Eating While Poor in Guatemala City
Another contribution to our series Eating While Poor. As a graduate student I did dissertation research at the Archivo Nacíonal de Guatemala in Guatemala City. I later published the project under the title Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882–1923. The book is an unparalleled study of Southern immigration to Central America from the docks of New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and Galveston, Texas, which began in the late nineteenth century. I met a number of graduate students from the United States also doing dissertation research in Guatemala City. We are all published tenured faculty now but I don’t forget those experience scrambling for a good meal as a broke graduate student. When we got together then stories about the best bargain restaurants in Guatemala City often became the topic of conversation. One of them told me about Toa, a lunch only eatery where one got a complete meal consisting of soup, tortillas, an entrée, small salad, desert, and a beverage for about $1.50! I ate there many times because the price was right, the menu options changed daily, and the food and service were good in a patio style setting.
