Last year on a lazy Saturday afternoon in April,  I got on Facebook to scroll through my usual updates.  I noticed a friend had posted something about a Tamales Festival in Riverside, CA.  It was too close to home to miss.  Immediately my eyebrow went up and I jumped in the shower and quickly got ready with out even bothering to comb my hair because there was only a couple hours left before it was over.  I grabbed my camera and jumped in the car.  Not really knowing what to expect I started recording what I saw.  My eyes were full of color.  Greenery, trees, Mexican Inspired art stands, fruit stands– and there in the midst of all that, was this Tamales stand with the name Mestico Afro-Latin Cuisine, that read, “CHICKEN AND WAFFLE TAMALES”.  My eyes opened so wide, I thought my life could end right there in that moment.  I snapped out of it and knew I had to try it. I purchased one and my taste buds were satisfied with the well known sweet and salty bled you find in most Mexican candy.  I moved on to the next tamales vender and again was satisfied .  I was in heaven!  Tamales everywhere!!!  I even witnessed the tamales eating contest wishing I was one of the contenders to indulge in such awesomeness!

I left that day happy with people I met and food I tasted.  I even put out a Video Blog of what I saw.  I remember specifically saying I would like to be involved some how next time.  Wouldn’t you know, the lovely people from The Riverside Tamales Festival saw my video and this year we will be part of the festival.  Abuela and I will be having a Meet and Greet from 3-5:30 pm AND… Ready for this?  I will be a tamales judge!!!!  Can’t get any better than this!!!  So if you are interested in participating click on the link below to see how.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a far greater purpose for the tamales festival.  The founders of the tamale festival are actually trying to save the Trujillo Adobe House located on Orange Street in Riverside, CA.  Through the tamales festival, they are trying to share information on the Adobe House and raise funds for restorations.  Why is this adobe house so important?  Well, it’s part of history.  It is the connection we have to the past of historical significance Hispanics have given to the community.

On September 22, 1838, Juan Manuel Lorenzo Trujillo led an advance party over the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico to California.  Once they settled in California, Lorenzo created a community of Firsts:  church, school, voting, irrigation canal, a mine, planting and farming among much more.  Not much is left of that old town and that is why the adobe house must be preserved.  In the early 80’s, the adobe house was given to the County of Riverside by the descendants with the provision that the county would preserve the adobe and incorporate it into the County parks system.

Not much has been done to keep up the Adobe House as you can see in the picture.  It’s chained up and unnoticeable from the street.  It is currently boarded and not being kept up.  That is why Spanish Town Heritage Foundation needs your support in raising funds.  So come out and join us Saturday, April 18, 2015 at the Riverside Tamale Festival from 11am-7pm.  The entrance fee will only be $1.00.  Can’t beat that!

Don’t let our history die!
Historia No Muere!

http://riversidetamalefestival.weebly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Riverside-Tamale-Festival/107137806123132?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

Last year’s Video.

*Information of the Adobe house provided by :  Suzanne Armas, One of the founders of the Spanish Town Heritage Foundation and descendant of the Trujillos. https://www.facebook.com/suzanne.armas

“Abuela’s Kitchen” YouTube Channel has done far more than I ever imagined.  You probably don’t know the process of how we go about video taping a dish because I really haven’t shared it.  It begins with discussing possible dishes.  It’s really a family affair.  Most of the time we discuss it face to face and on busy occasions we talk it over the phone.  When we have face to face contact, Abuela, my mom, my Uncle Art and myself sit around over coffee, tea, water and Coke ( you can probably guess who has what).  Everyone brings up different dishes.  Abuela, being a Ghost-Social Media addict, begins to bring up all the dishes left by those that comment on any of the platforms.  My mom brings up dishes she remembers growing up (she is a true foodie) and Uncle Art nods away in agreement or disagreement.  I write down all their suggestions.   We consider the season we are in, your requests and of course, what we want to taste in the near future. 😛  We finally arrive at a consensus after much deliberation.  Sometimes we throw away all deliberation if Abuela is adamant about a particular dish.  So we all give in.

On a usual Monday, I shoot her a text about 9:00 a.m. telling her I’m about to leave to pick her up.  If everything is a go, she won’t respond.  If she calls; something has come up.  9:30 am I head out on my 20 minute drive to get her.  I pull up and turn off the car, go through my phone knowing it will still be a while before we leave.  Before I know it, she is at the fence waving with her 2 … 3 dogs at her side (Solovino a Chihuahua that recently stopped by her house and never left.).  I get out of the car, we have our usual exchange of words, “Que Honda Abuela?”.  “Aqui nomas corriendo limpiando el cochinero.  Pasale a lo barrido.”  She zooms past me into the kitchen where she is cooking all kinds of crazy things.  She drops everything she is doing. If she is cooking, she doesn’t care if the food is half cooked.  She begins to show me what she already has bought for the dish we will be video taping.  I patiently watch as she shows me every single item and explains how the dish goes.  She hands me the bags, and dashes to her room to get her cleanly pressed apron.  Her loud-crazy birds start squawking like crazy and she begins to fight with them, “Callense animales!”  The exchange goes on for a while.  Then she exclaims in a surprised voice, “Las Cocas!!!!”  She runs back into the kitchen and pulls out cold Cokes for everyone who will be at the taping and puts them in a plastic grocery bag.  We head to the car, pack it up, get in and start it up.  “Ayyyy se me olvido XYZ!!!”  And out jumps Abuela.  She is running around like crazy, meanwhile I’m freaking out about her falling as she runs around.  And then we are off to the store to pick up whatever we still need.

The day is a memorable adventure, but my FAVORITE part is our drive.  I’m driving and she is in the passenger side talking her little head off.  We have all kinds of conversations and array of topics.  I have learned so much about her life when she was young, about my Great-Grandmother- another wonderful lady that I had the honor of actually spending time with as a kid.  I have learned more about her home town of Purepero, Michoacan, about my Abuelo, about her life experiences, and even current events.  And she keeps me up to date on the family.  All this in our weekly 20 minute drives  (not counting random lunches or hang outs).  But those particular 20 minutes, just her and I, have opened up a whole other world to me that one day will be gone.  Those 20 minutes have become our time warp… our time… that will live in me forever.<3

These buñuelos require some work.  Once a year is definitely enough but boy are they delicious.  This is another of the family’s  favorite recipe from Abuela.

Dough

1/2 Pack of regular size flour bag.
3 Hefty pinches of salt.
3 Tomatillos

1. Mix flour and salt together
2. Take out the pulp from the tomatillo into a small pot with water..
3. Strain the tomatillo water.
4. Add tomatillo water to the flour mix, a little at a time.  You will need enough water to bring the flour together.
5. Need dough well.
6. Make little balls as if you were making Flour Tortillas.

Cooking Buñuelos
You will need a large dish towel.

1. Heat up a pan with Lard or cooking oil.
2. Take a dough ball and pat it back and forth between your hands flattening it as if you are making a corn tortilla.
3. Begin to slowly and gently pull the edges out.
4. Place on your knee and continue to pull around the edges, rotating and pulling until you can’t anymore with our ripping.
5. Place in your pan.
6. Prick with a fork so the buñuelo doesn’t bubble up.
7. Flip when browned on one side.
8. Spin it around in pan slowly so it cooks evenly.

Making the Syrup

1. Place 3 piloncillos in a pot. (Piloncillo is brown unrefined sugar.)
2. Add 2 cinnamon sticks.
3. Add enough water to cover the piloncillo.
4. Bring to a boil until the piloncillo melts into the water.

Mixing Syrup with Buñuelos

1. In a pan, add the syrup and let it boil.
2. Then crumble the buñuelos into the syrup.
3. Add as many buñuelos as you want to get the consistency you like.
4. Let the syrup and buñuelo simmer together.
5. Serve in a platter.

Enjoy!
Abuela’s Kitchen

Video link for more help.
https://youtu.be/z9oGRbE2woY

Abuela makes this dish every Thanksgiving.  It’s gone before we can blink.

Ingredients
1-2 Boxes of Regular Saltine Crackers
1-2 Large Can of Jalapeños
1 Medium Can of Mixed Veggies
1 Tomato
1/2 Onion
Lard
2 Lbs of Longaniza

Instructions

1. Mash crackers into crumbs.
2. Slice up the tomato and onion.
3. Slice your Longaniza into pieces.
4. Heat up a large pot with Manteca.
5. Add Longaniza to the pot and fry it.
6. Once Longaniza is fried, add tomato, onion and cook together.
7. Drain out half the water from the veggie cans, then pour veggie can into pot and let it come to a boil.
8. After it’s cooked for about 3-4 minutes, start adding cracker crumbs into pot a little at a time and mix as you add it.
9. Once it’s as thick as you want it, add the jalapeño juice. (If you want it to be spicier, add more than a can.)
10. Mix well.  YOU ARE DONE!!!

Recipe is enough for 8-10 people.

ENJOY!

ABUELA’S KITCHEN

Link to Chorizo Stuffing video for more details.
 
https://youtu.be/C1fbLVM_WFQ

(Desplacese hacia abajo para leer en Español.)

YouTube has been a very amazing adventure AND a challenge for my life and that of my Abuela.  We have both learned so much about so many things.  Funny enough, I never thought my Abuela at her age, would be thinking about YouTube subscribers, Instagram and Facebook. LOL  Sometimes I wonder how much is too much to share about us?  Nevertheless, we have put ourselves out there for the world to see and despite the risk,  we have had a lot of positive feedback.  In our free time together, I try and read to her as many messages as I can and boy, does she enjoy hearing what you all have to say.  But along with the positive comments, comes the reality that there will always be negative comments.  Sadly, the few negative comments that we do receive are usually the ones that linger the longest.  I believe that those negative comments come from people who do not really know much about what we are doing and why we record the videos.  I also believe they say negative things because they do not really know my story.  I say “my story” even though this channel is really about my abuela and her cooking because I am the producer of our show.  I am the one who originally wanted to document my grandmother’s recipes, so even though these videos are about Abuela, they reflect my purpose.

If you have been following us for a while, you know that Abuela is an immigrant from Mexico.  My mom is also born in Mexico and came to the states as a teenager.  Luckily for me, I had parents who still had deep roots in Mexico, so we were privileged to visit family annually.  I loved our trips to the mother land–visiting family from both my mom and dad’s side of the family.  And of course I had my Abuelos whom lived very close to us for a large duration of my childhood.  So one could say, “I was never too far from my roots.”  I do not ever recall being embarrassed of who I was or even where my family was from.  Being Mexican was never a shameful thing.  In fact, my parents never gave me a reason to feel ashamed of my heritage.  My dad would not even allow me to speak in English at home.  Especially if we visited Mexico, we were not allowed to speak in English.  If I spoke English with my siblings, I got the “Ojo de Aguila,” and sometimes–something worse.

I remember on my trips to Mexico some kids would make fun of me.  Mostly because my Spanish wasn’t perfect.  “How dare she not know how to speak perfect Spanish,” I would imagine the kids saying. “Mira, ya se cree gringa.”  It made me so sad.  I wanted to fit in.  They were my people … so I thought.  And I wanted to be part of what they were.  Fortunately, my cousins always had my back.  If it was not for them I probably would not have enjoyed my trips as much.  But we had so much fun.  I loved venturing out with them and being free to walk the streets without adult supervision.  Going to las tienditas down the streets to buy all kinds of candies and meeting neighborhood kids.  So many cool memories that over power my negative experiences.  But still, the rejection was pretty saddening–and lingers in my memory.

You see, it wasn’t my decision that my parents and abuelos migrated to the states.  And it’s definitely not my decision to be born in the United States.  It is what it is.  I love who I am– a MEXICAN-AMERICAN.  I embrace it as a culture of it’s own.  There is no way that anyone can hold it against me that I am not a full blown Mexicana (whatever that means to them).  I wasn’t born there.  I never lived there.  I only visited in the summers.  And there is no way anyone can hold it against me that I am not like the gringo next door who ONLY speaks English.  How can that even be?  My ancestors are from Mexico.

So when I get comments from people calling me “Malinche,” or “sell out” for speaking English during traditional Mexican cooking,  or saying my Spanish sucks (among other things), it does hurt a little.  Because it’s not something that I do on purpose to shun my people or because I’m embarrassed, like some say I am.  How they come up with that is beyond me.  If I was embarrassed, why would I even let the whole world into our lives?  Those who know me personally know that I love my roots, I love who I am and I embrace it all.

I’m sure a lot of you know that as each generation passes  a lot of things get lost.  Things like language, customs, traditions and even food.  So this is why I continue to make videos with my Abuela.  For people like me who want to remember the little things that are easily forgotten.  People like my kids who have a dad who is 3rd generation and has learned Spanish in school.  For people who have never visited Mexico but wish they could have.  People who miss their Abuela’s cooking and never learned how to make it.  People who never got a chance to know what it’s like to embrace their Mexican side.  Bi-racials who didn’t grow up with their Mexican family.  And for those who just love some real Traditional Mexican cooking.  These videos are for me, my kids, their kids.  For you, your kids and their kids.  Food always brings us back to specific times and places because it opens up all our senses. After all, memories are made in the kitchen.

For those who have allowed us into your home and have embraced us as we are, and as I am, I say thank you.  I appreciate all your beautiful messages.  For you, I will continue to publish our videos.

Being Mexican-American is a beautiful thing and I don’t apologize for it.

———

YouYube ha sido una aventura muy impresionante y un reto par mi vida y la de mi Abuela.  Las dos hemos aprendido mucho sobre muchas cosas.  Curiosamente, nunca pense que mi Abuela, a su edad, estaria pensando en los suscriptores de YouTube, Instagram y Facebook.  A veces me pregunto cuanto sera demasiado para compartir acerca de nosotros?  Sin embargo, nos hemos puesto para que el mundo ea y apesar del riesgo, hemos tenido una respuesta muy positiva.  En nuestro tiempo libre juntas, trato de leer tantos mensajes como pueda y ella disfruta de escuchar los que todos ustedes tienen que decir.  Pero junto con los comentarios positivo, viene la realidad de que siempre habra’ comentarios negativos.  Lamentablemente, los pocos comentarios negativos que nosotros recibimos son generalmente los que afectan mas.  Creto que esos comentarios negativos vienen de personas que realmente no saben mucho acerca de lo que estamos haciendo y por que’ es que grabamos los videos.  También creo que dicen cosas negativas porque no saben muy bien mi hisotria.  Y dogo “mi historia” porque yo soy la productora del show.  Y soy la que originalmente quería documentar las recetas de mi Abuela, así que aunque estos videos son sobre Abuela, reflejan mi proposito.

Si usted nos ha estado siguiendo por un tiempo, usted sabe que la Abuela es una inmigrante de Mexico.  Mi madre también nacio en Mésico y vino a los Estados como un adolescente.  Por suerte, tuve padres que aún tenían profundas raíces en México, por lo que tuvimos el privilegio de visitar a la familia cada año.  Me encantó nuestros viajes a la tierra madre-visitando a sus familias, tanto la de de mi madre y el lado de mi padre.  Y por supuesto, yo tenía a mis Abuelos quien vivíeron muy cerca de nosotros por una gran duración de mi infancia. así que se podría decir que “Nunca estuve demasiado lejos de mis raíces”.  Yo no me recuerdo estar avergonzada de quien yo era, yo o incluso de donde mi familia era.  Ser Mexicana nunca fue una cosa vergonzosa.  De hecho, mis padre ni siquiera me permitía hablar en Ingles en casa.  Especialmente si visitabamos a Mexico, no se nos permitiá hablar en Inglés con mis hermanos.  Me daban el “Ojo de Aguila”, y aveces algo peor.

Recuerdo que en mis viajes a México algunos niños se burlaban de mi.  Sobre todo porque mi español no era perfecto.  “Como se que no habla bien el Español siendo Mexicana?”  me imagino a los niños diciendo, “Mira, ya se cree gringa.”  Me hizo tan triste.  Yo quería pertenecer.  Eran mi gente–eso era lo que yo pensaba.  Queria ser parte de lo que ellos eran.  Afortunadamente, mis primas siempre me respaldaban.  Si no fuera por ellas, probablemente no habría disfrutado de mis viajes.  Pero nos divertimos much.  Me encantaba salir con ellas a por las calles para comprar todo timpo de dulce y tambien conocer niños del barrio.  Tantos recuerdos bonitos que sobrepasan mis experiencias negativas.  Pero aún asi, el rechazo era bastante triste-y perdura en mi memoria.

No fue mi decisión de que mis padres y abuelos enmigraran a los Estados.  Y definitivamente no es mi culpa que yo nací en Los Estados Unidos.  Asi fue mi destino.  Me encanta lo que soy–una Mexicana Americana.  Yo lo tomo com una cultura en si mismo.  No hay porque acusarme que yo no soy una Mexicana de Mexico.  Yo no nací alla.  Yo nunca viví alla.  Sólo estuve viajaba para Mexico en los veranos.  Y no hay porque condenarme de que yo no soy como el gringo de al lado que sólo habla Inglés.  Como puede ser?  Mis antepasados son de México, no yo.  Y no lo digo por orgullo.  Lo digo porque es la realidad.

Así que cuando recio comentarios de la gente que me llama “Malinche”, o “vendida” por hablar Inglés mientras cocinamos comida tradicional Mexicana., o cuando dicen que mi español es horrible (entre otras cosas), me duele un poco.  Porque no es algo que hago con el propósito de huir de mi gente o porque me da vergüenza, como algunos dicen.  Por que dejar entrar a todo el mundo en nuestras vidas?  Los que me conocen personalmente saben que amo a mis ráices, me encanta lo que soy.

Estoy segura que muchos de ustedes saben que con cada generación que pasa una gran cantidad de cosas se pierden.  Cosas como el lenguaje, las costumbres, las tradiciones y hasta la comida.  Asi que es por eso que sigo haciendo ideos con mi Abuela.  Para la gente com yo, que quieren recordar las pequeñas cosas que se ovidan fácilmente.  La gente com mis niños que tienen un padre que es tercera generación en E.E.U.U y que ha tenido que aprender español en la escuela.  Para las personas que nunca han visitado a Mexico, pero que deseaban visitar.  las personas que extrañan las comidas de sus abuelas y nunca aprendieron cómo hacerlas.  Las personas que nunca tuieron la oportunidad de saber lo que se siente al aceptar su lado Mexicano.  Gente birraciales que no creció con su familia Mexicana y ahora buscan de saber.  Y para aquellos que les encanta un abuena cocina Mexicana.  Estos videos son par mí, para mi hijos y los hijos de mi hijos.  Para ustedes, sus hijos y los hijos de sus hijos.  La cocina siempre nos trae du vuelta a tiempos y lugares especificos porque abre todos nuestros sntidos.  Después de todo, los recuerdos se hacen en la cocina.

Para los que nos han permitido en su casa y nos han aceptado como somos… como soy, les doy las gracias!  Agradezco todos sus mensajes hermosos.  Para ustedes voy a seguir pulicando nuestros videos.

Ser Mexicana-Estadounidense es una cosa hermosa y no me disculpo por ello.