In both readings of Encarnacion’s Kitchen inform us about Encarnacion Pinedo’s bring about and purpose in creating her “El Cocinero Español” cookbook. In the first reading, Victor Valle goes on about how the importance of Encarncaione’s Mexican roots comes into play in creating a voice for Mexican women in a time where they were silenced by both American and European men. This piece of information helps us understand the structuring of how Encarnacion wrote her cookbook due to the negative stereotypes put into poor Mexicans of that period by the conquest of California . However, Encarnacion still included her bitterness towards Americans and Europeans in her book up to a point that does not limit her recipes beyond Mexican dishes, she expresses that her cookbook is a gift for her nieces so that they can pass on their cultural dishes their hybrid families since at that time women of Encernacion’s age were getting married, there were not many Mexican or Spanish cookbooks written by women , that her nieces could look into. Overall, she did not want her family’s descendants to forget about their Mexican origins even if they were to marry into different cultural families.
The second reading, talks more about Encarinacion’s family tragedy and the reasoning behind her negative view of American and European dishes and cookbooks, but that did not stop her from learning dishes beyond Mexican dishes. This was influenced by her education and how she integrated her knowledge into her own invented dishes and used ingredients that California provided to keep Mexican dishes alive. The knowledge she gained helped her construct her cookbook to keep her identity in her dishes and maintain her culture from being segregated in California. Overall, Encarinacion’s “El Concinero Espanol ” cookbook was a gift dedicated to her nieces and for future generations to not lose their culture, since due to Encarinacion’s experiences of cultural segregation in California, she wanted to make sure that they do not lose touch on their culture when living in times were negative stereotypes of Mexicans existed and the tendency to drift away from culture was forming.
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