{"id":22549,"date":"2023-11-24T20:14:41","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T01:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=22549"},"modified":"2024-03-20T17:10:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T21:10:01","slug":"barbacoa-bomba-and-betrayal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22549","title":{"rendered":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal<\/em><\/a> (2023) Raquel V. Reyes<\/a> (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery)<\/p>\n

\"Barbacoa,<\/a>What did I like about this story?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo te olvides de tus uvas,\u201d Mami warned me. It was a tradition practiced in many Latinx and Hispanic homes. You had to eat twelve grapes for good luck before the clock struck to signal the new year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really liked how much Spanish and Spanglish was used in the story.<\/p>\n

No, I can’t speak or read Spanish, but I can guesstimate words from their similarity to French, and also from context.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo te olvides de tus uvas,\u201d Mami warned me. It was a tradition practiced in many Latinx and Hispanic homes. You had to eat twelve grapes for good luck before the clock struck to signal the new year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, since I read it on a kindle, a simple highlight and swipe gave me a translation. So I got to confirm my guesses, which I really enjoyed.<\/p>\n

I also loved the cultural (and anthropological) bits.<\/p>\n

my Cuban family stayed up on Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, cooked a whole pig, had a delicious meal, danced and sang, played games, and opened presents. Then twelve days later, the Three Kings came to give the kids more gifts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I very much appreciated the Latinx view of the politics of the DR.<\/p>\n

(T)he fiscal oversight board had enacted legislation that allowed outside investors to avoid paying taxes on the premise that it would entice businesses to come to the island, which would, in theory, help the local economy. Outside investors were putting their money into projects, but the profits were not staying local. It was the same old colonial plunder and pillage song and dance but sung to a new tune.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“(I)t was a hex breaker cleanse from my aunt. My mother thinks it will rid me of my bad luck,\u201d I said. <\/p>\n

Marie, who\u2019d been listening, agreed. \u201cThat stuff works.\u201d She nodded and splashed some water on her shoulders. \u201cVodou is like a Wi-Fi connection to your ancestors.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem was the mystery. <\/p>\n

I admit I was having a great deal of trouble concentrating, so it’s possible I missed things, but the mystery felt unresoved. Was the ending supposed to be that way? Or was this to be continued in another book (which we know I hate)?<\/p>\n

I just felt lost and like I was missing something (or a lot of things).<\/p>\n

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books<\/p>\n

Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal (2023) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) What did I like about this story? \u201cNo te olvides de tus uvas,\u201d Mami warned me. It was a tradition practiced in many Latinx and Hispanic homes. You had to eat twelve grapes for good luck before the clock struck to signal the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[190,292,24,204,8,148],"tags":[622,623],"class_list":["post-22549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cozy","category-ebook","category-food","category-good","category-mystery","category-queer","tag-caribbean-kitchen","tag-raquel-v-reyes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-5RH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25791,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25791","url_meta":{"origin":22549,"position":0},"title":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal, Audio Book (2023) Raquel V. Reyes narrated by Frankie Corzo (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery, #3) (M)y Cuban family stayed up on Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, cooked a whole pig, had a delicious meal, danced and sang, played games, and opened presents. Then twelve days later, the Three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Barbacoa-Bomba-and-Betrayal-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25673,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25673","url_meta":{"origin":22549,"position":1},"title":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"January 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, Audio Book (2022) Raquel V. Reyes narrated by Frankie Corzo (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery #2) I am very much enjoying the narration. I don't speak Spanish, but the story is perfectly understandable despite that, and, honestly, I think the Spanish is lovely to listen to. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18895,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18895","url_meta":{"origin":22549,"position":2},"title":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder","author":"Michelle","date":"December 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder (2021) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) Miriam Qui\u00f1ones-Smith has finished her PhD in food anthropology, but instead of becoming an author or education, she has moved back to Miami, where her husband was able to find a better paying job closer to support from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mango Mambo and Murder","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mango-Mambo-and-Murder.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25583,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25583","url_meta":{"origin":22549,"position":3},"title":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Mango, Mambo, and Murder, Audio Book (2021) Raquel V. 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Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) I read Mango, Mambo, and Murder and Mia P. Manansala's Arsenic and Adobo very close together, and have spent the past year confusing the two, because cozy mystery with food and a female lead are what I remembered.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Calypso_Corpses_and_Cooking.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}