2. In the opening scene, Ashima is making a snack for herself. Food plays a large role throughout the novel. How does the author use food to evoke specific emotions in Chapter 1?
Food is a very

I am a child of the Americas,

a light-skinned mestiza of the Caribbean,

a child of many diaspora, born into this continent at a crossroads.

I am a U.S. Puerto Rican Jew,

a product of the ghettos of New York I have never known.

An immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.

I speak English with passion: it’s the tongue of my consciousness,

a flashing knife blade of crystal, my tool, my craft.

I am Caribena, island grown. Spanish is in my flesh,

ripples from my tongue, lodges in my hips:

the language of garlic and mangoes,

the singing in my poetry, the flying gestures of my hands.

I am of Latinoamerica, rooted in the history of my continent:

I speak from that body.

I am not african. Africa is in me, but I cannot return.

I am not taina. Taino is in me, but there is no way back.

I am not european. Europe lives in me, but I have no home there.

I am new. History made me. My first language was spanglish.

I was born at the crossroads

And I am whole.

The main tension that drives Gogol's identity confusion is the divide between his family's Indian heritage and his own desire for an independent, modern, American lifestyle.

Have the gangalis achieved the American dream?