Women in poor neighbourhoods in the city of Cusco
in southern Peru organize communal kitchens as a
means of improving the living conditions of their families.
This article argues that relations between poor
women and the state, here represented by an institution
providing nutritional support, are characterized by
negotiations of power and control, where the demand
for respect is paramount. Through an analysis of encounters
and interfaces between the state and the
women at the grassroots, we see that hegemonic discourses
about gender and poverty are being defied,
and that the practice of the women can be interpreted
as a form of everyday resistance. In their collective actions
we can see the beginnings of change in consciousness
and patterns of action.