Abstract:
In 2009, I conducted fieldwork about the culinary practices of Brazilian immigrants in Greater Boston, USA. I assume that food is a good way to understand the migration process, because it is related to the construction of ethnic and national identity, as well as gender, power and class relations. In this article, I emphasize that food is used by Brazilian immigrants in Greater Boston to strengthen social relations with family members and relatives who stayed in Brazil. There is a circulation of many types of goods, such as laptops, computers and cosmetics, between the participants of social networks in the USA and Brazil. In this flow, I highlight the role of food, that maintains through its sensuality (specially smell and taste) the connection of the immigrants with their place of origin.