My Immigrant THANKSGIVING Traditions
The experience to leave your homeland, and become a foreigner in a new country, is one that has a bittersweet taste! There is excitement, and happiness to have reached your new destiny, and start your new life, in a new language, a new culture, with new foods, and new holidays to celebrate.
When I arrived in Miami, FL, from Nicaragua, my country of birth, on Sept. 21, 1980, my bags were full of dreams, hopes, and a strong desire to live enjoying freedom and justice! I had just left the Communist, that were running my country; I could not live with them. I despised them then, and still despise them now! I always will.
Thanks to the travel experiences, to the US, during my teenage years, and having attended a HS, in California, for a full semester, I knew and understood the US Holidays and celebrations.
During our first Thanksgiving celebration, we looked for recipes to make the best turkey. Our turkey came out all right, but I realized then, it was not my favorite dish. As they years progressed, we kept adding ingredients to our turkey, to make it more Nicaraguan. We also began to incorporate, in the menu, Stuffed Pork Loin, with a sauce made with pineapple and tomatoes. We had always enjoyed this Nicaraguan dish on special occasions. As we assimilated into our new culture, and my three sisters, that came single, married Cubans, our celebrations became grand!
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Every year we would ask all what they wanted to have for Thanksgiving, and the menu began to grow; for the sake of our children, all born in the US, to maintain the traditions of their homeland, we kept cooking the turkey, but we did our Latin version. Our menu also included Stuffed Pork Loin, Shrimp, Churrasco served with Rice and Beans, etc. and the new Nica-Cuban-Gringo Thanksgiving was born!
My father used to say that when the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, MA they were famished, because they had been sailing in the Mayflower without food for several weeks; the “Indians” were kind to them and gave them turkey to eat, while they kept the pork!!! He would say, I want pork for Thanksgiving; I did not arrive in the Mayflower ??