ABSTRACT
The idea that food helps to found the Latina testimonio text is a novel one in the sense that it has not been previously addressed in criticism focusing on the genre. However, there is a seemingly easy relationship between food and testimonio, which rests on the shared, communal nature and the necessity for survival of both within the context of the testimonial genre. As theorist Joanna Bartow explains,
one can safely say that testimonio is based on the previously untold, first-person story of a real individual or group of individuals, commonly referred to as informants, witnesses, testimonial subjects, speakers or narrators… The informant either writes his or her own narrative, or in mediated testimonio tells his or her story to a journalist, ethnographer, or other transcriber.
2005, 12