CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to explore the practice, significance, and development over time of ‘traditional’ home cooking for the descendants of Lebanese immigrants in Argentina and greater Latin America. This is an exploratory paper suggestive of themes that could be examined more deeply through more localized research (Rowe 2012). Nonetheless, this study supports a number of conclusions about this dynamic diasporic group and its relationship to traditional food practices. Narratives and responses about meaning in memory, kinship, and tradition tell an important story about motivations for engaging in food and cooking practices among the descendants of the Lebanese diaspora in Latin America. My study shows that my participants and respondents engage in food and cooking practice as a largely unselfconscious reproduction of cultural identity motivated primarily by a desire to connect with their kin, to evoke memories of their past, and to preserve the gastronomic heritage taught to them—whether directly or indirectly—by their immigrant ancestors. [TRUNCATED]