Field Trip to Tortilleria Nixtamal

These are all the tamales we made

Today was awesome even though I got to Tortilleria Nixtamal a few minuets late. I loved the way it was styled, half factory and half restaurant. The owner of the restaurant took us downstairs where all the corn was soaked, then grinded into a powder like texture. The grounded corn is used to make tortillas and tamales.At first we watched one of the workers, showing us step by step on how to make tamales, and then we had the opportunity to make some of our own.

The lady showing us the process in making sweet tamales:)

After seeing all these wonderful machines and making tamales, we went upstairs for lunch.It was amazing because the food looked small; you'd never think you'd be full.

Laura's Mother joined us for the day :)

 

Saoussan:)

The corn grinder 

Ubiquitous History

As students and teachers it is easy to get caught up inside history textbooks. I am thankful for this week because our experiences have been reminded me, again and again, that history is not set in stone as written in textbooks and that examining our own cultures and histories help us reaffirm our identities and make our lives richer.

History was alive in the voice of Yao as she explained that at least one million people speak Nahualt, the language of the Aztecs, and that millions more use the Aztec calendar and practice its religious traditions and dances. The Aztecs came to life again as Laura taught us how to dance their music and salute the four winds. The Aztecs became real when we made tamales and tortillas like the ones Sahagun described 600 years ago. 

When we prepared ceviche and chicha yesterday, we re-enacted a culinary tradition that has digressed little from its original Inca roots. Pairing chifles with our ceviche demonstrated that, although tragic, the encountered between Incas and Spaniards also produced good things. 

Today, the African Diaspora was no longer confined to a chapter in a book. We experienced it as we listened to Melody explain why people of African descend stay connected deities like chango, ochun, babalua and yamaya. Dancing slave music from Trinidad, we celebrated African culture in the Americas with our hands, feet and laugh.

In school we were taught about feet binding, indenture servitude and the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Today these three “concepts” became real through Dona Caridad. Born in Cuba to Chinese parents, Dona Caridad spoke of female relatives in China whose feet had been bound in hope of marrying into wealth, how her father came to Cuba from China to work as an indenture servant, how he won the lottery and set up businesses that made him rich, and how his fortune was confiscated after the Cuban Revolution and replaced with monthly food rations and a $60 dollar allowance. Her talk ended with a reminder to work hard and steadily, for this is the only way to take ownership over our own histories.

-Girelle

carribean culture day!!

               Today we went to Columbus Circle, in the city.  A lady gave us a tour to show us the statues coming from African, Cuban Dominican, Haiti, Trinidad and Tabago and Puerto Rican.  She told us the meaning of the statues and the pictues that were on the wall.  In a picture, a man(I forgot the name) with a cane standing next to a road, can help you to walk on the road or he decides if he closes the road on you.  If you pray for him and you do what he wants, he'll open the road for you.  If you do something bad sooner or later karma will come back.  He is quite shady.  The picture is a Haitian version by the veves on the drawing.  Veves are  these designs that represent the various powers and attributes of the Loa.  Loa are God, goddesses, spirit, and Orisha.  The African Diaspora refers to the forced enslavement of Africans from Africa to the Western hemisphere. The slaves brought their traditional religions and spiritual beliefs with them, which eventually became cloaked in Christianity in an ingenious move to avoid further persecution.  They made people believe that their religion was mixed with Christianity.  We did a traditional dance form Trinidad and Tabago.  The dance is mixed with Fench and African movements. 

              After that we went to meet up with an old friend named Caridad And her Husband Roberto at a Cuban Chinese restaurant.  We ate either Cuban or Chinese food.  I had both mixed.  After we ate Caridad was talking about her migrating to Cuba.  Her father had worked in a farm, raising animals.  Her father had won a lot of money from dog races.  She said that her dad had long hair and if a man cuts his hair he is no longer a man, but since they were at Cuba he had to cut it.  He still kept his hair, which they still have.  Her dad had Won a lot of money and told Caridad that that is going for her education, but Fidel Castro had taken over and told  almost all his money, land, and properties away.  They had to live with a pound of almost everything for a month for a family.  It was really hard in those conditions. 
DAISY G.