Abstract
This study examines how the Korean diaspora in Santiago, Chile, utilizes gastronomy as a contested medium of cultural agency, authenticity, and belonging within the urban fabric of Patronato. Migrant-run Korean restaurants serve not only as economic enterprises but also as spaces of symbolic negotiation, where authenticity is performed, appropriated, and contested through visual design, menu language, and embodied customer interactions. Adopting a mixed-methods approach—ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews, and visual analysis—the research introduces the concept of gastronomic multiterritoriality, which captures how immigrant food practices simultaneously assert diasporic identity and adapt to local urban logics. In Patronato, these culinary sites operate as interscalar platforms that bridge cultural heritage, local markets, and neoliberal consumption ideals. The paper explores critical questions of cultural appropriation and authenticity within a multicultural economy, while highlighting how culinary spaces become arenas for claims to urban citizenship and visibility. The analysis reveals how Korean gastronomy negotiates between resisting homogenization and participating in commodified multiculturalism. Contributing to the field of interdisciplinary social sciences, this research sheds light on how everyday consumption becomes a political practice that reconfigures cultural hierarchies, spatial belonging, and social inclusion. It offers insights into the embodied and sensory dimensions of migrant integration in Latin America’s globalizing cities.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cultural appropriation, Migration, Urban space, Gastronomic Multiterritoriality, Authenticity, Diaspora visibility
