From KCRW, I'm Evan Klineen and you're listening to good food.

On the cover of Iliana Mezanette's book,

we see her mother's hands up close,

balancing a teetering stack of coconut a repas stuffed with octopus and

dripping with sauce. Those hands with their painted fingernails, gold rings and

silver bangles tell a story.

And even though there are five and a half million people living in the continental US who

count Puerto Rico as their ancestral home,

we rarely see their stories in cookbooks and on TV.

In her cookbook, diasparikan, Ileana aims to change that.

But we can't talk about Puerto Rico without diving into the legacy of past and present colonization of the islands and the impact on the food system.

I asked Deliano what the impediments are for the island when it comes to creating their own robust local food system.

I think it's the dependency on imported foods.

There are very few people who remember what an agrarian society was, you know, before,

especially the generation now who grew up, you know, like in the 80s and the 90s, who are totally used to, you know, like

industrialized and convenient food stuffs, food products and things like that and

fast food, which is, there's a ton of fast food all over the island, you know, like literally in the middle of a jungle

there will be like a shopping plaza just built with like a Walmart in a ton of fast food places.

And because of the dependency on between 80 and 90% of

important foodstuffs you have to work with what you're given and a supermarket is like a big thing now.

Walmart is a big thing now there.

Costco is a big thing there.

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