Question Why is Food such a Significant Element in Shaping Cultural Identity? Response Geeta Kothari’s essay, "If You are What You Eat, Then What am I?", and Armando Montano’s, "The Unexpected Lessons of Mexican Food," discuss the relationship between the authors own culture and food. Kothari and Montano both are struggling with their own cultural identity because they have a hard time identifying who they are and do not completely fit into either of the cultures introduced into their lives. There are many identifiers when it comes to figuring out someone’s culture, such as appearance, food, tradition, etc. Food is significant because seeing what one chooses to eat helps to better identify their cultural standing. Through stricter older traditions, it was easier to identify the cultural background of an individual. But in this current time, with the much more culturally diverse atmosphere, many traditions have mixed making it much harder to stay with what traditionally ones culture might be. Kothari, coming from India where things are still very traditional and there is not as much cultural diversity as in America, being introduced to many new foods from other cultures is quite scary for her and her family. Kothari’s mother talks about “back home” as a safe place where they know everything about what they are eating (923). This shows that coming to America has introduced to them many new foods that do not follow what their cultures guidelines about food, making it harder for Kothari to specifically stay with what her culture wants her to eat. Kothari thinks that if she eats tuna just like her fellow “tuna eaters” she can better identify with them (923). It is hard to stick with ones culture without veering from it, this is why we have become a more culturally diverse environment that is more acceptable to being diverse. Many cultures have mixed, because of marriage, to make new more diverse cultures. This has made t