Antonio Bacelar da Silva teaches LAS 230 Latin America: Food and Culture, which explores how food makes up a significant part of the culture, binding people together into national communities. Based on the premise that food is central to cross-cultural studies of behavior, thought, and symbolism, the course explores the connections between what people in Latin America eat and who they are through cross-cultural study of Latin Americans’ food production, preparation, and consumption. Readings are organized around critical discussions of what people cook and eat in Mexico, Tucson-Mexico Border, Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. A primary goal of the course is to provide students with theoretical and empirical tools to understand and evaluate the relationship between food, history, culture, and economy in Latin America at local and global levels.

Antonio's teaching and research interests also include social theory, qualitative research methods, language and culture, identity (race, gender, class), language ideology and inequality.