Latino families have been making tamales for generations, recipes handed down from grandmothers to mothers to daughters and so on as in the story of Rebecca Lopez in Tamales: A Gift of Love, Culture and Fellowship. There are many variations, from sweet to savory and everything in between. Here are a few of our favorites, […]
My mother’s nails are split, broken. They snag my skin as I help her out of the shower. In the evening, I begin filing them with an emery board. She offers each finger except the one that hasn’t grown a nail since she was a baby crawling after her mother in the kitchen. One blind […]
ROASTED CHILE ARBOL SALSA Makes: 2 cups Ingredients 1 pound plum tomatoes (about 4) 3 to 8 chiles de arbol, depending on how spicy you like it 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium white onion, chopped 4 garlic cloves, crushed ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Read […]
With technology, such as Smartphones and digital pocket cameras at our fingertips every waking moment, it’s easier than ever to capture photos and video of our children’s lives. And, given the prevalence of social media, it’s easier to share them, too. But how to archive and preserve memories comprised of pixels and megabytes, data most […]
The new Arizona mandate to end the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American studies classes this week had school officials boxing and carting out of classrooms books that deal with oppression, race and ethnicity, including those pictured here. School district officials have told news sources the books aren’t banned, just removed from the classroom in […]
As soon as the turkey leftovers vanished last month, Rebecca Lopez’s friends began calling with a single question: “Are you going to have a tamalada this year?” Yes, ’tis the season for making and eating tamales, but it wasn’t just the food her friends yearned for; it was the sense of community and warmth they […]
New York chef and cookbook author, Zarela Martinez was hosted by the chef and owner of Dallas’ upscale Stephan Pyles restaurant. No sooner had Mr. Pyles introduced the woman who was among the first chefs to bring authentic regional Mexican cuisine to Manhattan than she announced with her trademark directness, “I have to tell you something. A lot of […]
In the mid-1990s I was covering a political rally in California with a Latina colleague when a Brown Beret asked a version of the question we’d both heard for years: “We hear you guys in Texas call yourselves Hispanics. What’s up with that?” He meant, of course, as opposed to calling ourselves Chicanos. And he […]
I am not a mother. But as my own mom slips inexorably into the oblivion that is Alzheimer’s Dementia the opportunities are rife for me to consider motherhood from the perspective of daughter. Through my blog about caring for my mother, I’ve connected with other daughters of mothers with dementia. And I’m finding that no […]