As we entered Unit 8, “¿Qué comiste ayer?” I was reminded of moments in my childhood. Growing up, cooking was central to my connection to my Hispanic culture. My father’s family is from Puerto Rico and I am the third generation born on the mainland. In an effort to immerse themselves in American culture, my family largely abandoned the Spanish language and worked to perfect their English. This is so different from the American culture I have experienced, which in a way is America-centric. As Americans we are taught pride in country and devotion to nationalism. There is a general expectation that others should know our language, even outside of our country. My grandparents instilled that sense of pride and ownership of our American citizenship and even went so far as to purposefully abandon their cultural connections in the hopes of being accepted as Americans by those on the mainland.

Even with all this, the connection to cuisine remained. Spending time in my grandmother’s kitchen memorizing the recipes she never wrote down was precious gold to a girl who longed to know more about the mysterious culture passing through her veins. In that kitchen is where salsa music played as we cleaned up afterward, sweating and dancing. A pride swelled within me as my aunts swung me around dancing and singing. The strong familial connection that is so evident in our readings and the videos we’ve watched in our modules depicting Hispanic culture is congruent with the experiences I had in those brief snapshots held in my memory from childhood.