A Little Bit of Magic: Nitza Villapol, the Cuban Diet, and the Socialist State, 1959–1983

Abstract

This paper examines Nitza Villapol’s cookbooks, cooking show, and magazine columns as windows into how the political and economic policies of the revolutionary government affected the daily lives of average Cubans. By providing recipes and educational content about cooking and nutrition, Villapol played a crucial role as a mediator between state and citizenry. In the process, she taught generations of Cuban audiences how to reconcile their lived realities with the ideological imperatives of revolutionary citizenship, which included upholding nationalist ideals by combatting imperialism through an ethos of creativity and thriftiness in the kitchen. Comparative analysis of the 1960 and 1980 editions of Cocina al minuto illustrates the consequences that austerity and dependence on the Soviet bloc had on the options available to Cuban consumers, in terms of both goods and foodstuffs into the late 1970s, a period remembered for its relative abundance. Nitza Villapol helped Cuban women to navigate these consequences, offering solutions to the shortcomings of state economic policies and transmitting state values with regard to how home cooks should understand and experience those shortcomings.