Born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, Cynthia Torres grew up in a community that used their grilling traditions to feed their immediate and extended families and friends. The art of barbecuing also brought them together to make food a defining part of Cynthia’s family’s culture in Brownsville. In this project, Cynthia interviewed members of her own family to document these traditions and to expand and challenge the cultural meanings of the term “Texas barbecue.”
Cynthia loaded her dog, recording gear, and suitcase into her Honda Fit and traveled 1,500 miles from Boulder, Colorado to South Texas—stopping along the way to reconnect and interview her cousins in the Dallas area. The long hours of driving gave her time to think about her own memories of family in Brownsville. When she was young, it was difficult to keep track of who was a cousin, an aunt or uncle, or family friend—if you were present, you were family. Perhaps this idea of family is unique to Cynthia’s community or a way of life in Brownsville, the southern tip of the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost region of Texas.
The town of almost 190,000 residents (89% Hispanic) is situated along the Rio Grande River, sharing a border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. A Mexican–American lifestyle is ingrained in everyday life. Cynthia’s grandmother’s parents immigrated to Brownsville in the late 1800’s, and the family has maintained many of the same food traditions even as the family’s income has grown. Family and community gatherings and the sharing of food were once a way to survive, but the food culture has evolved into the sharing of food as a way to grow the family bonds in backyards, on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, and in kitchens filled with smells of family staples. Cynthia’s Tio Joe is a master of the grill and one of her only uncles who still stands over the flames. As an introvert, Cynthia did not always look forward to family meals or the open–door policy, but those memories now bring her comfort. Even though she lives many miles from home, she says that she now never feels alone.
Cynthia’s project situates family barbecue both in the larger context of Texas barbecue traditions and the histories and cultures of Texas’ coastal border towns. Sharing these stories aims to sustain the value of backyard barbecues, traditions on the grill, and family food culture.
