Banana Bread

Everybody has different tastes, whether that applies to food, clothing or any aspect of how one lives his or her life. And most of the time, the decisions people make based on preferences aren't given a second thought; they simply pick and choose their way through life in a sequence based on their predetermined desires. However sometimes, people aren't able to choose what they want. Perhaps they can't afford something they desire or it is simply out of their reach, whether by their own means or something completely out of their control.

In Miami, as mentioned in Nijman's essay, the locals and exiles have the short end of the stick for the most part when it comes to financial stability and benefits throughout the city. Although the exiles are considered to be slightly better off than the locals, there exists a much greater disparity between the locals and exiles and the mobiles, not just financially but in their mobility as well. Although the locals and mobiles are split into different racial groups and tend to reside in areas of only that group, they are set on an almost level playing field in comparison to the mobiles. The way that mobiles differ is that on average they are significantly wealthier than any other residents of the Greater Miami area and are living there, at least temporarily, by choice, not because of economic or political need.

The mobiles are the people who live in areas like South Beach; the high class neighborhoods with the intense night life and glamorous residences scattered among five star restaurants and expensive boutiques. They flock to the city based on their desires of being attracted to the tropical weather and the rich lifestyle portrayed through media. This deals with the reality versus spectacle theme of Miami; the spectacle is that of extreme glamour with the beaches and the high rises and the crazy clubs and parties, only a small portion of the city itself, and the vast majority being the reality of poverty and low class of the locals and exiles.

This photo relates to the concept mentioned above in that Miami is filled with people from different racial and economic backgrounds all crowded into one city, but they are segregated between the groups. For example the Cubans could be represented by the rum cake and the Haitians by the flan. Perhaps even some of the locals could be pistachio. But the one thing that sticks out the most to me, the punctum if you will is the fact that the banana bread is being sold at $3.00 instead of $2.00 like every other baked good on the menu. To me, it reminded me of the facts that even though so many locals and exiles live in Miami, the mobiles live in a completely isolated section of the city away from all other groups of people and they are the wealthiest and live in the most glamorous part of the city.

The reality versus spectacle here, the thing that really struck and confused me, is why the banana bread is being charged for a whole dollar more than everything else on the menu when there is really nothing more special about it than the carrot or flan cake. The only difference is simply a different ingredient but because of the publicity of the media (banana bread being the only one actually depicted in the photograph) people will pay one dollar extra for the special ingredient called spectacle.