Traditional Mexican cuisine - ancestral, ongoing community culture, the ...

 

This video is about 10 min long, but the information on this short video is really important as it shows the power food has towards the Mexican culture. In the video it explains the importance of passing down recipes to new generations so that their cuisines never die. So food in a way is part of how these Mexican people identify themselves. From personal experience I myself have made it my mission to learn some of the Mexican foods my mother prepares; but these foods have been passed down from generation to generation. I can see how many of the people in the video identify themselves with the foods they create as it is a part of who they are. In a way it serves as a tool to connect with their ancestors whom have passed these foods. For the video being this short, I feel like it is very informative and educational. It helped evaluate the relationship between food and people as a whole.

Cultural Unity Fair: Wapato Middle School

In 1982, a group of teachers and school leaders decided to organize an event to combat the perception that gangs dominated the Wapato community. The event has become an annual tradition in which many of the school clubs such as European (CUB) Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan (MEChA), Asian Youth Organization (AYO), and Native American (NA) would make some of the cultural foods to sell to the community.

This is one of the schools major events as it allows the whole community to gather at a special event in which it showcases many of the different cultures in the Wapato community. Wapato is probably one of the most diverse cities in the lower Yakima Valley as its residents include Native Americans, Caucasians, Japanese, Filipinos, Hispanics, and African Americans. 

I think that one of the important features of this event is the ability for the community to be exposed to the diversity of foods from all ethnicities. For example: CUB club would sell pizza, hotdogs, fries and cupcakes. MEChA club would sell enchilidas, ceviche, nachos, and flan. AFAS club would sell pansit, lumpia, fried rice and fortune cookies. NA club would sell smoked salmon and fried bread. Each year these clubs switch foods; these were just some of the examples from the year I experienced the event.

Not only does the event help create a connection with food, but also with entertainment. Many of the clubs perform traditional dances that have been a part of their culture for many years. From balancing glass cups on their heads to bashing machetes and everything in between these students perform to entertain the community. Many of the dances have been passed down by older students and have remained a part of the school for many years.

This event has created a way for many of the ethnicities to gather in the same place and have the ability to share the diversity the town has to offer. This is something that will always be important in the community and will continue raising its standards to connect everyone, even if it is with food or entertainment.     

Sarah Palin: Connecting with Yup’ik Eskimos

There is a new show on TLC called Sarah Palin’s Alaska and in this show we get an overview of the different things to do in Alaska while learning about Sarah’s family as well. On one of the episodes we learn about her husband’s extended family and it happens to be that they are Yup’ik Eskimos. Something that really caught my attention was the way Palin’s family was able to explore a new culture and what better way to do it than that of her own family.

What was really important about this segment was how Sarah’s daughter got taught the rituals of filleting, chopping and stringing salmon the way the Yup’ik people do. I feel that it is important for people to learn how to cook or prepare traditional foods from their own cultures especially if they never have before. This is a great way to connect food and people at the same time as it is important to learn how cultures have lived through generations.

 

In the show we meet Lena, Palin’s husband’s grandmother who instructs them throughout the process. For the first part of the show we see how Lena uses a tool called the ulus that helps fillet the fish and Palin’s family is able to learn how to use this instrument. Without hesitation the family gets right to work and without any complaining. The next process was to string the fish for the reason that they would be hung in the next process which was smoking the strips. The strips were then hung in a little smokehouse and in the middle of it was a small fire. Through this process the smoke would then dry out the fish and that is how it would cook.

Palin’s family was able to learn a traditional custom that the Yup’ik people do and that was an amazing experience as they were able to feel, smell, and hear information that in do reality belongs to them. Her ancestors used the same process to store up on food especially during winter times and for them to have experience what her people went through is just remarkable.

Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC:                  
http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/sarah-palin-alaska/

LOCAL FARMS: Imperial’s Garden

Imperial’s Garden is a family operated farm located in Wapato, WA at the heart of Yakimas Lower Valley. From Seattle the farm is about 150 miles away and some would consider this far, but for the people of the Yakima Valley it makes it a great opportunity to expose themselves to shopping local.  

Imperial’s Garden has been actively involved within its own and surrounding communities since 1989. Since then, the farm has grown dramatically over the years and has expanded its outreach physically with about 460 acres of farmland. This farm has many fresh fruits and vegetables and not only is it creating safe and environmentally friendly produce, but it is also creating jobs for the community.

Just this summer, Imperial’s Garden managed to build a new location center that would allow enough space to occupy all their produce, enough parking space for customers, and a sanitized place. This new location is perfect because it allows people to find many of their favorite produce with the idea of one stop shopping and the farm also allows customers to pick their own fruits and vegetables if they would like. Giving customers options is always best as it allows customers to feel like they are welcomed and in control of how they pick their own produce.

 Shopping local is one of the most important ways as it allows people to ask the farmers questions about their produce. Customers can ask questions that will enable them to see in what conditions they are producing their fruits and vegetables, if they are using any type of chemicals to grow their produce, how they pick their produce, etc… This also creates the concept of getting to know who your farmers are and in the end this could establish a friendship between the grower and the buyer.

Keeping the food miles to a minimum also helps the environment because it stops the footprint of fossil fuels. In some cases a majority of produce that are sold in grocery stores travel from a long distance which uses up more fossil fuels to get produce to certain locations and is not doing its best to establish a clean environment. It could also be said that buying local is the best way to shop as it is both rewarding for yourself and the environment; and it also is the most delicious way of eating produce because knowing that it came from a short distance of where you live makes it that much better.