Interview with Alex Carvajal: Food and national identity

Introducing one of my dearest friends, Alex Carvajal. This is the first in a series of interviews with friends, classmates, colleagues and acquaintances talking about their food interests (and mine).

Alex and I have known each other since I moved to London about 6 years ago. I had known him for about two years before I found out that he used to be a chef. That night we bonded over our love of food, and it has continued to be a focal point of our conversations ever since.

I have created this short video to introduce you to Alex and some of the themes covered in the interview. 

The main focus of this interview is on his Colombian heritage and how this has influenced his foodways in Britain. This ties in with the theme on the blog this week, which is around food and identity. In the interview Alex talks about his memories of Colombia, the important links for him between food and family, as well as sharing food, and his take on Colombian and British cuisines.

Having spoken to Alex so much about food in the past, I was surprised how much I learnt in conducting this interview. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Food and identity: the sentimental stuff

For all that wider social and cultural processes, such as globalisation and commercialisation, have a part to play in shaping the links between food and identity (see my last post), for now I want to focus on the part we can all relate to: childhood memories, nostalgia, family connections and traditional values.

The unit we did on food, memory and identity for the MA Anthropology of Food was one of my favourite topics and has become the main focus of my studies. The core readings we did for that unit all touched on migration in one way or another and this is probably why it resonated with me.

I was born in Cambridge, England, but grew up in Sydney, Australia. I have always felt a strong attachment to England, one that my sister, who was born in Australia, does not share. I always felt compelled to come back here. As a kid growing up in Australia, I was proud of my English heritage. In some respects it defined me, or I wanted it to. I was sad when I returned to England and people told me I had an Australian accent.

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