Behind the comfort of arroz con gandules, an unsettling adult world, SF Chronicle, 2018
Because Puerto Rican food is a “soldering” of various continent strains of genetics, violence had to happen for it to exist as we know it today. Arroz con gandules is made with sofrito, rice, pork and pigeon peas. The recao in the sofrito is from the Taino, the pork from Spain, and the pigeon peas are from Africa.
Violence has always been present in my culture. From the decimation of our Taino ancestors to the current loss of over 4,000 of our gente in the aftermath of last year’s Hurricane Maria, violence is always there. Appearing in shadows, on the backs of those fighting for independence, written in calligraphy on a leather belt that hung from a rusty nail in the living room, in the streets of underrepresented socioeconomic communities, in our food.
Violence has always been present in my culture. From the decimation of our Taino ancestors to the current loss of over 4,000 of our gente in the aftermath of last year’s Hurricane Maria, violence is always there. Appearing in shadows, on the backs of those fighting for independence, written in calligraphy on a leather belt that hung from a rusty nail in the living room, in the streets of underrepresented socioeconomic communities, in our food.
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