A Story of Puerto Rican Heritage, Identity, and Food | Guest Post by Nick Rosario

The Pressure to Represent Your Heritage 

 

As an American, you are pressured to represent your ethnicity. My cultural heritage is a reverse West Side Story: our father is a Puerto Rican man from the Bronx, our mother is an Italian-Irish woman from New Hyde Park and neither died from gang violence. Growing up our father gifted us with strong Puerto Rican pride. The problem was there are very few Puerto Ricans in California, let alone in our largely jewish community. 

 

We did not know many Puerto Rican traditions or cultural ideas and we never learned Spanish. To our friends, being latino meant being Mexican which meant we often conflated the two cultures. I regretfully remember improvising as a Shark in a theater camp and talking about tacos and quesadillas. There was one Puerto Rican kid at my school who actually spoke Spanish and visited the island more often. I remember feeling embarrassed when my Mexican friend accused me of being a fake Latino because this kid clearly knew more than I did. An early taste of shame related to my Puerto Rican identity crisis. All of our cousins lived outside California so there was no Puerto Rican community to educate us. That is, until my dad’s cousin moved to the LA area about 15 years ago. 

Discovering Pernil: A Christmas Tradition 

 

They introduced us to the savory joy of a Christmas Pernil. Pernil is a roasted pork shoulder in the afro-caribbean tradition usually served to a large group of people for special occasions a la Thanksgiving Turkey. It was introduced to my sister and I through our cousin’s Jewish wife who learned the recipe from her sister in law (my dad’s other cousin). It’s garlicy, it’s a little spicy, it’s very flavorful, and it’s traditionally served with fried plantains (plantanos) served two ways and one of the most flavorful rice dishes you will ever have in your life. We were introduced to Coquito, a cocktail of coconut milk, cinnamon, rum, and other forms of milk. We were blown away by these new flavors! Suddenly our father was saying how he would visit the mother island and would have to eat large portions of every relative’s pot of rice. For the first time, we were being directly taught about Puerto Rican culture. It became our new Christmas tradition until my second cousins moved to Baltimore. My culinary sister immediately learned the recipe and has since reproduced the boricua feast. 

 

Boston: Reconnecting with Identity Through Food 

 

My own journey had me taking the path of music. When it was time for me to fulfill my dream of pursuing music to the North East I ended up in Boston. A lot people do not realize that Boston has very large Dominican and Puerto Rican communities. By sheer coincidence, I ended up living in one of these neighborhoods. I was face to face with my lack of knowledge of my ethnic heritage more than ever before. Sure, I knew the baseball players, some salsa songs, but I didn’t know the accent. I didn’t know the particular things that made Puerto Ricans Puerto Rican. It felt like every latino I talked to knew it, too. I made my mission to change this.

 

Learning the Language of Everyday Culture 

 

I went to the local Dominican cafe and tried my best to order coffee and food in my best broken Spanglish. I was always given an incredulous look when ordering coffee black, but I loved the bitter taste. A conversation would go like:

“Un cafe negro, por favor”

“Café negro?” they would ask. “¿No leche, no azúcar?”

“No, solo negro,” I would say.

“No leche? No azucar?” They would repeat. 

“No leche. No azucar. Solo negro, por favor.”

“Hey!” the clerk would say to her coworker in perfect english. “A small black coffee! Easiest order ever!”

Then, with a combination of pointing and my small spanish vocabulary, I would order my food. For beef, I would say carne. For chicken, I would say pollo. I did not trust the fish. Then came the real flex:

“Platanos, por favor.” I would say in my very practiced accent, giving the harder accent on the first A. Ten dollars and a half mile’s walk later I would indulge in delicious afro-carribean food. My takeout platter over stuffed and my wallet very light, I would have this for two or three meals.

 

Food as Cultural Education 

 

Over the years I played in salsa bands, connected more with my cousins and interacted with more people in the community. My ears began to discern the difference between accents and latin musical styles. Still, I find food to be the best catalyst for exploring a culture. 

 

Picadillo: A Simple Entry Into Home Cooking 

 

I now live with my partner in Philadelphia where we split cooking duties. My usual style involved a lot of improvisation with a rotation of the same ingredients and spices. Now that I am cooking for more than myself, I must expand my culinary abilities. My partner, being of Korean descent, suggested I learn to cook Korean dishes. I said I would probably need to learn dishes from my own culture first. Although Pernil was tempting, I was not confident in my ability to achieve a successful dish. Upon a google search I found a more doable dish: picadillo. 

 

How to Make Picadillo 

 

Picadillo is a salty and spicy ground beef dish that can substitute chili. First, you heat a neutral oil in a pan, then add chopped onions, garlic and peppers. When the onions turn translucent, you add the pound of beef until it is browned. Then you add 8 ounces of tomato sauce. Mix in a combination of spices: Cumin (lots of cumin), Sazon, Oregano, Pepper, and Paprika. Stir until satisfactory and include some olives. Wepa! You’ve got yourself a cozy dish to serve with rice and veggies in 30 minutes. 

 

Food, Memory, and Belonging 

 

Everyone in the world eats food! Cuisine can tell you a lot about the history, geography and local ingredients of a culture. Pernil brought us together, we all experienced that delicious salty pork at the same time. It started a conversation on what being Puerto Rican means and what the people are like. 

What Food Connects You? 

 

What are some of your favorite dishes that connect you to your cultural heritage? Tell us in the comments below. 

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