Your Family Story

Is a tradition still authentic if it changes?

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:49:00 -0500

When we asked what cultural traditions people have kept or lost, many wrote about the difficulty of fitting into American culture while staying connected to their own roots.

Yen Azzaro tried to learn her mother’s native Mandarin Chinese in college, but never mastered it. “I never learned how to read or write Chinese. Sometimes I feel inadequate or guilty about this,” said Azzaro. “But most of the time I just feel relieved that I understand some Chinese. Many people my age worked so hard to assimilate; they lost all knowledge of their native tongue,” she said.

Those who hold on to traditions often have a way of adapting and updating them to reflect new cultural experiences.

Sausage making in Anette Kingsbury’s family. Credit: Annette Kingsbury

One way to track those changes and adaptations is through the way people cook and share food. We heard from a Sicilian family that once made 700 cannolis and another that (enthusiastically) honors their Sicilian roots by making hundreds of sausages.

Our culture project incorporated many stories from people who keep up a family food tradition and put their own spin on it.

Sharlene Innes writes: “The most important Polish tradition for my family and for me is Wigilia, the Christmas Eve celebration. We come together to share a meal which now includes items like a large nacho prepared by my Mexican-American brother-in-law.”

An updated tradition can help to make culture more meaningful for younger generations. Rosalyn Park hated stuffing mandu as a child. Eventually, though, making mandu became a special, Christmastime tradition that Park looks forward to. It’s now a way for Park’s family to come together once a year.

“Over the years, our Christmas making mandu tradition has expanded, and we now invite close friends to participate in the event, open a bottle or two of wine, and make merry. The big bowl would come out, the mandu skins laid forth, and we’d sit down for another several hours of mandu-making,” said Park

Park’s mother added a twist to keep everyone in the mandu-stuffing spirit. “My Buddhist-born, now Catholic mother forced us to wear Santa hats. Never mind that our foreheads itched under the synthetic white fur, we were her “elves” and this was how we now did it.”

Stuffing mandu with the Park family. Credit: Roaslyn Park

Some culinary traditions are difficult to keep, no matter how hard you try. Like a foreign language, complex recipes can become easier with total cultural immersion. We heard from many children of immigrants who never learned these skills as they grew up in the U.S. Most regret it.

Brigitte Kirchgatterer has found her mother’s German recipes challenging to master. “My Mom passed in 2005 and she really was active in trying to retain a lot of the Germanic Cooking,” said Kirchgatterer. “I find I just do not have the time to prepare the same labor intense or process laden dishes even though I miss them. It makes me very sad.”

You can read more about food, traditions, and cultural adaptation from our collection of family stories. Or, you can share your family traditions with us .

Lebanese Easter Cookies; Our Winning Recipe

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:29:00 -0500

The very best traditional Lebanese Easter food is the Easter cookies. They are called kaik. This is a two syllable word with a very subtle distinction between the syllables (kah-ick). The pronunciation is so similar to a slang word for a part of the male anatomy, that we rarely use it around the non-Lebanese.

I had never made kaik before. My sister, Holly made it once with the Lebanese-born cousins. They wouldn’t let her do anything but cook because they were afraid she would mess it up. Their cookies are perfection.

My sister Holly, her sister in law Linda, my friend Susie and I all got together at Holly’s house with my mother’s recipe, Linda’s experience, 10 pounds of flour, huge packages of mashed dates and walnuts, and a “What the hell” spirit. We were joined by another sister,Carol, and another Lebanese friend, Dolores, who is also an expert.

Living in Michigan is a real advantage when you are making Lebanese food. There are more Arabs in Michigan than any other state, so the ingredients for Lebanese food are usually available. These cookies call for finely ground mahleb (cherry pits) and anise. No problem. Just go to the bulk food store on Pennsylvania Avenue.

This recipe makes around 50 fairly large cookies.

Ingredients
5 pounds flour
6 sticks of butter (rendered)
1 yeast packet
3 cups of sugar
2 tablespoons mahleb (ground sour cherry pits)|
2 tablespoons ground anise
4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of warm water
1 pound walnuts
5-13oz. packages of mushed up dates
Melted milk and sugar for glazing

Advance Preparation
Before we begin, there are a few things I should explain … like mahleb. Yes, it is actually ground sour cherry pits. Now, I’m not certain how available this valuable ingredient is, but do not make the cookies without it. Living in Michigan, it is easy to find all of the ingredients you need for middle eastern food.

One more thing about the dates. They sometimes have pits or parts of pits in them, so you need to go through them with your fingers and check for pits. This year I found one whole pit and one piece of pit … not a lot, but not pleasant to bite into either. It is a really messy job.

Crushing the walnuts can be tricky. You want them in small pieces that you can actually feel when you eat the cookies. My sister’s little food processor worked great and if you don’t have one, a rolling pin works well too.

Making The Dough
Combine the flour, salt, mahleb, and anise and mix well. Heat the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add milk and sugar to flour mixture and mix well.
Render the butter. Here we get into discrepancies in recipes. Our recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of rendered butter. Linda uses 3 cups in hers. I can’t say that we noticed a difference in taste, so use your own judgement.

Add warm butter to dough and mix well. Pour a half cup of warm water over yeast.
Add the yeast to the dough and mix well. Cover the dough and let it rise for 3 hours. Some of us made our dough the night before (so we wouldn’t
have to get up early to do it). It did seem as if that made the dough a little tougher to work with, but the resulting cookies were fine.

Making the Cookies
Take a portion of dough and roll it into a log. Then cut pieces off the log and form into flattened balls. Roll a flattened ball into a round shape about 5 inches across. If you want smaller cookies, fold them into a semi-circle.

Put the date/nut mixture on the piece of dough spreading it nearly to the edges. Roll out a second piece of dough and place on top of the date mixture. Roll some more to make the cookies as thin as possible. We found that if you don’t roll them after putting the top dough on, they puff up too much and end up looking like hamburgers instead of kaik.

Pinch the edges of the cookie like you pinch pie dough. You need to pinch the edges tightly; otherwise the two layers will separate when the cookies are baked. Decorate the cookies. We have used a variety of implements … a potato masher, the bottom of a cut glass bowl, a mallet, some stained glass flowers. basically anything we could find to make a pattern.

Poke holes in the dough. If you don’t poke holes, the dough will puff up too much when baking. A quill is the traditional tool for this task, but a fork will do if there are no feathers handy.

Baking the Cookies
Place the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 425 until the bottoms are lightly browned. Then broil the tops until golden brown. Brush with a warm mixture of sugar and milk when you take them out of the oven. That makes the tops shiny.

A Recipe for Trinidadian Pelau, courtesy of Niala Boodhoo

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:20:14 -0500

My parents are from Trinidad and Tobago, an island perhaps known for its Carnival, great cricket players (and Nobel-winning writers!) as well as one of my personal favorites: fantastic food. My great-great grandparents immigrated to Trinidad from India. Today, families like mine who have Indian ancestry make up a slight majority of Trinidad’s population, about 40 percent, but the nation is a mix of people of African, Chinese and European heritage. That’s why I think Trinidad has the best food in the Caribbean, although I know that opens me up to controversy from other islands!

I was born and raised in Miami, with at least a similar tropical climate – and my mom and especially my maternal grandmother, on visits here and there, provided the food. As I’ve grown up, my uncle on my mom’s side has taught me much more about how to cook – although I’m not sure I can ever reach his culinary standards!

The standard, of course, is Trinidad’s variation of curry, a green curry that’s hard to describe – it’s not like Thai curry, and in my exploration of South Asian food, I haven’t come across a similar version. But I haven’t perfected my mom’s or Uncle Victor’s curry, which is hard to top, and a great favorite with my nieces and nephews in Michigan and California. I do make my mom’s pelau – a chicken and rice dish, all in one pot, flavored with pigeon peas, coconut milk and the essential scotch bonnet pepper. I base my recipe on a cookbook my mom gave me a few years ago from her high school. I’ve yet to find parboiled rice in Chicago – which is essential to this recipe, because otherwise the rice gets mushy, so I import it from Miami, along with the brown sugar. Trinidad no longer produces the caramel, rich demerara sugar that is a standard for stew chicken – it now all comes from Guyana, but having a good quality brown sugar makes a difference, too.

As any West Indian will tell you, “seasoning” is key to imparting the flavor of this recipe. It’s best to let the chicken marinate in this green seasoning at least overnight. I also find that pelau always tastes better the day after it cooks, and like my mom, I like to serve this with a creamy, tart coleslaw as a foil for the spice of this dish. My parents also like to add ketchup as a condiment.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. chicken, cut up into large pieces
2 Tbsp green seasoning
2 tsp grated garlic
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp tomato ketchup
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 Tbsp cane sugar (substitute with brown sugar)
2 cups parboiled rice, washed and drained
3/4 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped green peppers
2 cups cooked pigeon peas (you can find this in Latino markets or in the Latino section of large grocery stores)
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups cooking liquid (stock, water or reserved cooking liquid from peas)
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (habanero will do if you can’t find scotch bonnet)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Add chicken, green seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and ketchup to a bowl along with salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix and coat the chicken with the seasonings. Set aside and let marinate – overnight is best.
Pour oil into a large pot and place on medium high heat. Let oil heat until hot but not smoking.
Sprinkle sugar into heated oil in an even layer. Let the sugar melt until it starts to froth and bubble. As soon as the edges get bubbly (like a pancake) and get darker – almost to the burning point - add the seasoned chicken and stir to mix and coat with the burnt sugar. Let cook for 7 - 10 minutes.
Add the rice to the pot, stir to mix and cook for 3 minutes.
Add peas and green peppers and cook for 1 minute.
Pour in coconut milk and other cooking liquid. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Toss in the whole scotch bonnet pepper. Cover pot and bring to a boil.
When the pot comes to a boil, remove lid partially and let boil until you can see the surface of the dish - the rice, peas and chicken (about 7 - 8 minutes). Cover pot fully, reduce heat to low or simmer and let cook for 25 - 30 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated.
Serve hot or at room temperature.

Cake, Shortbread, or Pastry? Mazurek is all of That and More.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:19:47 -0500

As part of our Your Family Story series we’re collecting recipes that have been passed down within families. Send in your mothers, grandfathers, or cousins’ famous recipe for goulash, pozole, dumplings-what have you.

We’re collecting recipes from this very second until midnight February 29th. We’ll publish all the recipes. The winner will be announced here and on our partner websites. They’ll collect a grab bag of public radio goodies so get cookin’!

Changing Gears Senior Editor Micki Maynard Shares this Recipe for Mazurek:

My father’s family, which is of French descent, has been in the United States for many generations, settling primarily in Massachusetts. But my mother is a first generation American. Her family came to the United States around 1905. Her father hailed from what was known as Byelorussia, and now Belorus, an area also known as White Russia.

My mom learned European dishes from her mother and New England recipes through my dad, so we enjoyed a varied menu at home. I’ve always heard my mother say what a good cook my grandmother was. But, I didn’t know until this year that my grandmother was co-owner of a bakery in Grand Rapids. The Northwestern Bakery stood on Leonard Street, although the building is no longer there.

Each Easter, my family gathers for brunch, and Mazurek is always the last dish that is served. We sit over coffee and tea and enjoy this dense, rich pastry, very much like a soft shortbread. My mom was always the Mazurek baker, until she offered to teach me. She also shared the recipe with my brother, who baked the Mazurek that you see here.

For the shortbread base:
2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1 egg, beaten
3 Tbsp cream or half & half

Sift the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. In a separate small bowl, mix egg with the cream. Add it to the flour mixture. Mix lightly (it may be a little sticky). Spread the mixture in a buttered glass or ceramic pie dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, until baked, but not brown.

Topping:
1/3 cup almond paste (more, if desired)
1/3 cup raspberry jam
1/3 cup apricot jam
candied fruit, if desired

Allow the base to cool until slightly warm. Spread the almond paste on the base (thin it with a little milk if needed to make it pliable). Decorate the top with the apricot and raspberry jam — you can create quadrants with each flavor, and separate them with almond paste borders, or drop the jam in spoonfuls. Add candied fruit if desired.

Mazurek keeps well in the refrigerator for about a week; you may also freeze it. Warm it briefly in the oven or microwave if desired, but take care not to melt the jam.

Don't Like Kale? Try Boerenkool Stamppot

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:43:32 -0500

Michigan Radio’s Rina Miller shares her recipe for kale, along with this story about her family’s Dutch roots.

My mother, father, three brothers and I emigrated from the Netherlands by ship in 1956. We settled in Albion, Mich.

We assimilated into American culture, but our roots were still there in the way we ate, celebrated holidays (very simply and frugally) and in our ongoing connection with the Netherlands.

A part of my heart will always live there.

Kale was a staple in our home long before it became popular in the U.S. It’s a nutritious, hearty, inexpensive green vegetable.

In this recipe, it’s mashed with potatoes, onions and bacon and served with smoked sausage. It helped stretch the meal budget for Dutch families.

We kept that tradition, and it was always a treat when my mother made a great huge pot of it. I still love it today.

Below is a recipe (original here) that’s very close to how Mom made it:

Ingredients:

3 lbs potatoes
1 lb kale
250g lardons (cubed thick bacon)
2 onions
1 bay leaf
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground pepper
1 lb smoked sausage
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbs butter

Directions:

1. Peel and dice potatoes and onions.
2. Clean, trim and slice kale.
3. Add the potatoes, a bay leaf, a pinch of salt and just enough water to cover all in a 3 quart pan.
4. Cover and boil gently for about 25 minutes.
5. Remove the bay leaf, drain the potatoes, and return to the pot with 1 1/2 cups of the reserved water.
6. Top with the kale and sausage (keep in the original vacuum-sealed package), cover and return to boil until the kale has been steamed until soft and turns a dark green color (5-7 mins).
7. Meanwhile brown the bacon and onions in a pan until just browned but not crisp.
8. Remove pot of vegetables from heat, remove sausage from pot, and add bacon mixture, milk, butter, add salt and pepper to taste and mash.
9. Slice smoked sausage and serve aside or on top of the mashed vegetables.

Want to enter our recipe contest? You can submit your recipe here, or email us at michigan.radio@umich.edu

Arriving in a new land, alone at seventeen

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:25:00 -0500

In the early 1900’s our widowed great grandmother, Soledad Perez, left the USA and went back to La Piedad in Mexico to raise her four daughters: Luz, Angelina, Esther & Carmen.

In the winter of 1948 my mother, Esther, a young newly married 17 year-old, found herself in a Mexican border town boarding a train headed for the USA. Her husband (my father Antonio Ramirez Manzo) gave her an address of a Catholic parish in Detroit, MI.

My father had to stay at the border until his papers were fixed. My mother was alone and frightened but she came to the USA for a better future. She spoke no English and knew no one. But still, this frightened young seventeen year old came back to the country she was born in.

My father’s family comes from Sahuayo, Michuacan. His family surname Manzo is Italian. Many Manzos come from Colima, Mexico. My mothers family comes from La Piedad, Michuacan. Her father’s surname Perez is Spanish.

My father played guitar and sang traditional classical Mexican music. He retired from Ford Motor Company, but also supported our family with his music. He would play traditional Mexican music at social events & at the El Nibble Nook in Livonia, MI for many years.

-Carlos Manzo

Contest! Send in your recipes before February 29.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:22:25 -0500

We’re collecting recipes from this very second until midnight February 29th. We’ll publish all the recipes. The winner will be announced here and on our partner websites. They’ll collect a grab bag of public radio goodies so get cookin!

Alexander Rekalski is a Japanese Name

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:56:50 -0500

My mother was born in Kobe Japan and my father was born in Reading England. My father came to the United States on the SS Liberty when he was six years old and spent the rest of his childhood in Bloomfield, NJ. My mother was born and raised in Kobe, Japan. My mother and father met during several business related conventions. They hit it off, got married, moved to New Jersey and then-had me.

Growing up on Japanese food I must say I do have a taste for it.

I was never fully accepted into one social group due to my background. So, I tried to identify with all backgrounds. I found that social groups change wherever you go. I embrace all people and all culture.

I have lost some of my ability to speak Japanese because I haven’t been to Japan in a while. I also have not been able to speak to many people in Japanese around me, since there aren’t very many people around me that can.

-Alexander Rekalski, Michigan

Eat, Critique, Repeat: This Recipe Calls for 20 lbs of Meat

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:58:06 -0500

All four of my grandparents emigrated from Sicily in the early 20th Century. They brought many food traditions with them. One that has endured is the making of the Christmas sausage. The sausage is traditionally made on Thanksgiving weekend, distributed, and frozen. Christmas Eve is when we get our first taste.

The sausage-making ritual used to be presided over by my paternal grandmother. She and her three sons did the job together. They would buy the meat and have it ground at an Italian butcher, get fresh cheese grated, then put it all together by hand in my grandparents’ basement (where there was a full second kitchen), usually the day after Thanksgiving.

Some years 200 pounds of meat was purchased for the sausage.

My favorite memory is the annual critique that accompanies the Christmas Eve meal. One person might find the sausage too spicy; another, too tough. Too much wine, or not enough, ditto for cheese. One year it had been ground differently, sparking debate. Eat, critique, repeat.

And so it’s gone on for as long as I can remember. And so it will, hopefully, for many more years to come.

Aluzzo’s Italian sausage

17 pounds Pork

3 pounds Beef

3 cups Wine

4 tablespoons Pepper

4 tablespoons Salt

2 1/3 cups Cheese

4 tablespoons fennel seeds or 2 tablespoons ground

1 ½ cups Italian parsley

-Annette Kingsbury, Michigan

35 Years of Letters Within a Midwestern Family

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:35:00 -0500

Letter writing has always been an important part of my family’s legacy.

My mother discovered her family origins through a letter written in the early 1900’s that was found in a desk drawer in an attic in Epernay, France. The letter was written by my grandfather and addressed to his brother. When my mother discovered the letter, she started communicating with her family.

When my oldest sister left for college in the 70’s, my father, Wayne Muren, began writing weekly letters just as my great grandfather did many years prior. The letters served as a source of inspiration for my sister as well as a blanket of comfort.

Jillian’s mother and her father, Wayne, with a stack of letters. Credit: Maureen Houston/BND.com

After all five children grew up and graduated from college, several moved away. Wayne kept writing letters. To this day, 35 years later, I am blessed to still receive a weekly letter filled with newspaper/magazine articles. The no. 10 envelope that was once delivered to my college dormitory is now a large manila envelope packed with news and information.

The letters are sent to not only his children, but also to his 11 grandchildren. The letters are now mailed in large envelopes which accompany 10-20 newspaper clippings to keep the family up-to-date with current events as well as comic strips from a local artist.

This gift of communication is one that I hope will never stop arriving at my door for many years to come. This ritual is now our family tradition.

-Jillian Jones Sisko, Michigan

In Minnesota, South Korean Traditions with a Twist

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:29:00 -0500

My parents emigrated from South Korea in the early 1960s. My mother struggled with the dualities of raising children the American-born way and being the wife of a traditional Korean man. Every night, she would cook two dinners: a Korean meal for my father, and an American one for us girls.

Over time, as my tastes expanded, I grew to truly appreciate Korean food.

One tradition in particular really epitomizes this shift. Growing up, my mother would make traditional Korean potstickers (mandu) once a year. It was a huge ordeal—everything was made by hand. We’d sit down and make mandu for hours.

Being the last of 3 daughters, I eventually found myself facing this daunting task alone. I’d come home from high school to see the big mandu bowl and be filled with dread—it was like a bad Chinese movie: Night of Three Million Eggrolls. I’d sit at the kitchen counter, hand stuffing each mandu by myself and thinking wearily of the unfair plight handed to Sister Number 3.

Eventually, though, as I went away to college and moved out of the house, my mother turned the mandu-making into a special event. Since we all came home for Christmas, she decided we would make it for the holidays.

To top it off, my Buddhist-born mother—now a converted Catholic—went out and bought Santa hats, which she forced us each to wear as we made mandu.

Over the years, our Christmas making mandu tradition has expanded, and we now invite close friends to participate in the event, open a bottle or two of wine, and make merry.

It’s actually become a fun tradition that I look forward to, and this year, I found myself rearranging my holiday schedule so I could get home and be there to make mandu.

-Rosalyn Park, Minnesota

Smells, Sounds, and Cultures Mix in India

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:36:19 -0500

I came to the US 18 years ago at the age of 24. I got married that same year and moved with my husband to Bronx, NY. He came for higher education. I came along for the adventure. We were planning on returning as soon as he was done. The world in my small town moved faster than I expected and we no longer felt like we could fit back easily, so we stayed here and now have two wonderful kids.

I came from the South of India, I grow up exposed to harmony of diverse languages and religions. Secular was a good word. Diversity was the norm.

I miss what I loved the most about India, the intermingling of cultures. If my family did not celebrate a festival we would visit friends who did, it did not matter which religion you belonged to—you could easily get into the spirit of Id, Christmas or Diwali.

Also, in India you grow in status as you age. Age is respected in the US, but here we do not want to grow old. One has to learn to how to behave with older people, they do not want to be treated as old - so I had to make a conscious change and teach my children differently.

I miss the daily morning rituals where every family in India cooks while scents and sounds are wafting in and out of different houses over the sounds of the Azaan, the Muslim call to prayer. There was a pattern that got woven to awaken all your 5 senses. You belonged to the day now!

-Laj, Wisconsin

A Detroit-Arab-American who was "Made by Motown"

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:10:00 -0500

I’m half-Arab, but maybe I should best be described as a Detroit-Arab-American, because this is the place that helped to shape my family and my family helped shape.

Like any family of mixed ancestry, traditions have been blended and blunted, but being in a place with such a large, diverse population with roots in the Middle East has allowed us to keep things like the food front-and-center in our lives.

I’m grateful for being part of a family that is open to many cultural and religious traditions and I think we are stronger for it.

As my family’s 100th anniversary approached, I thought of its contribution to this place. My grandfather worked at Ford while he served as a Muslim minister and Arab-Muslim newspaper publisher. My father played French horn for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and so many classic Motown records.

All of it inspired a song I recently wrote called “Made by Motown.”

-Jeff Karoub, Michigan

You can listen to Jeff’s song here.

“Made by Motown”

One grandfather came down state
The other across the sea
Both took a shot at achieving their dreams
By assembling Model Ts
Five thousand parts and five bucks a day
It was tough yet enough to take home
Still the best thing they built was not by their hands
But the foundation for those yet to come
For better, or worse
And we’ve seen much of both after a century
I’m still proud to say that they helped to make Motown
And Motown helped to make me
My father found music his way out of plants
With so many places to play
There was Olympia and Orchestra Hall
And Motown’s famed Studio A
He had midnight sessions and chart-topping sides
The horn that you hear on grapevine
From Marvin to Stevie, the Supremes and the Tops
It was one groovin’ assembly line
I’m blessed to be writing and playing my songs
The product of hard-working kin
But sometimes I feel like the unlikely child
Of Henry Ford and Aretha Franklin

Rachel's Sons--and Limericks--are Bilingual

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:40:00 -0500

I was born in pre-state Israel when it was called Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. My husband, Dr. Sheldon Kapen, is American-born. We were married in Israel when my husband did his medical internship

Although my husband was born in the United States, he has an abiding love for the Hebrew language, so our sons are bilingual and feel comfortable in both language and both cultures.

Besides the Hebrew that we continue to speak at home, I remember the Yiddish which my parents—who came to Palestine from Lithuania in the early 1920’s—spoke between them, and I compose a combined English-Yiddish limerick for the Jewish News for Jewish holidays which is very popular with the readers.

-Rachel Kapen, Michigan

Tu B’Shevat, or Rosh HaShanah La’Ilanot, is the New Year of the Trees.

Cultural Connection through Music, Food, and Church

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:32:30 -0500

The Roman Catholic Church is very important to us as the center of our identity and culture. It is at Church that we celebrate the Slovenian Mardi Gras, Maskarada. Maskarada is the blessing of foods for Easter.

Church is where we come together from various parts of the city. It is the place where some of our most beautiful music is sung. We have clubs and Halls for the Slovenian people but in the end we all come back to our Faith and the church. We have some of the most beautiful Christmas music. Christmas is a time for choral concerts to celebrate Christmas.

Another important tradition is the Easter tradition of having our food baskets blessed. The food is eaten on Easter Sunday morning. The foods all have symbolic value. They include eggs, horseradish, ham, sausage, cheese, bread and wine.

-John Retar, Ohio

That's a Lot of Cannolis

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:02:00 -0500

My great-grandfather migrated from Sicily. He was one of the first Fanfalones to settle in the Detroit area. Like a lot of Italian migrants, he was poor but carved a name for himself and ended up having a large family.

I miss the big family gatherings. Most of us are grown now. Weddings and funerals are the only time the extended family gets together any more. The older generation held more of the old traditions together than we do now. I find that a shame. Those were some of my best memories.

I remember cannoli day, a tradition that my family and cousins continue to this day. Everyone brings a batch of cannoli dough and we set up an assembly line. A few roll the dough out then pass it along to those rolling the forms. They drop the rolls gently into the deep fryer.

Before the last batch is done, my cousins start dinner of spaghetti, meat balls or sausages, salad, and garlic bread. We fill our bellies to the point of bursting.

For dessert we eat…what else? Cannolis! By the end of the day, we pack the shells into boxes and divide them among the family. One day we made 700 shells.

-Michelle Guevara, Michigan

In case you’re wondering—700 cannolis would add up to 4950 cubic inches of Italian dessert, or: one giant 3.5x1 ft cannoli.

Click here to share your family story

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:24:17 -0500

Click here to share your family story

Esperanza’s Rock en Español Playlist is Way Cooler than the CD That Came with Your Spanish Textbook

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:56:00 -0500

A lot of second and third generation Latinos have the idea that Mexico is this huge farm with cactus, but that is just a small part of Mexico. When your concept of Mexico is based on the stories that your grandparents tell you, your vision is so limited.

I begged my parents for a satellite dish to watch popular music in Spanish to keep up with my cousins. I didn’t want them to know the lyrics to the songs we loved better than I did. My parents did cave and got the satellite. It opened a window to today’s Mexico.

It was a very out there thing that many of my fellow Latino friends didn’t even know about. I wasn’t in California or Texas, I was way up in Michigan, so this was quite groundbreaking!

-Esperanza Rubio Torres, Michigan

“La Ingrata” - Café Tacuba
http://youtu.be/DEfaxwK3mn4
By far one of my favorite songs of all time. I remember seeing this on Univision when I was 13 and I was just totally obsessed with them from that day on. The energy is off the charts, the lead singer had this head of flaming red hair and devil horns.

“Florecita Rockera” - Aterciopelados
http://youtu.be/_AJ4vIqNKsY
The first time I heard the song I was at my grandma’s house in Mexico and this came on MTV. I wanted to buy a guitar and start a band, start a revolution and change the world. That never happened, but I still sing this song loud wherever I am when I hear it.

“El Esqueleto” - Victimas del Doctor Cerebro
http://youtu.be/6NZjlb5a1ow
As infectious as a song can get without being illegal. Just a great tune about being fed up, looking for a cause, a path in life then saying “The hell with it” and dancing.

“Gimmie Tha Power” - Molotov (Warning: Lots of cursing, all of it in Spanish)
http://youtu.be/hfmY9Wlxx0o
A foul-mouthed, Spanglish song about why Mexico is marvelous and why Mexico sucks. Everyone screams the lyrics with love, like a curse filled prayer. In concert it’s amazing, the crowd goes crazy. The drummer, Randy Ebright, was born in Alma, Michigan. ALMA! I met him after a concert, also super kind, soft spoken and humble despite the fact that they are a massive Latin American band.

“De Música Ligera” - Soda Stereo.
http://youtu.be/KpiY999wHTM
A total CLASSIC. If you go to a party here in Mexico and don’t know this song, you’ll either be kicked out or you’ll learn it that night. They are from Argentina, but a huge favorite in the Spanish speaking world. This is the last song they played when they did their last concert on their farewell tour in 1997. When Gustavo Certi closed that show with “Gracias…totales” he broke a million hearts and created a quote that any “rock en ñ” fan will immediately recognize.

A Devil Coming to the House at Christmas

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:46:00 -0500

Both of my parents emigrated from Europe then met in Chicago. My Mom was from Fulda, Germany and my Father is from Volklamarkt, Austria.

I definitely identify with the fastidious hard working nature of my ancestors.

My two favorite traditions:

Every Sunday I turn on the German Radio program in Chicagoland and my husband, son, and I listen while we eat breakfast. Occasionally we take a dance break if a really good song comes on. My Dad also has tapes and CDs of the program. Just in case it ever goes off the air we could keep listening. I love the German music while I’m having a sweet roll and coffee.

Number two is the Krampus! It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to explain to a non-Austrian in my entire life. In fact, my kindergarten teacher in 1981 was so concerned about the “tall tales” I was telling after Christmas break she called my Mom about it saying,”Your daughter said the Devil comes to your house for Christmas?” Only to learn it was all true!

The Krampus (or Knecht Ruprecht) visits children and families in Austria December 6 and rewards good children with a little chocolate after giving a good scare and putting any bad children in a sack to carry away. My cousin Ralph was often put in the sack for a trip down the stairs,always able to escape, hysterical, and rejoin us promising to be good the following year. Our Krampus had a devil face, black fur, big long chains for a belt, and horns. I like to think of him as Santa’s enforcer.

-Brigitte Kirchgatterer, Forest View, IL

Food, Festivals, and Cultural Lessons Stick--Even When Language Doesn't

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:48:00 -0500

My parents immigrated to the United States (my mother from Taiwan, my father from Malaysia) in 1980.

I associate with the Taiwanese and Chinese-Malaysian cultures. Although they’re significantly different, I cherish the contrast of what I understand and find it to be a privilege.

Chinese New Year tends to be the biggest holiday and one that I wish I could carry on with more fervor. When I was growing up, “hong bao”—red envelopes filled with money—were given to the children for good luck. Now I send and gift them to my nieces and nephews.

Generally, I’m pretty superstitious, typical of a Chinese upbringing. I like even numbers (but shy from “4” which sounds like the word for “death”) and rely on gut feelings and feng shui when arranging furniture or which way an apartment’s windows face. Southern and western exposure are best.

I speak Mandarin Chinese at an elementary level. My favorite expression is “huo gai,” used when you do something foolish but it was deserved. In any dialect, the ubiquitous “Ahhh yoooo!” is equivalent to the English “Ohmygod!”

I never learned how to read or write Chinese. Sometimes I feel inadequate or guilty about this but most of the time I just feel relieved that I understand some Chinese as many people my age worked so hard to assimilate, they lost all use of their native tongue.

In college I tried to take Reading and Writing for Native Speakers, but it was incredibly forced and challenging to learn 30 characters a night. I retained two characters out of an entire semester: “country” and “home.”

-Yen Azzaro, Michigan