RETHINKING THE FOOD WE EAT

At the time of writing this article, I can accurately claim that I am an award-winning filmmaker with my film “Boricua Soy Yo.” My film has won an Exceptional Achievement Award at the Multi-Dimensional Film Festival and the Award for Best Narrative Documentary at the Bright International Film Festival, both taking place in the UK.

Work never ends and as soon as I wrapped up “Boricua Soy Yo” I immediately started thinking about what the next project would be, striking while  the iron is hot, and creative juices are hot. 

While working on “Boricua,” one of the subjects that I wanted to spend more time on was the foods we eat and why traditional “Puerto Rican” foods have led Puerto Rican communities to have such high Type II Diabetes rates, second only to the Pima Indians of Arizona.

After some discussion with Puerto Rican doctors and Health Care professionals, I knew this was an idea that could stand on its own, either as a limited series or a documentary feature, and thus, the idea for “Puerto Frito: Diabetes & Nutrition in the Puerto Rican Community” was planted.

Through a series of interviews and onsite production, this project will investigate the history of how different cultures came together to create the Puerto Rican diet, consisting of many of the foods our community enjoys. These influences will include foods and customs from our Spanish, African and Indigenous ancestors in addition to Northern African influences, cooking techniques, recipes, and spices brought to the island.

Because many of the foods we enjoy are fried, we will investigate what fried foods do to the body and how we can begin introducing new cooking techniques to make healthier versions of the foods we enjoy to hopefully begin slowing down the rate of Type II Diabetes.

Have you ever wondered why canned Vienna sausages were such a staple in our kitchens or questioned where alcapurrias came from? Why is our modern diet so starch and fried food heavy?

Additional areas I will be exploring are the origins of barbecue food as we know it, which originated from our Taino ancestors. When Spanish colonizers arrived on the islands, they observed the cooking technique Tainos used for meat, callebarbecuecu which became barbacoa or barbecue we use today.

Keep in mind, that the intention of this project isn’t to shame the Puerto Rican diet, but instead, to acknowledge how our dietary practices have led to a health epidemic within our communities.

So many of us have been touched by friends and family living and dying from the effects of Type II diabetes.

This project is still very early and in the proposal stages, but as I mentioned above, the idea is still very fresh and one I look to accomplish while the creative juices marinate. My hope is, that once this project is completed, we may all rethink and reconsider our foods and take better care of our health.