A conversation with Carlos Salomon (Professor of Ethnic Studies, California State University East Bay), Natalie Santizo (Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies, San Diego State University), Enrique C. Ochoa (Professor of Latin American Studies and history, California State University, Los Angeles), and Dominica Rice-Cisneros (James Beard nominated chef and owner of Bombera in Oakland, California).

Panelists will discuss food and its relationship to regional identity from the late 1700s to today, from Mexico to Los Angeles. They will consider how Angelenos and our neighbors have experienced food pathways over time and how those ideas contributed to health, society, and economic wellbeing.

LA2026 is presented by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute. It brings together members of the public and humanities scholars for eighteen conversations about museum and cultural exhibitions at six partnering institutions in the Los Angeles region, including the Autry Museum of the American West, The Huntington, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes / El El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and USC Libraries. Each exhibition frames conversations about the anniversary of 1776 from the perspective of California and the West. Each discussion will focus on specific items from one of the partner exhibitions, encouraging public discussions about national identities, relationships between regional and national narratives, participating in democracy, and human relationships to the land.

The EMSI LA2026 Project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.