Gastronomy and culture of San Marcos neighborhood: a space of contrasts

Abstract

Gastronomy, as a segment of a culture, foments popular beliefs and it is an active part of the festivities due to its feature of agglutinating the masses in their environment. The aforementioned is expressed through a vast number of symbolisms that evoke identity, these are linked to both, the land and the nutritional industry allowing people’s development of the neighborhood, which represents the physical space whereby they develop themselves in conjunction with tourism as a fundamental axis for the redistribution of resources. San Marcos is an emblematic neighborhood from Quito, full of spaces where its products are enriched with historical backgrounds, love, and zeal; however, they are not being exploited as they should, therefore, it is essential to promote and strengthen them to turn this neighborhood into an important part of Quito’s gastronomy. To achieve this, the “Methodological Proposal to Territorial Planning” model is taken as a reference, where tourism and sustainable topics are considered according to the characteristics of the place to enhance them. To this end, field studies were carried out at food and beverage sales points where results were obtained, so were they from the parish priest, neighbors, visitors, and tourists in the neighborhood. It was also necessary to revise bibliographical sources, documents of official organisms, and those related to the study. The analytical-synthetic method used was applied individually and comprehensively in order to procure the objectives of the research.