Eating While Poor in 1930's Haiti
As in many parts of the African diaspora, rice and beans served as a popular stable in Haiti. In 1937 the Anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston did fieldwork in Haiti at a time when Cuban officials had recently deported thousands of Haitian laborers back to Haiti. As a result, the hungry yearned for some Haitian red beans and rice to eat with the sour oranges the Haitian government distributed free as food aid. “The jobless peasant still felt hungry after his meal of sour oranges” said Hurston and craved red beans and rice.
