Comments on: You Got Some ‘Splaining To Do: About The Turkey Baster Penetration Index, Or, Does Your Latino Family Celebrate Turkey Day?

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:00:29 +0000

Little known facts about Thanksgiving food:

Corn originally comes from Mexico. It was cultivated by the indigenous people 5,000 to 7,000 years ago.

Pumpkin originally comes from Mexico and was cultivated by the indigenous people 7,000 years ago.

Potatoes originally come from Peru and were cultivated by the indigenous people 7,000 years ago.

Squash originally comes from Mexico and was cultivated by the indigenous people 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.

By: William Dipini

William Dipini — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:46:51 +0000

Puerto Rican American here — born, raised, and still reside in New York. We celebrate Thanksgiving and eat pernil, Turkey, pasteles, macaroni salad, cranberries, stuffing…all that good stuff baby!

By: Chester

Chester — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:28:31 +0000

We have cochinita pibil at my mom’s. It’s our excuse to miss work, kick back, and spend time with the family…no pilgrim stuff…

By: dlab

dlab — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:12:34 +0000

Use Alt+164, Lucy…

By: Floriben~a

Floriben~a — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:42:39 +0000

Thanksgiving was so huge @ our Puerto Rican home, we tried every variation of turkey in the book. The crazy part was how Mom would add a boricua touch to every anglo recipe and make it her own. However she went overboard with the bolitas de batata, there were sweet potato balls all over the kitchen that year!
Booze made it easier to endure and nowadays I am the one making the complicated recipes, like guava glazed turkey…

By: Bosrican

Bosrican — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:36:49 +0000

Pavo day was very big with my family. We had the traditional turkey dinner, albeit modified because let’s face it, North American turkey recipes are bland as shit. Lots of garlic, adobo, mojo, coquito, mofongo, pasteles, tembleque…

By: natali

natali — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:40:31 +0000

my family moved to connecticut from ecuador. we had only been in the states a couple of months when we had our first thanksgiving and we didn’t know there were traditional foods designated for the holiday. therefore, our first thanksgiving meal was a lobster dinner (we still laugh about it).

after that our thanksgiving foods have gotten more traditional. now we have turkey and lots of side dishes; the usual stuff and whatever my mom feels like making for my vegetarian sister.

By: el smrtmnky

el smrtmnky — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:18:09 +0000

we always celebrated el dia del guajolote (and had to endure my dad jokingly telling us it was our birthday). and it got more so after my dad remarried into a more americanized mexican.-based family. all the traditional tday fare: turkey, stuffing, cranberries, etc. but with added mexican touches: salsa, tortillas, jalapenos, obnoxious tios. and of course, the leftover bird brings mole and tamales.

By: Will

Will — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:23:49 +0000

My parents came from Puerto Rico, growing up we had pernil instead of turkey on Thanksgiving.

By: chimatli

chimatli — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:38:07 +0000

Most Mexicans I know here in Los Angeles don’t even call it Thanksgiving, they just call it “Turkey Day” (pronounced in Spanish). And yes, my Chicano family has always celebrated it with all the traditional American dishes (cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, ham) along with a big pot of pinto beans and tamales.

By: Dannh

Dannh — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:07:47 +0000

I came here exactly on Thanksgiving 10 years ago, so the very first “American” thing I did was celebrate that holiday.

Every year after that, as it was for who knows how long before I got here, Thanksgiving dinner is always a big deal at my tia’s house. Mom and I never did anything at home, we just went to my tia’s.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:02:55 +0000

I was born and raised in the US. However I was fortunate to enjoy 2 cultures. Those are American and Puerto Rican. Now it didn’t matter whether one was born in the States or the Island because one was born American anyway. Again, I reiterate that I celebrated 2 cultures during Thanksgiving. We made Turkey with “arroz con gandules”, pasteles, pernir, potato salad as main course. We had flan or tembleque as desert and we would woof it down with “coquito”. Haaaa, my Mom made the best turkey ever.

After we were stuffed like our counterpart—The Turkey, we would play some Salsa music and dance the night away. We would play a couple favorite navidenyo (excuse spelling) songs and we would jumpstart the Christmas mood.

I am so grateful to my family for keeping the culture. Those were great times. Thanks Mom. I know you’re in heaven smiling at the Great Family Day—Happy Thanksgiving

By: La Cindy

La Cindy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:11:54 +0000

This is bizarre. I totally grew up celebrating with the all the regular stuff. Turkey, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy (thanks, mom!) and various other Native American sides like corn and sweet potato. Then topped it all off with various pies. Tamales are reserved for Xmas eve. Oh and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and Horns Vs. Aggies on the tele, of course. Hook ‘Em!

By: gauchita

gauchita — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:42:43 +0000

my family does have a dinner on thanksgiving day, and we love to eat so we embrace all eating holidays, but we don’t make the turkey. my mom doesn’t know how to make turkey anyway. we feast on red meat like the good argentines we are… jeje :)

By: Lulu

Lulu — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:00:32 +0000

My family is from El Salvador and we have tans-guivin with turkey made salvadoran style…as in pan con pavo (hot turkey sandwiches on french bread with sauce). We have macaroni and cheese, estuffing con chicarron, arroz con frijoles, un pie, sangria; its kind of amazing.