From the tropics to the rest of the world

Covering the people, ingredients, and systems that shape global cuisines

Queridxs, I’m so excited to share my first-ever newsletter! It’s an independent space for my reporting and research, and one I’m excited to share with my comrades; the many writers, editors, photographers, recipe developers, and producers who enrich my life and work. Later this week, I will post an original article that includes reporting from my recent trip to Poland, where I interviewed and cooked with Ukrainian refugees who are currently displaced.

From my heart to yours. <3 ¡Disfrútalo!

- Von

Welcome to La Piña [peen-yuh], a newsletter covering food history, culture, and politics.

From Emmy Award-winning documentarian and food historian Von Diaz, La Piña gets personal about food, exploring the people, ingredients, and systems that shape our cuisine. The newsletter is edited by Von Diaz, Stephanie Rodriguez, and Cybelle Codish, with production support from Savannah Shoemake.

La Piña is also an extension of Von’s upcoming cookbook, Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking (Chronicle Books 2023)—a culinary journey featuring 125 recipes from over 20 island nations. Three years in the making, the book celebrates the foundational flavors and traditions of tropical cuisine.

Island communities have much to teach us, given shared experiences of isolation, colonization, and environmental vulnerability that demonstrate remarkable survival strategies and profound respect for the land.

But La Piña expands beyond these island landscapes. Global food systems impact all of us, creating complex dependencies between nations that have been upended by a global pandemic. Warming temperatures are causing droughts and fires in some places, torrential rains, and floods in others, with storms growing ever more violent. Wars, too, are like storms, and ongoing political crises in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and beyond shape our reality.

La Piña subscribers will have access to:

• Articles about the culture, history, cuisine, and climate vulnerabilities of places such as American Samoa, Curaçao, Guam, Hawaii, Madagascar, Poland, Puerto Rico, Seychelles, Ukraine, Vanuatu, and corresponding diaspora communities.

• Interviews with chefs, climate activists, farmers, scientists, and other thought leaders on food production, processing, distribution, and consumption.

• Original photography; soulful portraits, iconic imagery, and breathtaking landscapes from Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking and other reporting.

• Coming soon, updates on La Piña Productions, LLC., a burgeoning media venture specializing in audio, editorial, and documentary storytelling.

Contributors to La Piña are paid competitively. While the bulk of our content remains free, please consider a monthly subscription so those who contribute can be paid fairly for their time and expertise.

We’re thrilled to announce this project and hope you’ll subscribe.