastronomic culture of utilization and abundance, evoking the past, grandmother’s kitchen, and the countryside, characteristics highlighted by Sánchez (2020) as nostalgic. Moreover, these are preparations that represent the staple diet provided by the territory to those living in the rural areas of Bello.

Along the same lines, in the high rural area of the municipality, his is because the rural paths in this area are part of the complex that gives access to the North of Antioquia and, in addition, they are part of the Milk Route of the department. In rural paths such as La China or the corregimiento of San Félix, you can find some extensions of land where the dairy farmers are settled. These farmers are responsible for reproducing the traditional breeding and milking ritual from which dairy products and their derivatives come.

On the other hand, other extensions of land are dedicated to obtaining dairy products and derivatives from a more industrial practice. This industrial production is characterized by the use of machinery and modern techniques for the production of milk and its derivatives.

In this way, leveraging the raw material production that rural life offers, milk and dairy derivatives such as yogurts, butter, cheese varieties: leaf cheese, cream cheese, curds, sweet cheeses, sietecueros; and dough-based foods that also incorporate cheese: almojábanas, pandequesos, calentanos, enriched breads, as well as, traditional sweets: panelitas, miguelucho, rice pudding, roasted milk dessert, among others, are marketed. In summary, the rural kitchens of the Municipality of Bello frame the Antioquian culinary tradition in:

Techniques like repulgue (decorative crimping), simple and compound dry dishes, calentados (reheated leftovers), pilados (pounded), boiled, whistled, fried, breaded, stuffed, steamed, baked, sautéed, whipped, sponge cakes, meringues, and pickled.

  • Material culture frame in wooden utensils like spoons, mortars, grinders, hooks, and boards; metal objects like grinding machines, pots, kettles, cauldrons, arepa grills, graters, ladles, juicers; stone items like mortars and crushing stones; and dry fruits like the calabash (used to make spoons and bowls). Moreover, it’s common to see typical tableware composed of chochas (traditional cups), cups, and plain dishes.

  • A food system reflected in lands designated for extensive monoculture and home gardens where carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, sweet corn, among others, are grown, as well as poultry, cattle, and pigs being raised and cared for.

  • A culinary system in which dishes like Sancochos (hearty soups), soups (tortilla, vegetable, and meatball), leaf cheeses, butter, sweets, arepas (thin, ball-shaped, from sweet corn and peeled corn), white rice, bean calentado, powdered meat, ear, meatball and beef, tuna cakes, canned meat, sausages and blood sausages, empanadas (church, potato, meat, rice and meat), chicken pie, potato egg and potato meat, tamales and mogas, breads, almojábanas, pandequeso, pandeyuca, calentanos, fritters, cakes, rolls, piononos, fruit sponge cakes, miguelucho, ají, hogao, fruit juices and sorbets, guandolos, sweet water, farmer’s black coffee, chocolate in sweet water, mazamorra, and claros are conceived.

Through the application of these methods, it was observed that traditional culinary practices are not only a means of cultural resistance but also a way to preserve biodiversity and local sustainability. An example of this is seen in the HKH (Hindu Kush-Himalayan) region. According to Mbow et al. (2019), the qualities of the territory remain suitable for cultivating traditional foods, so much so that “[…] farming communities continue to grow a variety of indigenous crops, albeit on marginal lands, due to their value as traditional food and the associated culture […]” (p. 469). This is a demonstration of resistance to change. Similarly, in the subject of this study, traditional practices are preserved either for their cultural or nutritional value, despite the urban and globalized dynamics present in some areas of the municipality. In this way, the resilience of local food systems, as observed in the traditional culinary practices of the municipality of Bello, is crucial for the future sustainability of the territory.

Pagnussatt (2018) suggests that the food model of rural communities is primarily based on ecological, local, and sustainable products, thus ensuring “[…] food security for the populations as it guarantees the supply and quality of food, strengthens their economies, their jobs, and their health […]” (p. 175). It is also important to be aware that modernization and globalization can reduce the diversity and resilience of local food systems, as well as lead to the loss of cultural practices and traditional knowledge related to cooking.

Overall, it could be said that the rural kitchens of the Municipality of Bello, in relation to the policy for the knowledge, safeguarding, and promotion of food and traditional cuisines of Colombia, are the fruit of centuries of transformation, a knowledge that is transmitted within the household, the family, and that, in turn, go through from generation to generation. These have a story of their own to discover, a set of knowledge and habits that are transferred in a lively and direct manner shared in the making. Also, these kitchens give rise to a particular symbolic universe, where culinary identity traits that characterize the Bellanita people are combined: recipes, preparations, modes of consumption, preservation, rules, symbols, and rituals at the time of transforming a food item, as well as aesthetics contemplated within a preparation. These kitchens have the ability to generate a memory and narrate a story as written by Sánchez (2020).

Therefore, the peasant is relevant for their role as the initial producer of what is consumed; the rural environment as a living space; and the cook as an artisan and bearer of knowledge.

Conclusions

The rural kitchens of the municipality of Bello are one of the fundamental pillars that make it possible to recognize the material and immaterial heritage associated with the municipality. Through culinary knowledge and expressions, the way in which resources are used to prepare food, as well as the consumption habits that are combined around the table, it is possible to explore the history and identity of the towns and communities that inhabit this territory.

Recognizing that traditional cuisine, from a symbolic and material perspective, becomes a fundamental part of the identity of a people, allowing it to be differentiated from others, and in the framework of capitalist rationality, globalization processes, and modernity, traditional cuisine becomes an opportunity for resistance against the homogenization of cultural and social life, because it embodies in itself, knowledge, techniques and own foods that are represented in a dish.

Rural culinary tradition, rooted in ancestral customs and knowledge, faces challenges in the face of globalization and urbanization. Despite this, its value is immeasurable, for it nourishes not just bodies but also the being and local identities. To achieve its continuity, the following actions could be carried out:

  • Registration and documentation: It is crucial to collect recipes, techniques and culinary secrets transmitted from generation to generation. This not only preserves knowledge, but also allows it to be shared with new generations.

  • Education and awareness: Promote workshops, talks and events that highlight the importance of rural cuisine. Raise awareness in the community about its cultural value and its role in local identity.

  • Institutional support: Local and national authorities should support initiatives that promote rural cuisine. This may include financial aids for research projects, food festivals, and training programs.

  • Inclusion in formal education: Introduce content related to traditional cuisine in schools and universities. This ensures that new generations appreciate and understand its importance.

In summary, rural cuisine is a cultural treasure that deserves to be protected and shared. Its knowledge and dissemination are essential to keep alive the material and immaterial heritage of the cultural identity of the peoples.