New Spain tastes like Europe Culinary contexts in Cortes, Fernandez de Oviedo and Diaz del Castillo

This ph d-study focuses on the literary theme "food" in Mexico, during the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century. The basic thought is that Europe and Spain occupy a central position in the descriptions of the New World. The author elaborates this central idea in the Letters of the conqueror Hernan Cortes, the memoires of the soldier Bernal Diaz del Castillo and the monumental history of the chronicle writer Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo.;Cortes doesn't have official permission to conquer Mexico (1519--1521) and therefore writes directly to the emperor Charles V, to justify his actions. He emphasizes the abundance of food in Mexico, the lucrative possibilities for agriculture and stockbreeding as well as the prestigious eating ritual of the last Aztec emperor, Moctezuma. The food forms part of Cortes' promise that Mexico will be a profitable colony.;In his Historia general (1548), Fernandez de Oviedo describes food and alimentary habits of the New World in different ways. The food is described almost scientifically, while the habits of the local population are often very stereotypical, with an emphasis on cannibalism, heavy drinking and the eating of dirty food. To inform the government of the new colony, Oviedo incorporates a lot of information. The (ironic) result is that the negative image of the food habits is weakened, which eventually leads to contradictions in his work.;At the end of the sixteenth century former soldier Bernal Diaz del Castillo finishes his memoires about the conquest of Mexico. Even though he pretends to write as an eyewitness, he inspires himself in the work of previous historians. This is detected in the way he describes the banquet of Moctezuma or the cannibalism in Mexico. He also accentuates the differences between the food of the captains and that of the soldiers. His final goal is to defend his economic interests as a colonialist.;The conquest of Mexico starts the mixture of two culinary traditions of Europe and Mexico but in the studied writings, there is made an artificial distinction between European and indigenous food habits. This representation covers utilitarian, commercial and ideological interests.