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In Something to Declare, what is Alvarez's experience with food once she arrives in the U.S.? Does she develop any kind of eating disorder?

In the chapter "Picky Eater" in Something to Declare, Alvarez writes, "Mostly, if I was eating out, I didn't expect food to taste all that good" (page 76). She writes that in the Dominican Republic, women prided themselves on being very good cooks, so people only went out to restaurants for social reasons. If they wanted a meal that was prepared well and sanitarily, they ate at home or at a relative's house. When she was growing up in the 1950s, the Dominican Republic did not have a developed tourism industry yet, so the island only had simple restaurants catering to workers and food stands in the street. Her family was not allowed to eat in "la calle," or the street, because they thought that they might get sick from unclean food or water. They worried constantly about whether the food was spoiled, as refrigeration wasn't good. 


Before Alvarez came to the United States, she had never eaten in a restaurant, except in an ice cream shop. She and her sisters were extremely picky eaters. If she did not finish her food, her mother ground it up and gave it to her in milk. As a result, her meals turned into a form of warfare with her parents. Once she came to the U.S., she gained weight from eating so much junk food, and her family was working so hard that they did not always have time to eat together. As a young adult, she verged into perhaps having a form of anorexia, as she continued to avoid food and food preparation as much as she could. Finally, after getting married, she learned to enjoy eating and preparing food with her husband and his family.

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