The purpose of this dissertation research is to study the experience of adjustment of Colombian immigrant children to living in the U.S. In order to understand the changes they have experienced as immigrants, the research focuses on the ways in which they talk about the food they eat hereand on the foods they ate in Colombia. Because of the symbolic importance of food in the construction of ethnic and personal identities, a study of how the children talk about food illuminates the process of blending elements from the immigrant culture with those of the U.S. Based on the symbolic interactionism approach to culture, this study assumes that participants' representations of foods are shaped by their own experiences through interactions with others. Representations of food result from the interactions between participants and the researcher in the research settings. With a participatory approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with twelve girls and eight boys, and three group sessions with three girls and eight boys. Participants were reached at the Taller Intercultural Hispano Americano and through their parents at the Center for Family Health. Data were analyzed qualitatively following first a process of data reduction and then transforming the interviews and the group sessions into narratives. Analysis of the data shows that participants' changes and adjustment are characterized by an emerging process of creolization, a concept proposed by Foner (1997) to explain patterns of acculturation of immigrant families. Creolization is the central idea articulating and providing meaning to participants' representations of food changes. Colombian immigrant children living in the U.S. are agents actively blending elements from their immigrant culture with elements they encounter in the U.S. context from which new food patterns reflecting their changing circumstances are emerging. Likewise, Tampa in particular and Florida in general provide a context that facilitates and promotes such blending of meanings both in private spaces such as home and in public ones such as restaurants, due to the presence of long-established Spanish-speaking communities of varying degrees of acculturation.

Le poisson a une place centrale dans l’alimentation dakaroise. Il est aussi l’un des composants principaux du plat emblématique du pays, le ceebujën, présent dans les habitudes quotidiennes des populations. Pour des raisons écologiques, politiques et économiques, l’accessibilité du poisson sur le marché local diminue ces dernières années. Cette thèse analyse les stratégies d’adaptation mises en place par les Dakarois face à cette situation. Ce projet explore la dimension dynamique de l’alimentation et des processus de décision alimentaire. Une enquête a été réalisée en trois phases principales : 1) une phase d’immersion ethnographique ; 2) une phase qualitative constituée d’entretiens d’experts et de mangeurs dakarois, ainsi que d’observations participantes de séquences alimentaires (approvisionnement, préparation, consommation d’un repas) ; 3) une phase quantitative de passation d’un questionnaire auprès de 820 Dakarois. Les résultats démontrent que les changements alimentaires peuvent autant recouvrir des enjeux de maintien des pratiques à l’intérieur des cadres définis par les modèles alimentaires, qu’ils peuvent se révéler des leviers de redéfinition de ces modèles. Le statut identitaire et social de certains aliments (le poisson), plats (le ceebujën) ou recettes (celle du ceebujën dit plat « à une marmite ») favorise les comportements de maintien à l’intérieur du modèle alimentaire, tandis que la « modernisation » de la société tend à favoriser, au contraire, des pratiques dépassant le modèle. Par conséquent, cette thèse contribue à dynamiser le concept de modèle alimentaire en exposant, d’une part, comment les modèles alimentaires constituent une ressource mobilisée en situation de changement et, d’autre part, sont façonnés par ces mêmes changements. / Fish have a central position in food in Dakar. It is also one of the main components of the emblematic dish of the country, the ceebujën, present in the daily habits of the populations. For ecological, political and economic reasons, the accessibility of fish to the local market has been declining in recent years. This thesis analyses the adaptation strategies used by Dakar inhabitants facing this situation. This project considers the dynamic dimension of food and of the food decision processes. Data collection was carried out in three main phases: 1) an ethnographic immersion phase; 2) a qualitative phase consisting of interviews with experts and Dakar eaters, plus participant observation sessions of food sequences (supply, preparation and consumption of a meal); 3) a quantitative phase in which 820 Dakar inhabitants answered a questionnaire. The results show that while food changes can involve a maintaining of the practices defined by the food models, they can also participate in the redefinition of these models. The identity and social statuses of certain food (fish), dishes (the ceebujën) or recipes (the ceebujën is categorised as "one-pot dish") favours the behaviours of maintenance inside the food model, whereas “modernization” tends to allow for the development of practices that go beyond the model. This thesis complicates and revitalises the concept of food model by exposing how food models constitute a resource mobilized in time of change, while they are simultaneously shaped by these same changes.