Weekly Reflection #2

Alonso Lopez

Professor Villa

20 October 2015

Making the Mediterranean—Weekly Reflection #2

            This week we saw how the old world encounter with the new world gradually reshaped the European and Italian economy, society, and culture. We saw such change more notably through the lens of chocolate and how, just like most new world products, it was at not attractive to the old world settlers at first. Chocolate has also stayed at the heart of the new world and old world cultural exchange and imageries between those two different regions. Such Imageries are depicted in this week’s readings, which I will elaborate on in the second half of this reflection. For this first part, I will to connect the bitter chocolate of the older days to today’s sweeter chocolate.

            Similar to the European’s first reaction to the Ottoman’s coffee, Europeans found the new world’s chocolate far too bitter and repelled the drink at first. As we learned through Professor Kirli’s teachings in Istanbul, Europeans had the same reaction to coffee, but developed a taste for it as they were, in part, attracted by the psychological affect its caffeine had. European’s were partly attracted to chocolate for a similar reason: its theobromine caused a similar effect psychological to the body yet also satisfied and refreshed it. In Professor Villa’s lecture (week two, day one), Europeans, more specifically Spaniards, started drinking it due to the shortage of wine. It was also mentioned that the first chocolate that people of the old world had contained pepper and was not sweet at all. We got a taste of what this kind of chocolate tasted like in its solid form in lecture that same day. The first chocolate sample we had definitely had a spicy sensation to it and was nowhere near as sweet as the chocolate that is produced in today’s world (Such as Hershey’s and Ghirardelli). The next three chocolate samples we had further solidified this factor of non-sweetness in comparison to today’s chocolate. Yet I felt the same satisfaction that was talked about in class as it made its way down to my stomach. More importantly, I had the Proustian memory experience as it glazed the thousands of taste buds on my tongue. It made me feel nostalgic of the Mexican chocolate that my mother used to stir into a hot pot of milk. Taste’s connection to memory then becomes apparent.

            However the topic of chocolate does not solely revolve around satisfaction and sweetness. Just like its original, new world taste, a bitter history revolves around it. These differing views on the product are depicted in this week’s readings. While The True History of Chocolate reading provides a historical context for the product, it also makes sure to highlight the detrimental effects that came with it when the Spaniards wanted to take advantage of the monetary value of cocoa beans in the native lands of present-day Mexico: “With the cataclysmatic destruction of the Aztecs’ mile-high capital in 1521, and the downfall of their empire, we enter an era in which chocolate-taking was transformed and creolized by the Spanish conquerors” (D. Coe 13). This quotation highlights chocolate’s impact in reshaping the European economy, society, and culture at the cost of another civilization’s existence. This is a consequence that Giuseppe Parini highlights in The Morning, when he puts the Incas and Mexicans into context: “[The Spanish] wrecked two kingdoms to refresh thy palate” (lines 156-157). The Bacchus in Tuscany poem also gives chocolate a negative connotation. However, it does so in a different context at an attempt to glorify wine. After all, it was commissioned by the Tuscan state, where wine was their religion, metaphorically. This perhaps can be seen as a response to the growing popularity of chocolate in Spain as it began to fill in the void left by the shortage of wine. Such growing popularity of chocolate is most evident in the Mirandolina selection, where the Knight values his chocolate more than his money (Scene 14).

          In conclusion and relation to the overall theme of how the old world encounter with the new world gradually reshaped the European and Italian economy, society, and culture, the “Tasted and Temptations” piece emphasizes that the “interplay of food and art proves to be rich territory for exploration in Renaissance Italy” (Varriano 1). The detachment from medieval traditions and engagement in new world elements can be seen in the Still Life paintings that it depicts and analyzes, similar to those we saw in the Uffizi Gallery.