Decolonize Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes for Health and Healing

International Latino Book Award winner, Best Cookbook

More than just a cookbook, Decolonize Your Diet redefines what is meant by "traditional" Mexican food by reaching back through hundreds of years of history to reclaim heritage crops as a source of protection from modern diseases of development. Authors Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel are life partners; when Luz was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, they both radically changed their diets and began seeking out recipes featuring healthy, vegetarian Mexican foods. They promote a diet that is rich in plants indigenous to the Americas (corn, beans, squash, greens, herbs, and seeds), and are passionate about the idea that Latinos in America, specifically Mexicans, need to ditch the fast food and return to their own culture's food roots for both physical health and spiritual fulfillment.

This vegetarian cookbook features over 100 colorful, recipes based on Mesoamerican cuisine and also includes contributions from indigenous cultures throughout the Americas, such as Kabocha Squash in Green Pipian, Aguachile de Quinoa, Mesquite Corn Tortillas, Tepary Bean Salad, and Amaranth Chocolate Cake. Steeped in history but very much rooted in the contemporary world, Decolonize Your Diet will introduce readers to the the energizing, healing properties of a plant-based Mexican American diet.

Full-color throughout.

Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel are professors at California State East Bay and San Francisco State University, respectively. They grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs on their small urban farm. This is their first book.


Author: Luz Calvo,Catriona Rueda Esquibel
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Published: 10/13/2015
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 7.90w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781551525921

About the Author

Catriona Rueda Esquibel was a professor in the Ethnic Studies department at San Francisco State University. She held a BA in English from New Mexico Highlands University (1988), a Master's degree in English literature from the University of Colorado (1991), and a PhD in the History of Consciousness Program at UC Santa Cruz (1999). Decolonize Your Diet, written with her partner Luv Calvo, was her first book. Catriona Rueda Esquibel passed away in 2024.

Luz Calvo received their PhD in the History of Consciousness at University of California Santa Cruz and also holds an MA in Political Science (UCLA) and AB in Politics (Princeton University). Dr. Calvo teaches courses in Latino/a Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Food Justice, and Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay. Decolonize Your Diet, written with their late partner Catriona Rueda Esquibel, is their first book.