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Speaker 1: Lok at Our Radio is a radiophonic novela, which.

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Speaker 2: Is just a very extra way of saying a podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Fosa Fem.

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Speaker 3: And I am Ma la Munios.

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Speaker 2: We're podcasting through another Trump election year. We've been podcasting

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Speaker 2: through election years, a global pandemic, civic unrest, political controversies,

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Speaker 2: the Me Too movement, the rise of TikTok, and we

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Speaker 2: are still here.

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Speaker 3: We're not done telling stories.

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Speaker 1: We're still making podcasts. We're older, we're wiser, We're even

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Speaker 1: podcasting through a new decade of our lives.

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Speaker 2: Since twenty sixteen, we've been making locat Our Radio independently

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Speaker 2: until we joined iHeartMedia's Michael Dura Network in twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: From our Lips to your Ears, Fall in love with

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Speaker 1: Loka to a radio like you never have before.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Season nine, Love at First Listen.

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Speaker 1: O La La Loka Motes. Welcome to Season nine of

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Speaker 1: Loka Dora Radio.

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Speaker 2: I'm Theosa and I'm Mala.

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Speaker 1: Loka Dora Radio is a podcast dedicated to archiving our

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Speaker 1: present and shifting the culture forward.

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Speaker 2: You're tuning in to Capitolo two to five Cinco Last

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Speaker 2: time on Locata Radio. We introduced new segments Malas, Palabras

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Speaker 2: and biosa rise. Tune into that episode and leave us

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Speaker 2: a review.

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Speaker 1: Today, we have an amazing, lengthy, incredible interview with Godla

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Speaker 1: Tatiana Vasquez. She is a food writer. She's also a

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Speaker 1: food justice advocate and an active member in her community

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Speaker 1: to increase healthy food and accessibility in low income communities.

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Speaker 1: She founded Salvi Soul in an effort to preserve her

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Speaker 1: family's recipes, and since then it's expanded to focus on

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Speaker 1: cultural memory and intergenerational healing for the Salvadoran diaspora. We

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Speaker 1: hope you enjoy this interview. All right, Loka motive is

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Speaker 1: We're so excited to have author, food writer, cultural maker,

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Speaker 1: Godla Tatiana Vasquez. Without further ado, Gotla, can you introduce

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Speaker 1: yourself to our listeners?

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Speaker 4: Oh wow, let's see, so I would say, I am

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Speaker 4: a writer. I'm said Baladania, born in the Said blod,

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Speaker 4: raised it here in La all over La, and I've

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Speaker 4: been in food for about thirteen years. Everything from food

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Speaker 4: justice advocacy, farmers market manager, food writer, working on a

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Speaker 4: food app, food journalist to now cookbook author.

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Speaker 5: So yeah, congratulations, congratulations, we've been talking about having you

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Speaker 5: on for some time now because we've been following the

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Speaker 5: journey from Salvy Soul platform to.

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Speaker 2: The cookbook, which you have here in studio with us. Yes,

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Speaker 2: we just want to congratulate you first of all and

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Speaker 2: thank you for coming in because we have been following

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Speaker 2: the journey and it's taken a while. It's been a

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Speaker 2: few years.

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Speaker 4: Yes, it's been eight years, Jackassinoeve, So it has been.

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Speaker 6: I can't belive.

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Speaker 4: I can't believe it's been that long. I think it's

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Speaker 4: taken so long. People have asked me this question a lot.

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Speaker 4: Why has it taken so long? And I think it's

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Speaker 4: a it's a multi pronged answer. Some of it is

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Speaker 4: because the food media that was in charge of giving

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Speaker 4: deals just didn't care about this story, ignored it. Food

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Speaker 4: media is not used to these kinds of stories that

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Speaker 4: live in the margins to kind of want to take

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Speaker 4: center stage and other things are the context.

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Speaker 6: Of what this book is is a.

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Speaker 4: Lot of my emotional life, and that takes time. That

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Speaker 4: doesn't You can't rush through that as much as you

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Speaker 4: want to.

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Speaker 1: That's so real and I can't wait to dive into

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Speaker 1: more about the book and the writing process because I've

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Speaker 1: heard you speak about it a little bit, but first

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Speaker 1: I want you to tell us about Salvy Soul, the

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Speaker 1: digital platform. Tell us more about this digital project.

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Speaker 4: Yes, So the digital project really came about because I

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Speaker 4: had been looking for salvadoring cookbook and I couldn't find anything,

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Speaker 4: and I felt I felt so alone, so frustrated. I

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Speaker 4: kept thinking, my gosh, yepsuo, like this is absurd that

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Speaker 4: there isn't anything out there to help me. I was

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Speaker 4: say nada la mikhas. I had just gotten married. I

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Speaker 4: felt like I should.

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Speaker 6: Be able to cook these food ways.

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Speaker 4: And so I felt that if I could just put

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Speaker 4: it out there online, hey, I have this ache and

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Speaker 4: I can't find anything, maybe others will also be like,

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Speaker 4: oh sisk homie like same, and we could have a

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Speaker 4: community together. And I really didn't think that we would

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Speaker 4: make a cookbook like this.

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Speaker 6: It was really just a.

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Speaker 4: Way to have some community around this issue of you know,

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Speaker 4: I believe that food is how we touch home, or

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Speaker 4: is one of the ways that we can touch home

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Speaker 4: when we are far from it, and so it just

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Speaker 4: felt like the most natural way to at least carve

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Speaker 4: out some space in these internet streets and say this

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Speaker 4: is where we live.

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Speaker 6: If you have this same.

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Speaker 4: Ache, you can find me, and you know, nos aulamos.

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Speaker 4: So that was kind of how it started, and it

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Speaker 4: really became a way for me to share in any

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Speaker 4: of the questions I had, you know, like, hey, what

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Speaker 4: about Salvador and cheeses? Like Salvador and cheese is one

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Speaker 4: of the things that told me that Salvadoran people are

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Speaker 4: really food obsessed. You know, my mom just got back

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Speaker 4: from Salavalor yesterday and she brought, you know, na maaleta

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Speaker 4: gena de queso, like a huge suitcase full of cheese,

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Speaker 4: full of karma. And I thought, wow, if we were

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Speaker 4: leaving things behind in the Sala Balor, so we can

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Speaker 4: bring back all of these food goods, like it must

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Speaker 4: be good stuff. But of course, if you went to

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Speaker 4: the you know it became a member of the Culinary

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Speaker 4: Historians of Southern California and I looked.

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Speaker 6: Through their archives. I was like, where's all the.

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Speaker 4: Cheese info from Central America? We have so much on

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Speaker 4: Italian cheese, so much on French cheeses. My goodness, there's nothing.

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Speaker 4: There was absolutely nothing. And so those were the things

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Speaker 4: that just were curiosities that I could express them on

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Speaker 4: this digital platform, through Instagram, through Facebook, through Twitter, and

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Speaker 4: through that, you know, kind of create a collective kind

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Speaker 4: of I don't know, classroom.

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Speaker 6: In some ways, you.

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Speaker 1: Also built your audience for now, your readers for now

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Speaker 1: the book, the cookbook.

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Speaker 4: Yes, yes, it was an insane kind of thing, like

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Speaker 4: so many folks across the I thought I would just

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Speaker 4: find folks in La because that's what they say, right,

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Speaker 4: it's a thing. But there were people who were messaging

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Speaker 4: me from across the world, like people in Paris, people

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Speaker 4: in Japan and Abu Dhabi, like, hey, this is what

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Speaker 4: I find to replace Talia for this recipe, this is.

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Speaker 6: What I do.

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Speaker 4: I was so inspired when I learned how many Salvois

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Speaker 4: were in the set health because for me, growing up

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Speaker 4: in La, I thought like, that's not a place for me.

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Speaker 4: But here are growing community in the south of Savaladenos

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Speaker 4: who are really you know, I see in the sin Guessa.

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Speaker 1: We hope you're enjoying our interview with Godla. We're going

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Speaker 1: on a quick break and we'll be right back.

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Speaker 2: And now we're back with more from Godla.

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Speaker 3: Very cool.

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Speaker 2: How did hearing all those different recipes and substitutions from

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Speaker 2: people in faraway places. Did that change your perspective on

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Speaker 2: Salvadoran food and what it means to be like a

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Speaker 2: Salvadoran recipe?

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Speaker 4: Yes, I love this question actually, because it really was

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Speaker 4: one of the questions that allowed me to be honest.

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Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of I don't know if

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Speaker 4: I'm saying this, rigidity or sometimes identities in the diaspora

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Speaker 4: remain the same for the sake of knowing what it

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Speaker 4: looks like originally, right in its form of how it arrived,

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Speaker 4: and sometimes that definition is rigid. It doesn't make room

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Speaker 4: for someone who's evolving, right. And based on all of

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Speaker 4: those recipes that I heard from folks, I realized that

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Speaker 4: everyone kind of culture has to live, has to have

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Speaker 4: room to breathe, and if it stays the same, that

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Speaker 4: means it in some ways it's died because it stops growing,

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Speaker 4: stops evolving.

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Speaker 6: In order for.

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Speaker 4: Culture to stay with us and live, it has to

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Speaker 4: be mouldable, just like we are.

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Speaker 6: Wherever we go.

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Speaker 4: It comes with us, right, and we're doing it beside

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Speaker 4: each other. And having had all of these new informations

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Speaker 4: about what salvador and food could be gave me a

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Speaker 4: lot of like, oh, like, there's not just one way

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Speaker 4: to do it. And you know, I took it as

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Speaker 4: law that this is how it is. You know, there's

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Speaker 4: nothing else that fits that picture. And then when I saw, well, no,

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Speaker 4: there's there's a lot more agency that we have to

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Speaker 4: inform the culture, and then the culture inform us. That

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Speaker 4: goes without saying that there are folks who sometimes change

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Speaker 4: a dish and then it becomes gimmicky for the Western gaze.

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Speaker 4: And I think that having a discernible eye can really

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Speaker 4: help you distinguish what's what. But for the most part,

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Speaker 4: realizing how different cuisine is gave me a lot of

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Speaker 4: information about Hey, cuisine is here to come with you.

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Speaker 4: You know, cuisine is first and foremost regional because you

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Speaker 4: can't eat what's not around you, right, so then instead

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Speaker 4: of bout load, we eat a lot of flowers, we

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Speaker 4: eat a lot of funky sour flavors, fire grilled flavors.

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Speaker 4: But we're not there right now, and so what we

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Speaker 4: can have access to and then you know, mold it

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Speaker 4: with what's here in southern California I think is valid.

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Speaker 1: So can you touch on what you just said, like

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Speaker 1: having that discern eye and learning or being able to

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Speaker 1: spot like what's gimmicky, Like can you give an example

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Speaker 1: of maybe something you've seen and you've thought maybe it

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Speaker 1: made you pause, or maybe it made you think something

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Speaker 1: about that doesn't feel right? How did you find that

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Speaker 1: discerning eye or how did you develop that?

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Speaker 4: I think some of those things I've learned. I think

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Speaker 4: having a spirit of inquiry has helped me a lot

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Speaker 4: when trying to decide, like is this something that's earnest

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Speaker 4: or is this something that's really trying to you know,

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Speaker 4: it is a trick to fool you to get your attention.

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Speaker 4: I don't think salvador and cuisine needs tricks for you

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Speaker 4: to give it attention. But so I have seen like

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Speaker 4: certain things I would hate to say them because then

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Speaker 4: I feel like you could quickly.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, and we're not going to do that too.

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Speaker 1: No, that's not that's not the kind of show this.

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Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, but I think that that that some of

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Speaker 4: the things I've noticed are if there are people who

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Speaker 4: are doing pubuosas and they're not Salvadorant, I think that,

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Speaker 4: you know, people are meant to enjoy food. I don't

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Speaker 4: think any of us own food, like intellectual property belongs

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Speaker 4: to a collective. When it comes to a cuisine because

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Speaker 4: it's not one person designing the cuisine from A to Z, right,

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Speaker 4: and so I think that there's permissions allowed. I think

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Speaker 4: that we always have to ask, like the question that

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Speaker 4: should always be the follow up is at what cost

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Speaker 4: are they changing this or why did they feel it

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Speaker 4: was necessary. I've also seen some Salvadoran businesses changing. You know,

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Speaker 4: what goes on the poopoosa, what's you know, what are

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Speaker 4: the accouterments that come with it? It's always been, but

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Speaker 4: sometimes you see that changing. And for the most part,

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Speaker 4: I feel sometimes I feel frustrated by it. Other Times

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Speaker 4: I feel like this is play I like this, this

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Speaker 4: is playful. Other times I think it's them trying to

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Speaker 4: it's capitalism, right, it's them surviving capitalism. Because you need

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Speaker 4: something that I go leave it in that to capture

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Speaker 4: the attention of This is why you should come to

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Speaker 4: our boopocidia.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 4: In the world of Instagram, you have the thing that

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Speaker 4: makes it instagrammable, right.

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Speaker 2: A lot like hybrid like hybrid foods, Like we're mashing

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Speaker 2: two together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but I do.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate this perspective, Carla, that you're bringing to the

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Speaker 2: conversation because just just on social media alone. In the

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Speaker 2: comment section you see, especially in like TikTok, Instagram, Latino

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Speaker 2: comment churs users, there's a lot of that rigidity, and

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Speaker 2: people are very like what's the word. I mean, they're

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Speaker 2: like purest.

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Speaker 1: They police each other, like that's not authentic, that's not

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Speaker 1: how we make it. You're not from here. There it's

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Speaker 1: so exhausting.

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Speaker 2: Its exhausting, and it's like, I think people also forget

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Speaker 2: that in any home country, depending on your town or

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Speaker 2: the state you're from, things are going to be different.

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Speaker 2: Even back home, you know, there's not one way to

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Speaker 2: do things, much less here.

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Speaker 4: Well, the thing I have to say about some of

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Speaker 4: that is the two things. First of all, is that

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Speaker 4: I think it's warranted and it's valid. It's also exhausting.

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Speaker 6: But one of the.

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Speaker 4: Reasons why I learned so much of food work is

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Speaker 4: emotional life work too, is that recipes and food are

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Speaker 4: often like home addresses, you know, Like I one of

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Speaker 4: the recipes, I'm so glad that I feel like I've

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Speaker 4: done my life's work because I have my mom's recipe

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Speaker 4: for and I feel like no matter where I go

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Speaker 4: as a being in this life, where she goes, you

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Speaker 4: know when we pass, I'm so glad that I have

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Speaker 4: an address, you know, a map quest to her, because

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Speaker 4: that's her sess on her kitchen, her space. I can

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Speaker 4: hear her laughter like I can hear the soundscape because

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Speaker 4: I have this recipe, because it is an address, and

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Speaker 4: so it is intimate. And so when you see someone,

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Speaker 4: especially someone who hasn't paid the cost that you have

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Speaker 4: to carry a culture and hold it dear and respectfully,

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Speaker 4: it does hurt.

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Speaker 6: It should hurt.

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Speaker 4: However, then there are those who forget that salvador and

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Speaker 4: Cuisine in itself is a fusion food. Salvador and Cuisine

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Speaker 4: is something that's made up because it's about it is

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Speaker 4: something that's made up. It's a nation state. Before it

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Speaker 4: was a nation state, there was all these different people

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Speaker 4: groups that existed there, and those things mixed, right, we

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Speaker 4: have African influences, Middle Eastern influences. We of course have

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Speaker 4: you know, spices that we use in the cuisine that

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Speaker 4: tie us back to the Silk Road. So there's all

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Speaker 4: of these things. Of course, Spanish food, Spanish food that

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Speaker 4: came from places that they also conquested that then became

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Speaker 4: a part of salvageor and cuisine. So fusion can be fun. Sure,

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Speaker 4: Fusion to me sometimes means forceful two things fusing together.

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Speaker 4: Think of a bone fusing like that sounds awful, right,

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Speaker 4: So I don't know, like you kind of what mood

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Speaker 4: are you trying to catch in some ways with that conversation,

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Speaker 4: Because let's be honest, like it about what it is

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Speaker 4: a made up place, it's a name, about what kind

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Speaker 4: of name is that it's?

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Speaker 6: Right?

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Speaker 4: So all of those things, I think having had this

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Speaker 4: process and it taking this long, and you know, I started.

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Speaker 6: This with my grandmother and then she.

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Speaker 4: Passed through the process, so there was a huge process

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Speaker 4: of me really being honest, like really painfully honest, Well,

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Speaker 4: what the fuck is this place that's causing me all

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Speaker 4: these questions and identity and.

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Speaker 6: Grief?

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Speaker 4: You know, in a lot of ways, this book is

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Speaker 4: about Central American grief, what we've lost and why what

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Speaker 4: we are able to hold and practice in this room

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Speaker 4: called the kitchen is so important.

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Speaker 6: So yeah, I think there's validity, but there's also.

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Speaker 4: Like Homie alakate, you know, like my mom says, busquatunhpez yukate.

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Speaker 6: Because Homie, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, don't go anywhere. Lookomotive is we're going on a

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Speaker 1: quick break and we'll be right back.

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Speaker 3: And we're back with more of our interview.

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Speaker 1: I love that so much. That was so beautiful to

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Speaker 1: really think about cuisine in that way, and it being

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Speaker 1: there being a map quest right to go back to

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Speaker 1: your address, your home address. And you have about eighty

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Speaker 1: Salvadoran recipes in this cookbook from contributed by different women,

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Speaker 1: write twenty five different matriarchs. How did you decide the

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Speaker 1: recipes and the stories you were going to share in

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Speaker 1: this cookbook?

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Speaker 4: It was definitely a collaborative process. I felt very intimidated.

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Speaker 4: There's something you should know about me. I'm an overthinker.

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Speaker 4: I am always uh.

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Speaker 6: I don't know.

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Speaker 4: I feel like it's a hybrid of like cianas, like

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Speaker 4: I'm always going to be like, let's try it. But

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Speaker 4: I'm so timid in some ways. And so when I

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Speaker 4: started the platform, I thought, you know, why don't we

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Speaker 4: try to credit where credit is do? I had started

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Speaker 4: this project as someone in my twenties, and I thought, like,

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Speaker 4: why why would I write a book if I don't

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Speaker 4: have the decades long experience. I don't even have one

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Speaker 4: decade cooking this cuisine. You know, why don't I actually

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Speaker 4: consult the women who have been doing it in two

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Speaker 4: different countries, some of them several and uh, you know,

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Speaker 4: when I started with my grandmother, I then went into

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Speaker 4: family member's family friends. By then I had six or

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Speaker 4: seven women, and I thought, well, let's do this call.

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Speaker 4: And once I did the call out in twenty seventeen,

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Speaker 4: that's when I got so many folks who said like, hey,

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Speaker 4: you know, I just said like, if you are someone

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Speaker 4: who loves salvage on food and you want to share

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Speaker 4: your story with me, then I'm happy to sit down

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Speaker 4: with you and let's do this. And from there there

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Speaker 4: were different people who nominated their moms. There was this

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Speaker 4: adjunct professor from Philadelphia and he's like, I'm from LA

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Speaker 4: and my mom lives in South Kate, but I'm here,

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Speaker 4: but you need to interview her. Here's her number and

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Speaker 4: address and you know.

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Speaker 6: You'll find her here. I was like, okay, but.

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Speaker 4: She wanted to do this, and so I would call

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Speaker 4: them up and you know, on a Saturdays, you know,

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Speaker 4: iticed Godla, you know, go through the whole thing. And

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Speaker 4: from there it just became you know, I would sit

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Speaker 4: down with them and they would I would just say,

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Speaker 4: tell me what you want to tell me. There were

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Speaker 4: times where their children would say, you know, Cala, ask

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Speaker 4: her about how she like crossed la front or asked

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Speaker 4: her out this thing of her first job. You know,

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Speaker 4: we know the story, and it's a really good story.

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Speaker 4: There's a lot of drama and like all kinds of things.

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Speaker 4: And then I would go in and ask those same

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Speaker 4: questions that they prompted me, and then I realized that

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Speaker 4: those were not stories for like strangers. Those were those

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Speaker 4: are sore spots that are meant for family years. And

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Speaker 4: as soon as I learned, like, I can't go in

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Speaker 4: with any kind of agenda, even from unseque rilo, who

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Speaker 4: sees the value of a story. You know, the story

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Speaker 4: teller owns it first and not the people who hear

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Speaker 4: it and think it's a value. So as soon as

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Speaker 4: I realize, okay, I can't go.

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Speaker 6: In with their.

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Speaker 4: Promptings, I would just say, tell me what you want

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Speaker 4: to tell me. And those are the stories that you know,

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Speaker 4: eventually made it into the book. And so once we

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Speaker 4: got the story kind of figured out, then I would say, well,

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Speaker 4: what do you love to cook? Tell me it gets

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Speaker 4: you so excited, or tell me what your family loves

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Speaker 4: or you know, tell me what's a recipe that you

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Speaker 4: feel that you and your grandmother share, you know, And

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Speaker 4: from there we started to see, oh, okay, this is

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Speaker 4: what you want to cook. There were some other women

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Speaker 4: who I'd meet one and they would say, ohalis, And

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Speaker 4: later I would meet another woman who's like, oh, I

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Speaker 4: want to do ta malis.

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Speaker 6: I'm like okay, but I already have somebody.

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Speaker 4: And they're like oh yeah, but there thea malis are

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Speaker 4: not as good as mine. Haven't tried the most and

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Speaker 4: so sometimes it was like literal beef right yes, and

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Speaker 4: I would just say, you know what, so much of

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Speaker 4: this project was a lot of kismet and faith, faith

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Speaker 4: just helping me out. So I just said, whoever kind

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Speaker 4: of claims it first is who I wanting to give

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Speaker 4: it to. And and it was great because afterwards, like

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Speaker 4: one of them she said that she wanted to do

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Speaker 4: the ban recipe. I was like, okay, I already got somebody, though,

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Speaker 4: is there another recipe? She's like, nah, that's the one

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Speaker 4: I want. She was kind of like upset, and I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 4: that's fine. And then eventually she's like, well, do you

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Speaker 4: have anyone for gyo? And chicha, and I have never heard.

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Speaker 6: Of this dish. That's it.

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Speaker 4: I don't need to try it, Like that's what we're

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Speaker 4: going to go with because I've never heard of this dish.

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Speaker 1: What is gayo and chicha?

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Speaker 6: So Guya and chicha is rooster.

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Speaker 4: It's rooster dish that's cooked in a homemade wine called chicha.

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Speaker 4: A lot of countries make chicha or some form of it,

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Speaker 4: and it's said about the way you can make it

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Speaker 4: with corn. Sometimes it becomes really alcoholic, but essentially it's

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Speaker 4: a very mild homemade wine. If you try to contextualize

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Speaker 4: it to what we know in Western food, and you

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Speaker 4: essentially it takes about if you make the chicha from scratch,

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Speaker 4: this is the process that take about five days. And

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Speaker 4: you know, when she prefaces what gayo and chica is,

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Speaker 4: she's like.

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Speaker 6: No, I don't think you'll be interested.

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Speaker 4: It's like farmer's food, gomila umilde, you know. And I'm like, okay, well,

404
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Speaker 4: why don't you tell me what you think is umilde? Right,

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Speaker 4: and then we'll go from there. And then when she

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Speaker 4: starts describing this five day process and it's a rooster,

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Speaker 4: and you know, she starts explaining why the chicha works

408
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Speaker 4: so fantastic, and pineapple is so great at tenderizing meats,

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Speaker 4: especially like a meat like a rooster, because it has

410
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Speaker 4: an m zy in calm bromelane and bromelaine will break

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Speaker 4: down that muscle, creating a super tender and succulent dish.

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Speaker 6: And it was just amazing.

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Speaker 4: I was like, wow, it had like twenty four to

414
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Speaker 4: twenty five ingredients, and I thought, I'm glad when we

415
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Speaker 4: already had Bonis Gomboyo figured out, because now you're gonna

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Speaker 4: make gan chiica for this book.

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Speaker 1: I love that because in Bedu there's also cha chicha

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Speaker 1: moralla and it also has pineapple in it, and so

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Speaker 1: like that, how how did that happen?

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Speaker 6: Yes?

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Speaker 4: You know, those are the questions that I wake up

422
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Speaker 4: in the morning floor because I'm like, this aliois ect

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Speaker 4: I need to know.

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Speaker 2: And it's so interesting too. How like the food that

425
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Speaker 2: this particular woman considered like peasant food is actually like

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Speaker 2: that sounds like Michelin star because of everything you just

427
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Speaker 2: described and the way that this everyday food, which also

428
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Speaker 2: was new to you, which I also find so fascinating,

429
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Speaker 2: is like I think maybe we downplay sometimes the home

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Speaker 2: cooked meals and the cuisine from back home, And I

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Speaker 2: think that's such a stunning example of that.

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Speaker 4: I mean, we all know of like Alice Waters, for instance,

433
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Speaker 4: in the Bay Area, she is credited with this farm

434
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Speaker 4: to table movement. When she opened her restaurant Chapanice up North,

435
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Speaker 4: it was like, oh my gosh, like she's done it.

436
00:23:55,800 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 4: She's became kind of an icon immediately, right, And when

437
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 4: you think of our food ways, I'm like, farm to

438
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 4: tables all we've ever really done. You know, Like I

439
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 4: grew up with my grandmother. She had guyanas in our

440
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 4: South Central home. You know, we had ducks that I

441
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:17,200
Speaker 4: was afraid of, like the red little thing Mascarita's kid

442
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 4: they had.

443
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 6: It's like creepy, But yeah, I.

444
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,479
Speaker 4: Grew up with a lot of this, Like farming was

445
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 4: always the thing we did, having a close relationship. My

446
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 4: mom has a beautiful garden every time. Every home we've

447
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:36,240
Speaker 4: ever lived in, there's always been a garden. There's always

448
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 4: a very vegetable forward menu in a lot of ways,

449
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:44,959
Speaker 4: because I think we forget how things like dairy and

450
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:50,919
Speaker 4: meat were. They weren't frequent occurrences. You know, My family

451
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 4: has known poverty, they've known hunger, they have known like

452
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,479
Speaker 4: one of the stories in the book, a lot of

453
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:01,160
Speaker 4: them have to do with skins, city, food scarcity.

454
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 6: What did we do in that instance? Right?

455
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,439
Speaker 4: And one of the stories that I love that my

456
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:10,199
Speaker 4: mom shared with my great grandmother, my Mama Juana, is

457
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 4: called Chile, and it's a story essentially of how my

458
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,159
Speaker 4: great grandmother looked in her baskets, right, and she needed

459
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,399
Speaker 4: to make dinner. There was nothing. She kept looking and

460
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:27,679
Speaker 4: there was naviaanaa. And so she tells my mom, and

461
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 4: you know, the rest of my mom's siblings like, go

462
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 4: ask the neighbors for anything they can spare. So my

463
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 4: mom goes to a few neighbors, my tia, my tios.

464
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 4: One of them comes back with half a cup of arrows,

465
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 4: another one with a little bit of masa, another one

466
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:48,360
Speaker 4: with two eggs. My mam Majuana goes to the garden

467
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 4: or just a y el monte and she sees that

468
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 4: there's a little plant. It's a chili plant. She's like,

469
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 4: let's see if there's a chili on it. There's no chilis,

470
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 4: but the leaves are there, and she takes a bite

471
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 4: eye of it and it kind of tastes like spinach arugula.

472
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,760
Speaker 4: Even she takes it and she's like, this will have

473
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 4: to be dinner, and she makes a meal and it's

474
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 4: a very in some ways, it's a story that's not

475
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 4: there to impress anyone, because that's the point. It's a

476
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 4: story that is fact and it happened, and that's what

477
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 4: I wanted to to record. But the reason why I

478
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 4: love this story is because my grandmother's resilient. My great

479
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,320
Speaker 4: grandmother's resilience in trying to figure out how to feed

480
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:34,359
Speaker 4: six people with this very little amount of food. And

481
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 4: then she starts thinking, well, how do I feed six

482
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 4: people with two eggs? She makes a soapa, she makes

483
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 4: the toez and then she's like, if I fry them,

484
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 4: only two people will eat.

485
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,640
Speaker 6: If I scramble them, nobody's gonna eat. What do you do?

486
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:54,359
Speaker 4: Finally, she puts the little soapita that was at her

487
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 4: gi Monte with some water, some matros, it's a little salt,

488
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:01,360
Speaker 4: and she figures out what to do. She soft boils

489
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 4: them and then with a little bit of dortia, they

490
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 4: just passed the egg around and they dip into the egg.

491
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 4: And I felt like I was hearing like sacred scripture.

492
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 4: At that point, I thought like, this is a story

493
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 4: of survival, This is a story of there's some reverence

494
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 4: here that we should have for what it took for

495
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 4: one woman to help meet tomorrow. You know, that's as

496
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 4: simple as it as it is. And so for me,

497
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 4: a lot of these a lot of these stories felt

498
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:38,639
Speaker 4: like Ela Liimento that I had grown up listening to

499
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 4: that spoke of something more, that spoke of a lot

500
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 4: of substance, of character, what it takes to you know,

501
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 4: create a tomorrow.

502
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,399
Speaker 1: Essentially, don't stop listening. We're going on a quick break

503
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: and we'll be right back, and.

504
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 3: We're back with more interview.

505
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,119
Speaker 2: There's a such a poetry in the way that you

506
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 2: talk about what you do and the stories and the

507
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 2: cuisine and the people.

508
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 3: Behind all of them.

509
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,959
Speaker 2: And I am really curious about the team maybe in

510
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 2: addition to right, like the Senoras and their recipes, their families,

511
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 2: but the other folks around you that helped bring the

512
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 2: project together, because it sounds like it was a very

513
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:23,200
Speaker 2: It was like, this is a big project.

514
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 6: Yes, it was a huge project.

515
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 4: So I I mean the team that put the photos

516
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 4: together are an incredible group of women. So the cover

517
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 4: image was a collaboration between Ren Fuller who's the photographer,

518
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 4: Nitiaqueva who's the prop stylist that who is thether said

519
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 4: on the project, and Caroline Huang who's the food stylist.

520
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:56,440
Speaker 4: And I went in when we finally got the noticia

521
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 4: that I got a book deal, and we went on

522
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 4: this call with my agents and the publisher. They were

523
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 4: just so excited and one of the things I felt like,

524
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 4: I need to get this off my test immediately. When

525
00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 4: I see their faces and I know their names, I

526
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 4: need them to know we will not have a boo

527
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 4: boosa on the coverment, because I've seen other cookbooks that

528
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 4: I felt like, Similarly, I'm like the national dish that

529
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 4: you may know from that place, there's so much more

530
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:28,600
Speaker 4: to it, right, some of us like, aren't even we

531
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 4: don't even need the national dish of a place another

532
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 4: thing for instance. And so I told them and the

533
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 4: room was kind of like, okay, you know, you saw

534
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 4: all the little squares on the zoom call, and they're like, okay,

535
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 4: you know, we need something though that is going to

536
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 4: show people like, you know, this.

537
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 6: Cuisine and this is what we'll tell you.

538
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 4: There's more about it. I thought Boo Boo says have

539
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 4: so they have a lot of airtime.

540
00:29:58,640 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 6: I think we're good.

541
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 4: You know, there's there's even a National Booboosa Day. You know,

542
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 4: it's the second Sunday in November. We don't need another one.

543
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 4: So they were very down with it, and they're like, Okay,

544
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 4: let's just see what happens. So when I spoke to

545
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 4: my team and I told them I don't want a

546
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 4: booboosa on the cover, They're like, okay, let's just shoot

547
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 4: all these other dishes and sleep what happens. We had

548
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 4: an enormous shot list. It was like an eleven day

549
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 4: shot or photo shoot. If you've ever been like on

550
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 4: a production set for a photo shoot for a cookbook,

551
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 4: you know that there's like so much meticulous planning because

552
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 4: you know there's in here bobosas some you know, Gize's like,

553
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 4: there's so much. Some of this takes days and you're

554
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 4: making the majority of the cookbook in a matter of

555
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 4: like two weeks.

556
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:51,120
Speaker 6: Right, that's insane.

557
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: I had no idea that that's actually how a cookbook

558
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: is shot.

559
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 4: So this is illuminating, yes, and it's it's a lot

560
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 4: and like, for instance, the even the dish on the

561
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:05,640
Speaker 4: back covers chuckle. That takes a minimum of three days,

562
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 4: and you could try to cheat it, but that's some

563
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 4: of the things you just don't want to do that

564
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 4: maybe maybe like if you didn't have time to make

565
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 4: dorothiaz on the side, you go get one at the restaurants,

566
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 4: but it doesn't hit the same, so you need to

567
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 4: really do everything from scratch. So this there were so

568
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 4: many photos on there and this photo for the cover

569
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 4: was not on the shot list actually, and it came

570
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 4: about because the second day the food stylists said, you know,

571
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 4: we have a lot of botanicals that you know, they're

572
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 4: going to be dead as far as like.

573
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 6: Making them look good for camera.

574
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 4: Today's the last day, so we should really try to

575
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 4: like use it and let's just.

576
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 6: Let's just shoot it.

577
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 4: And Nidia Cueva, who's also Salvadoran, I had given her

578
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:01,560
Speaker 4: a mood board and I loved the color pink, and

579
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 4: I also love it because I think Salvi food loves it.

580
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 4: We have, you know, so many different pink foods that

581
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:12,600
Speaker 4: you know, Savva for instance, one of the foods that

582
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 4: my mom would speak about when I was younger that

583
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my gosh, this sounds so great,

584
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 4: was anonas have you had anonas.

585
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 6: I've ever heard nanas well.

586
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 4: My mom would describe it to me like they taste

587
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 4: so good, Godlins. She would close her eyes and she

588
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 4: would savor it, and you could just imagine She's like,

589
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 4: it tastes like ice cream. And then I'd go to

590
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 4: the grocery store. I'm like, there is no fruit that

591
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,959
Speaker 4: tastes like ice cream here, you know, and then she

592
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 4: would say, and it's bright pink. It's a bright pink

593
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 4: fruit that tastes like ice cream. I thought, oh, my gosh,

594
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 4: that sounds so cool. And when I saw a photo

595
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 4: of it, I was like, oh, it's beautiful, and it

596
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 4: happens to be this color. A lot of folks don't

597
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 4: know that, but I shared that with Nidia and she

598
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 4: made this background that had that hot pink kind of look,

599
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 4: and then they just started playing with it and started

600
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 4: layering in a lot of these ingredients that you find

601
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 4: in the Salvador in kitchen, and that's what became the cover.

602
00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 4: And you know, the first day that I was on

603
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 4: the at the photo shoot, like I cry just so

604
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 4: I mean, Chiona, like I will cry, you know, And

605
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 4: they took the first photo, and I was just kind of,

606
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 4: you know, I had gotten everybody coffee and I was

607
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 4: putting the coffees together on the table and Ren's like, Okay,

608
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:31,400
Speaker 4: the first shot is done. And I'm like, what is

609
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:33,720
Speaker 4: the first shot done? And she's like, yeah, come look

610
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,000
Speaker 4: and I see it and I look behind me and

611
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 4: I see that, you know, how they placed it. And

612
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:42,080
Speaker 4: I look at the monitor and it's like, that's the

613
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:44,440
Speaker 4: moment I think. I was like, oh my gosh, we

614
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 4: did it, Like we're here, We've taken the photo. I

615
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 4: used to daydream about this moment, you know, when I

616
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 4: was working odd jobs to kind of stay available to

617
00:33:54,880 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 4: the project, working for people that did not I I hate,

618
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,960
Speaker 4: you know, and you were just trying to kind of

619
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 4: stay nimble for your project that you really care about.

620
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 4: And you know, I day dreamed about it a lot,

621
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:16,040
Speaker 4: and here we were, and so yes, the I always

622
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 4: seeing the praises of the people who did it. And

623
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,840
Speaker 4: also Monica Torento, who's the other photographer who did a

624
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:25,720
Speaker 4: lot of the travel photography. And Monica shot those photos.

625
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,400
Speaker 4: She lives Ina. She was twenty five when she shot

626
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 4: a lot of the photos the travel photography. And one

627
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:35,840
Speaker 4: of the things I like to make sure I mentioned

628
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 4: about that is that when I was talking to the

629
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:40,799
Speaker 4: art director and my publisher, you know, I want to

630
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,919
Speaker 4: hire sal Ballerina photographer Inn c b for the travel photography.

631
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 6: She's like, Okay, let me get to work. Let's see

632
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:48,840
Speaker 6: if I find anything.

633
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:54,399
Speaker 4: She started looking through photographers and most of them were men,

634
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 4: and then all of the photography that they shot were

635
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 4: either bitcoin, serf city, or gang you know, violent stuff.

636
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 4: There was a lot of grit, and there is a

637
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,319
Speaker 4: lot of grit to the salvadorin identity. You know, it's

638
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 4: a war that brought us here. I'm not trying to

639
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 4: deny that. I think what I'm trying to do is

640
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 4: carve out space for the dignity of what our story is,

641
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 4: who we are.

642
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 6: The beauty.

643
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 4: The If there is a poetic way I speak about

644
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 4: it is because I see all I see is that,

645
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,239
Speaker 4: you know, there is so much nuance in beauty that

646
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,680
Speaker 4: I feel goes unnoticed, and that is such a travesty, right,

647
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:39,240
Speaker 4: And so I wanted someone who could use their lens

648
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,360
Speaker 4: to showcase what I have seen to be true my

649
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:47,880
Speaker 4: whole life about this place and Monica was the only one.

650
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,879
Speaker 4: When we finally found her, there was a quietness in

651
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:58,240
Speaker 4: her images, a stillness, a reverence, you know, and also

652
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:02,800
Speaker 4: something that felt exciting, something that felt alive.

653
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 6: You know.

654
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,919
Speaker 4: Savic culture is not dead. It's not something that only

655
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 4: our awailitas do. It's something that's here from me right now,

656
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 4: that if I stop bitching and moaning about being far

657
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:16,839
Speaker 4: from home and being part of the diaspora, I can

658
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 4: participate in. You know, it's it's not it's something to

659
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:26,480
Speaker 4: feel excited about. And so I was so excited that

660
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 4: when we found her, I was like, okay, a r yesmos.

661
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:35,959
Speaker 4: We have the team, you know, and without them, the book,

662
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:38,920
Speaker 4: of course would not exist. It was a little scary too,

663
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 4: because eight years to write a book, to really conceptualize

664
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 4: the flow of it, to go through what's going to

665
00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 4: be in it, recipe testing, and then you realize, like, okay,

666
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:52,080
Speaker 4: but what's going to tell the book is the visuals

667
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:57,520
Speaker 4: is like the actual design, and that is not those

668
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:01,200
Speaker 4: are not my skill sets. This the writing and the

669
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,799
Speaker 4: cooking is. And so it is kind of crazy how

670
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 4: you can work on something but it's never going to

671
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,239
Speaker 4: be fully baked until you find a good group of

672
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:14,200
Speaker 4: people you can trust with your vision and they're not

673
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 4: you know, they get it, you know. And I always

674
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 4: told myself when I was working and even looking for

675
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:23,319
Speaker 4: an agent, I don't want to work with people who

676
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:25,799
Speaker 4: make me feel like they're doing me a favor. I

677
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:28,600
Speaker 4: want to work with people who are like you could

678
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 4: have put me in yesterday, like let's go, let's get

679
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:33,640
Speaker 4: to work. And that was the type of people that

680
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 4: I got to work with.

681
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 1: I love that sidebar. I looked up Ona and it

682
00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: looks like a cheaty Mooya. Yes, it's very similar. So

683
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say that because I was so curious.

684
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 1: But I going back to the publishing of or you

685
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 1: getting the book deal? You know, it was such a

686
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: long time in the making. It's also the first ever

687
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: salvador In cookbook to appear on a big five in print,

688
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,919
Speaker 1: a big public Sure, what was that? Like, what came

689
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 1: up for you? What was the process? Like?

690
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:12,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I met my agent. I can't remember now.

691
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 6: But people have asked me like how did you meet her?

692
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:17,319
Speaker 6: And all that.

693
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 4: I started pitching myself to a lot of people. I'd

694
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 4: someone told me to find go to the bookstore and

695
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:26,880
Speaker 4: read a lot of cookbooks and then go to the

696
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:30,319
Speaker 4: acknowledgments to find their agent and then go from there.

697
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,280
Speaker 4: And so it's like, Okay, a lot of those agents

698
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 4: are not interested in, you know, because they don't know you,

699
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 4: or they they have maybe a full roster, or they

700
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,480
Speaker 4: have a certain kind of client that they're looking for.

701
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:48,839
Speaker 4: So I just kind of said, you know, I need

702
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,920
Speaker 4: to just let anybody who will hear me about this,

703
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:57,959
Speaker 4: like I'm just making noise, ye get pass. And from there,

704
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 4: from those conversations, I got connected to my agent Andriana.

705
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 4: I had been pitching a lot of POC agents because

706
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 4: I thought, you know, this industry is not giving me

707
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,839
Speaker 4: the attention, the respect, is not taking me seriously. I

708
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 4: feel like I'm going to feel more supported by someone

709
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 4: who understands kind of where I'm going, where I'm coming from.

710
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:26,000
Speaker 4: But I actually got the most rejections from those agents,

711
00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,800
Speaker 4: and at first I thought, maybe I'm maybe I'm tripping.

712
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 4: Maybe this book isn't what I think it is, because

713
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,479
Speaker 4: even these agents I'm pitching are not they're They're they're

714
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:41,919
Speaker 4: telling me no. Maybe you know, sometimes you go through

715
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:46,520
Speaker 4: something you're like, maybe the rejections are like a redirection

716
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:50,879
Speaker 4: to a no, because you're really trying to make sense

717
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:55,799
Speaker 4: of all the information you're getting. And after sitting with it,

718
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:59,600
Speaker 4: what I came to realize is that the industry works

719
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 4: the way it's meant to. And so a lot of

720
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 4: these agents that I was pitching to, they.

721
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:08,240
Speaker 6: Were just exasperated.

722
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 4: They had, you know, a whole client roster of people

723
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 4: that they were championing, and they just didn't have enough

724
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 4: fight for me. I realized that was then what was happening,

725
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 4: because it wasn't a me thing or even a them thing.

726
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 6: It's just like the industry. I'm tapped out.

727
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,960
Speaker 4: I don't have enough fight to now petition and look

728
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 4: for a deal for you. And I thought, okay, I

729
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:39,000
Speaker 4: can accept that because it has been hard. Industry publishing

730
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 4: is hard, and so I was really surprised when I

731
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:46,359
Speaker 4: finally got a call with Andriana, and you know, she's

732
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 4: a white girl from San Diego. I was like, I

733
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:50,920
Speaker 4: don't know if she's going to get this. She was

734
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,839
Speaker 4: the only agent. I remember exactly where I was when

735
00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:57,000
Speaker 4: she said, Garla, I'm so sorry.

736
00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:59,240
Speaker 6: No, she said Carla. She probably said Carla.

737
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 4: And not getting she said, you know, Carla, I'm so

738
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 4: sorry that you've been made to feel like this wasn't worthwhile.

739
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 4: She's the only person who ever said this to me.

740
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 4: I felt like my nervous system like relaxed, and she's like,

741
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 4: let's get to work. And I had that same you know,

742
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 4: don't work with people who make you feel like they're

743
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 4: doing you favors. Never once I felt like that.

744
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:25,359
Speaker 6: She was just like, let's get to work.

745
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 4: This is historic, this is an honor for me, So

746
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 4: let's go, and we signed In October. I had about

747
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:38,759
Speaker 4: a sixty page proposal that I sent to her that

748
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,439
Speaker 4: I'd been working on, and every time I had sent

749
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,920
Speaker 4: it to an agent or someone in the industry, they

750
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 4: just said, oh, it sounds good, but then you forgive

751
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 4: me feedback. And when I sent it to her, she

752
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:54,760
Speaker 4: sent me back nineteen pages from a sixty page document,

753
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:59,399
Speaker 4: and I felt, so, I don't know if the word

754
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,799
Speaker 4: is like, I want to say, discouraged, but that's not

755
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 4: really what happened. But maybe that's the closest word I

756
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 4: have to it. But essentially my mind, when I assess that,

757
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,799
Speaker 4: I realized that I was so desperate for help that

758
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 4: I thought I was the problem. So every time I

759
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 4: got a rejection I added more to the document. I

760
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:20,719
Speaker 4: thought there wasn't enough in here, but there had been

761
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 4: more than enough. And I needed Andreana, I needed her

762
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 4: eye of knowing. And she's like, it was all there, Gal,

763
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 4: like you had it all there. And it's just because

764
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 4: of the process of going through each.

765
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:36,920
Speaker 6: Rejection and knowing it's me.

766
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:40,360
Speaker 4: I would add more and it would just get more messy.

767
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:43,359
Speaker 4: And so she sends me back these nineteen pages and

768
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:46,959
Speaker 4: then I have to start working on my sample of

769
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 4: the book of what it would be like, of kind

770
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 4: of you know, in the proposal, you have to include

771
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:55,840
Speaker 4: a lot of different things, and for a cookbook especially,

772
00:42:55,920 --> 00:43:00,400
Speaker 4: you're trying to give them as much as possible, as

773
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 4: far as the recipes, the cadence of a headnote for

774
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 4: a recipe, all of that, and yeah, and then I

775
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 4: submitted it.

776
00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:10,640
Speaker 6: And then within.

777
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 4: Two weeks we had a phone call with my publisher,

778
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 4: my eventual publisher, And I think that was like when

779
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:25,200
Speaker 4: I got the call from Andriana that we got the deal,

780
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 4: I couldn't believe it. I thought, oh my gosh, like

781
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 4: this is something I felt was I was never going

782
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:39,799
Speaker 4: to see. We were finally at its door. And yeah,

783
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 4: I honestly, I cried. I did this like very guttural,

784
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 4: like super not cute, like ah, Like my husband thought

785
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,080
Speaker 4: that something happened to me. He's like, yestasvien, like what's

786
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 4: going on.

787
00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 6: I'm like, Adria just told me that, you know, just

788
00:43:57,840 --> 00:43:59,400
Speaker 6: like crying.

789
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:05,000
Speaker 4: And it was a very visceral experience. There was nothing

790
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:09,120
Speaker 4: you could curate about it. There was nothing that you

791
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:12,279
Speaker 4: could like, there was no dainty about it. It was

792
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:17,399
Speaker 4: like I've been surviving and my survival uh just got

793
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:22,399
Speaker 4: me here, and so that, uh, that was insane.

794
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 3: It's a huge deal. It's a big accomplishment.

795
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,759
Speaker 2: And I think something like you described, you had this

796
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:31,319
Speaker 2: hunger for this, a book like this, and now it

797
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:34,080
Speaker 2: exists in the world, and so you're feeding like God

798
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 2: knows how many people with the creation of this book.

799
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:38,560
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's true.

800
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's what you read is alimento. I believe that.

801
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:48,399
Speaker 1: That's so beautiful. And you know, you we talked about

802
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: La and the Salvadoran diaspora a little bit at the

803
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,319
Speaker 1: top of the interview, so I want to ask you

804
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: a follow up question to that, like, how did being

805
00:44:56,600 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 1: in La, being in this big diasport community influence your

806
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 1: writing and influence the making of this book.

807
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 4: It's definitely informed me in a huge way. I actually

808
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:17,400
Speaker 4: uh executive produced a series called Salve Los Angeles.

809
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:18,720
Speaker 6: I did it through.

810
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:21,839
Speaker 4: Grant and it actually premiered a month before the book

811
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 4: came out, which was a crazy thing to try to

812
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 4: do two projects at once, but it was important for

813
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:34,960
Speaker 4: me to kind of call this community something.

814
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 6: You know, Salve La La.

815
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 4: Has been a place that has become home, obviously, but

816
00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:49,799
Speaker 4: one of the things that I learned about doing this

817
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:54,480
Speaker 4: project is how a lot of the activism and advocacy

818
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:57,520
Speaker 4: work I was doing in food justice, food justice has

819
00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 4: always informed my work because when I heard the words

820
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 4: food justice, I felt like I heard my name. I

821
00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:05,360
Speaker 4: felt like, oh my gosh, this makes sense to me.

822
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:07,720
Speaker 4: And it made sense to me because of the stories

823
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:11,359
Speaker 4: that I had heard growing up. I'd heard, you know,

824
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 4: my great grandmother picking coffee, My grandmother was a cook

825
00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:21,399
Speaker 4: for wealthy Salvadorans. You know, like there were all these

826
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:24,680
Speaker 4: things that I of course like they meant. They resonated

827
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:27,359
Speaker 4: with me. And so when you look at you know,

828
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 4: food justice and the Food Policy Council here in Los

829
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:35,040
Speaker 4: Angeles is one of the exemplary policy councils for food

830
00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:39,799
Speaker 4: policy in this nation. So all of that has informed

831
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 4: me and also being able to express myself, as I

832
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 4: said a ballodinya.

833
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 6: Even though it's.

834
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:49,320
Speaker 4: There's been a lot of history of Salvadorans having a

835
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 4: hard time being Salvadoran, in La, it's probably one of

836
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:57,279
Speaker 4: the places that you can say it and it's it

837
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:02,320
Speaker 4: means something. You know, people know what that is. And

838
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,440
Speaker 4: I think for me, uh, you know, when you talk

839
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:10,359
Speaker 4: about like we said, you know, recipes or dresses, right,

840
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 4: finding ingredients for.

841
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 6: Those recipes is.

842
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 4: So crucial to that, and La being a place where

843
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 4: I can find those ingredients has meant something to me.

844
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,640
Speaker 4: You know, when I first started interviewing my grandmother and

845
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:28,839
Speaker 4: I said to her, you know, Ma, Lucie, you came

846
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:31,919
Speaker 4: in the eighties, like it's hard to find stuff now,

847
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 4: Like where did you go? And she's like, oh, we

848
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:38,759
Speaker 4: have mont And I'm like, okay, or what's there?

849
00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 6: She's like, oh, we want to tell Turco. And El

850
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:42,960
Speaker 6: Turco is the name.

851
00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 4: That they it's it's not a good name, you know,

852
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:50,440
Speaker 4: but it's the It's this equivalent to this being called Gino.

853
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:51,480
Speaker 6: If you're Korean, right.

854
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:54,000
Speaker 4: But Turco is what they would call out of Palestinians

855
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 4: who went to and there was a you know, I

856
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 4: don't know all this specific fixed, but essentially this a

857
00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:06,279
Speaker 4: man from with Passingian heritage opened up Turco here in

858
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 4: Los Angeles and it's been there for over forty years now,

859
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 4: and I.

860
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:13,240
Speaker 6: Was like, what this is crazy.

861
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 4: So I go there and I see it, and then

862
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 4: I find out that across the way there was a bank,

863
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 4: Banque Agricola, and it that at that bank was one

864
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 4: of the few places where you could send remessas in

865
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:31,960
Speaker 4: the eighties, and you know, there are people who would

866
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:34,879
Speaker 4: stand in the line in the sun waiting to send

867
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:39,399
Speaker 4: a remessa. And there because they were standing in the sun,

868
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 4: a man who sells coconuts was like, this is a

869
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 4: great opportunity for a business. And then so the man

870
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:48,719
Speaker 4: with the coconuts comes in and now twenty thirty four,

871
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,879
Speaker 4: you see you have the outdoor corridor market that exists now.

872
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 4: And that is I mean, this is It's always been

873
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 4: community and always been food fo right, providing for each other.

874
00:49:02,239 --> 00:49:06,040
Speaker 4: It's been a place of community care, radical community care.

875
00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:12,839
Speaker 4: So I think salvi La to me is yeah, it's

876
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,080
Speaker 4: I have such a tender spot for Los Angeles.

877
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:17,760
Speaker 6: Because of it. That's so beautiful.

878
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:19,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I learned a piece of LA history just

879
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:20,200
Speaker 1: right now.

880
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 6: I didn't know.

881
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:22,320
Speaker 3: That totally totally.

882
00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:24,840
Speaker 2: And it also goes back to what you were saying

883
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:29,160
Speaker 2: about all the different influences in Salvador and cuisine. I

884
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:32,279
Speaker 2: mean that this this man of Turkish descent, you know,

885
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 2: was in El Salvador and then brought all of that.

886
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:35,080
Speaker 3: Here to La.

887
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 2: I mean Palestinian of Palestinian descent, but that's what he

888
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:43,239
Speaker 2: was calling and and then brought all of that to La.

889
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 3: It's such a global.

890
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:48,160
Speaker 2: Move, you know what I mean. It's just in that

891
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:50,680
Speaker 2: one store. It's a global story.

892
00:49:51,239 --> 00:49:54,800
Speaker 4: Yes, And now the family who owns it actually because

893
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:56,839
Speaker 4: he went and sold it and I think went back

894
00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:01,000
Speaker 4: to USA to retire. The woman who I've spoken to,

895
00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:03,400
Speaker 4: her name is Albi. She was going to be in

896
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:06,360
Speaker 4: the book, but she a businesswoman, too busy for for

897
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:08,800
Speaker 4: the cookbook again, but it's great because I still interview

898
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 4: her for a lot of historical stuff. And they when

899
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:17,719
Speaker 4: they migrated outside of they went to Hawaii, and so

900
00:50:18,080 --> 00:50:20,759
Speaker 4: when they went to Hawaii, they wanted to come to La.

901
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:23,440
Speaker 4: Then they came to La and they saw this business

902
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,759
Speaker 4: were like, okay, yeah, we'll take it over. But she

903
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:30,399
Speaker 4: would start to tell me her stories of like, well,

904
00:50:30,520 --> 00:50:33,279
Speaker 4: what was it like for Salvador and in Hawaii in

905
00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:38,440
Speaker 4: the eighties, And she's like, well, you know Japrindaco, Marsushi.

906
00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:45,880
Speaker 4: She's like, you know, La, And there were things She's like,

907
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:49,439
Speaker 4: I couldn't we couldn't access it, but we always knew

908
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 4: as soon as.

909
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:51,320
Speaker 6: I find it, I'll know how to eat that.

910
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:56,120
Speaker 4: And so it was it was really cool to hear

911
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:59,480
Speaker 4: all these stories. And you know, so much of appetite

912
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:02,480
Speaker 4: is long, so much of identity as longing as well.

913
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:05,360
Speaker 6: So how we feed ourselves maybe is how we solve

914
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:06,000
Speaker 6: a lot of that.

915
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 4: And yeah, so La has given me a lot to

916
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:11,120
Speaker 4: chew on.

917
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 3: Literally.

918
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,759
Speaker 2: So you've been doing press tours, you are have been

919
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:22,279
Speaker 2: doing book tours, You've been on Good Morning America, your

920
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:24,960
Speaker 2: book was listed on NPR's Book of the Day. What

921
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:28,520
Speaker 2: has the reception and all this movement around the cookbook?

922
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:29,920
Speaker 2: What has that felt like for you?

923
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:34,880
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, it has. It has meant a lot

924
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 4: to me. It's meant a great deal. I also feel though,

925
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:43,799
Speaker 4: in some ways, like this is it's not who I

926
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:48,920
Speaker 4: wrote it for, like these are athletes are great, right, but.

927
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 6: A little bit like it's like, dang.

928
00:51:53,719 --> 00:51:57,400
Speaker 4: Y'all, I suffered, like we had it. This was a

929
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:02,200
Speaker 4: mentally draining thing, like I have lost people I love

930
00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:05,720
Speaker 4: to see this work through. And so it does feel

931
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:10,239
Speaker 4: wonderful to see a lot of this validation, but there

932
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 4: is It's not a perfect feeling, is what I'll say.

933
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,400
Speaker 4: It's not a perfect feeling where everything feels like, you

934
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:19,360
Speaker 4: know what, ten out of ten love it. There's a

935
00:52:19,400 --> 00:52:24,520
Speaker 4: little bitterness to it, a bittersweetness to it because you

936
00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 4: realize the cost you've paid, right. It's part of like

937
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 4: what's always motivated me about storytelling is that we all

938
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:35,800
Speaker 4: value like time and money.

939
00:52:35,880 --> 00:52:36,120
Speaker 6: Right.

940
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,160
Speaker 4: But when I've seen the women in my life share

941
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 4: stories about the cost they paid to see their family

942
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 4: thriving or have progress, like those are things they'll never

943
00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 4: get back, you know, And so I don't know, I feel.

944
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 6: Like it's always a beautiful thing.

945
00:52:56,200 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 4: Visibility is great, and these are opportunities that are are

946
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:04,279
Speaker 4: so wild they feel wildly impossible to.

947
00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:05,760
Speaker 6: Get and we've had them.

948
00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:10,480
Speaker 4: So it feels it feels great, but all nots Plico,

949
00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 4: that it's not a perfect feeling, and a lot of

950
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 4: these spaces are also very they still continue to be

951
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:18,040
Speaker 4: the same way, and so.

952
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:22,480
Speaker 6: There I'm always trying.

953
00:53:22,200 --> 00:53:27,279
Speaker 4: To be careful about just because people come to you

954
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,600
Speaker 4: and they feel enthusiastic doesn't mean that you have to

955
00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 4: say how high when they tell you to jump?

956
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:38,759
Speaker 6: You know, I've been very uh attentive.

957
00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 4: To the fact that you know, I am from a

958
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:45,799
Speaker 4: is in vogue right now? Right this is not that

959
00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 4: you know. This is there's there's an effort to center

960
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:57,600
Speaker 4: women here, to center their luca, to center their food ways.

961
00:53:57,640 --> 00:53:57,880
Speaker 6: You know.

962
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 4: There's a story about a street vendor here who I

963
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:05,880
Speaker 4: call and the story I title is Lanthro because she

964
00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:09,640
Speaker 4: is an anthropologist. She's out there selling and she's curating

965
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:12,879
Speaker 4: a menu based on what she sees. Are the people

966
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:17,960
Speaker 4: who who will buy a certain menu from her. She's

967
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 4: the one a lot of what she knows I won't

968
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:23,040
Speaker 4: find in a book. But because I have interviewed her

969
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:26,480
Speaker 4: and she has all of this, no how it's I

970
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:29,040
Speaker 4: know it right, And so I don't know.

971
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:33,840
Speaker 6: I think Alvis is the I don't know.

972
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:35,840
Speaker 4: I guess I this is a great question because I

973
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:40,160
Speaker 4: haven't exactly worked my way around all my I don't

974
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 4: know that I know my own mind about all of

975
00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:45,719
Speaker 4: the answer to that question, but I will say that

976
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:47,600
Speaker 4: I am so grateful.

977
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:50,359
Speaker 6: Alaves I've been telling.

978
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:51,239
Speaker 3: You it's like.

979
00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:57,239
Speaker 4: And also I hope that publishing doesn't feel too good

980
00:54:57,280 --> 00:55:02,320
Speaker 4: about themselves to stop there. I've had such a great experience.

981
00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 4: It's been a very healthy experience. I was set up

982
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 4: with a group who really came to play, and we

983
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 4: were on each other side the whole way. I don't

984
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:12,680
Speaker 4: think that that.

985
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 6: Is the rule in publishing. I think that was the exception.

986
00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:19,799
Speaker 4: I think everyone has an experience like I've had, and

987
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,680
Speaker 4: so in some ways go okay. I feel responsible to say, like,

988
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:27,560
Speaker 4: you still have to show up with that same kind

989
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:30,560
Speaker 4: of vigilance, and even if you do get good Morning

990
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:34,120
Speaker 4: American and pr you still should be vigilant because the

991
00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:37,400
Speaker 4: narrative can get get and run away from you. You know,

992
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:44,520
Speaker 4: you can be used to promote whatever or to invite

993
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:47,920
Speaker 4: a certain trope about who you are and the people

994
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:48,600
Speaker 4: you represent.

995
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,520
Speaker 2: I guess as a follow up, and we're coming towards

996
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:54,600
Speaker 2: the end here, I think of our conversation, but whose

997
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:58,600
Speaker 2: kitchens and whose hands? Who do you want to see,

998
00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:01,960
Speaker 2: you know, coming up process book? Whose kitchens do you

999
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:03,200
Speaker 2: hope your book ends up in?

1000
00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:07,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely think I wrote for a lot of

1001
00:56:08,520 --> 00:56:14,160
Speaker 4: uh Salvador and immigrants, immigrants in general. I think I've

1002
00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:18,480
Speaker 4: gotten so many wonderful emails from people who knew sal

1003
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:21,880
Speaker 4: Like I got an email from a Filipina who's like

1004
00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:25,520
Speaker 4: my best friend in elementary school with Salvador, and I

1005
00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 4: feel like I can hear her mom in these stories,

1006
00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:29,920
Speaker 4: you know, like it's it's.

1007
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:33,360
Speaker 6: A lot of it's a lot of beautiful people. I think.

1008
00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,799
Speaker 4: I think that the people I've written this for are

1009
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:40,640
Speaker 4: the people who get that when I say food is

1010
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:43,239
Speaker 4: how you touch home, they know exactly what I mean.

1011
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:47,440
Speaker 4: And that could be like I don't know a transplant

1012
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:50,480
Speaker 4: who longs for a Chicago hot dog right from the Midwest,

1013
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 4: or somebody who longs for they're cooking from your grandmother's

1014
00:56:56,000 --> 00:57:00,239
Speaker 4: rancho in Mexico, like in they say, I think that

1015
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:04,760
Speaker 4: there are something so vulnerable about us longing for something

1016
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:10,719
Speaker 4: that when you see someone else sharing how they've been

1017
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:17,400
Speaker 4: able to appease that hunger or solve that ache, you

1018
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:21,240
Speaker 4: it speaks to you because in some ways it allows

1019
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:23,960
Speaker 4: you to touch your own social spot, right, And so

1020
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:27,320
Speaker 4: I think that all of us know what that is.

1021
00:57:27,360 --> 00:57:29,840
Speaker 4: All of us know what we what we mean when

1022
00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:33,200
Speaker 4: we say, like food is how you touch home. So yeah,

1023
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:40,200
Speaker 4: I've been so moved by the emails and messages I've

1024
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:43,040
Speaker 4: gotten from people. People can know miss Brava to hear

1025
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:47,640
Speaker 4: something from them. There was this email I just got

1026
00:57:47,720 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 4: yesterday and Sada Baladeno, Who's like, you know, I've fully

1027
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:55,920
Speaker 4: accepted that I won't know what Salvi food is or history.

1028
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:58,760
Speaker 4: I have a restaurant, but there's no Salvi food. And

1029
00:57:58,840 --> 00:58:02,280
Speaker 4: after reading your book and how I lament that. And

1030
00:58:02,440 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 4: he said that he gave the book to his daughter

1031
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:07,800
Speaker 4: and she was just reading it like a story book.

1032
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:12,000
Speaker 4: I loved that image because I love stories as a kid,

1033
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:15,280
Speaker 4: like in a story book, you know, that centered, self

1034
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,400
Speaker 4: adorned woman. I don't think I ever read when I

1035
00:58:17,440 --> 00:58:21,760
Speaker 4: was a kid, And so yeah, I think that all

1036
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:26,760
Speaker 4: of that is a part of the reader. And even now,

1037
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:30,360
Speaker 4: like some of the themes in the book go and

1038
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:33,200
Speaker 4: get bag on forte. You know, we're talking about womanhood,

1039
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:36,360
Speaker 4: we're talking about being an immigrant, we're talking about longing

1040
00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:40,920
Speaker 4: for home, and folks have said to me, like, you know,

1041
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 4: how are you feeling? How is this all going for you?

1042
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:45,680
Speaker 4: And I really think that now is the time where

1043
00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:49,720
Speaker 4: I'm focused on the reader, Like we survive every day,

1044
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:52,120
Speaker 4: we're going through things. We got to figure o all

1045
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:54,200
Speaker 4: these life things that maybe we don't have time to

1046
00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:57,680
Speaker 4: assess how we feel about these themes. And then you

1047
00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:01,160
Speaker 4: get a book like this and it comes down at once,

1048
00:59:01,320 --> 00:59:07,320
Speaker 4: you know, and so yeah.

1049
00:59:06,040 --> 00:59:09,920
Speaker 1: Beautiful, that's so beautiful. So my last question for you, Goda,

1050
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:15,320
Speaker 1: I saw a clip shared by a Latino platform and

1051
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:19,240
Speaker 1: you share this story and it's so interesting because that

1052
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:21,800
Speaker 1: also happened to my family member. But you share the

1053
00:59:21,880 --> 00:59:25,200
Speaker 1: story where you say someone people have asked you like

1054
00:59:25,240 --> 00:59:31,440
Speaker 1: where in Mexico is and for some reason, the comments

1055
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:33,760
Speaker 1: were a mess. The comments section was a mess, and

1056
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:35,680
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, like why do you think

1057
00:59:35,720 --> 00:59:38,680
Speaker 1: that is? Why do you think that happens where like

1058
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:43,880
Speaker 1: we see like Mexicanos, like Mexican Americans like get so

1059
00:59:44,600 --> 00:59:45,480
Speaker 1: weird about it.

1060
00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:50,480
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, do we have another hour?

1061
00:59:52,600 --> 00:59:56,400
Speaker 2: That's a whole I mean speaking of like anthropology. Yes, yes,

1062
00:59:56,520 --> 00:59:59,880
Speaker 2: that's a whole whole anthropological bag of work.

1063
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:00,240
Speaker 6: Yeah.

1064
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:04,200
Speaker 1: The Mexi Centrism episode is coming. But yeah, I mean,

1065
01:00:04,880 --> 01:00:06,960
Speaker 1: I don't know in your experience, like why do you

1066
01:00:07,040 --> 01:00:10,439
Speaker 1: think that happens? There's obviously like goes without saying there's

1067
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:14,720
Speaker 1: like a tension between the two countries in the diaspora,

1068
01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:17,560
Speaker 1: you know, and so there's so much to say about it.

1069
01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:21,480
Speaker 1: But in your experience and you being at the center

1070
01:00:21,560 --> 01:00:24,640
Speaker 1: of that clip, that video, you know what was that,

1071
01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:26,560
Speaker 1: Like why do you think that happened? When you were

1072
01:00:26,560 --> 01:00:27,880
Speaker 1: just sharing an anecdote?

1073
01:00:28,200 --> 01:00:31,560
Speaker 6: Yes, well, you know what, It's kind of.

1074
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 4: I kind of thought, first of all, I'm so bored

1075
01:00:37,680 --> 01:00:42,440
Speaker 4: by the Mako versus trope, Like I just think it's

1076
01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:46,600
Speaker 4: so unoriginal. I'm like, y'all, we we gotta do better,

1077
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:49,720
Speaker 4: right because it's it's it's just not as interesting now

1078
01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:52,760
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty four, And so when it happened, I

1079
01:00:52,920 --> 01:00:55,840
Speaker 4: was really kind of thrown for a loop because I'm like, oh,

1080
01:00:55,960 --> 01:01:00,680
Speaker 4: Joepinziki super a loos. So you guys, you know, I'm like, wow,

1081
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:05,480
Speaker 4: we haven't And I kind of feel like a little

1082
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 4: naive in a way that I thought because I feel

1083
01:01:09,240 --> 01:01:13,160
Speaker 4: like the conversations things are so smart now. I feel

1084
01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:15,600
Speaker 4: like certain commentaries or maybe I'm just hanging out in

1085
01:01:15,640 --> 01:01:18,960
Speaker 4: digital spaces that feed my brain more.

1086
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:21,400
Speaker 6: But I just.

1087
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:25,360
Speaker 4: Felt like this is this is boring, like this is

1088
01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:28,840
Speaker 4: not where we live now, but we do. And so

1089
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 4: I think that so many of the reasons, Like I

1090
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:36,080
Speaker 4: really believe that where we sit is where we stand,

1091
01:01:36,760 --> 01:01:41,240
Speaker 4: and so when you look at how things are now,

1092
01:01:41,400 --> 01:01:44,120
Speaker 4: you have to assess where we've been, right, That's what

1093
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:45,800
Speaker 4: that means. Where you sit is where you stand. And

1094
01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 4: when we try to stand and say like, hey, I'm

1095
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,920
Speaker 4: sort of Belladina, where I've been sitting is an ambiente

1096
01:01:52,160 --> 01:01:58,440
Speaker 4: that's been very focused on you know, the focus hasn't

1097
01:01:58,480 --> 01:02:01,720
Speaker 4: been on Salvador and things. It's been We all know

1098
01:02:01,760 --> 01:02:06,000
Speaker 4: this conversation about Mexican hegemony and all of that. I

1099
01:02:06,040 --> 01:02:09,520
Speaker 4: think so much of that, though, goes even further than that, right,

1100
01:02:11,040 --> 01:02:15,000
Speaker 4: I think, I don't know, there's so much to say,

1101
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:18,840
Speaker 4: but for I'll tell you one thing. My my family,

1102
01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:21,320
Speaker 4: they'll often say that when you cross the border as

1103
01:02:21,360 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 4: a Central American, you're not crossing one border, you're crossing several, right,

1104
01:02:27,400 --> 01:02:30,040
Speaker 4: And there's something about that fight that will always be

1105
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:35,920
Speaker 4: different to Mexicanos. You can't compare them, right, And so

1106
01:02:36,040 --> 01:02:40,640
Speaker 4: there's there's that. Then there's also for a lot of

1107
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 4: Salvadorans Central Americanos like to see a Mexican flag isn't

1108
01:02:45,680 --> 01:02:51,080
Speaker 4: a good thing. Uh, it's it's a dangerous thing. It's like, hey,

1109
01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:58,400
Speaker 4: there be dragons here, you know, like those those were

1110
01:02:58,520 --> 01:03:02,960
Speaker 4: the things that told you. There's there's several stories here

1111
01:03:03,120 --> 01:03:05,360
Speaker 4: that some didn't make it in the Book of where

1112
01:03:05,360 --> 01:03:07,840
Speaker 4: a lot of the harm was being done by Mexicanos, right,

1113
01:03:08,760 --> 01:03:13,800
Speaker 4: And so that's a part of our coexisting together that

1114
01:03:14,240 --> 01:03:17,560
Speaker 4: I don't know how we confront or assess or or

1115
01:03:18,440 --> 01:03:22,040
Speaker 4: reconcile if that's even on the table. So I think

1116
01:03:22,120 --> 01:03:26,640
Speaker 4: that's part of it. I think that Avis is like

1117
01:03:27,520 --> 01:03:31,120
Speaker 4: I think Mexicanos there's even though they have a bigger

1118
01:03:31,160 --> 01:03:35,880
Speaker 4: country and there's definitely so much beautiful history and the

1119
01:03:35,880 --> 01:03:39,480
Speaker 4: cultures there, they're still like come, I want to say,

1120
01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:40,920
Speaker 4: maybe even an.

1121
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:42,360
Speaker 6: In segurivav.

1122
01:03:43,640 --> 01:03:45,640
Speaker 4: Because I feel like every time you try to say

1123
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:48,680
Speaker 4: oh yo say or I remember once I said, like

1124
01:03:49,720 --> 01:03:53,280
Speaker 4: someone mistakes mistook me for Mexicana and I said, oh no, yes,

1125
01:03:54,560 --> 01:03:56,360
Speaker 4: and they're like, oh not the offend, that's it's a

1126
01:03:56,360 --> 01:03:58,600
Speaker 4: good thing. That they confused you as Mexican. You should

1127
01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:02,320
Speaker 4: be honored. I said, why are you being offended? The

1128
01:04:02,360 --> 01:04:06,320
Speaker 4: insecurity isn't on me, Fu, it's on you. So maybe

1129
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:09,840
Speaker 4: ask yourself why that is. And I think that that

1130
01:04:10,040 --> 01:04:15,080
Speaker 4: moment of introspection isn't there, and maybe it's due because

1131
01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:19,240
Speaker 4: we're all immigrants and so it's like we're all being

1132
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:25,320
Speaker 4: hated by this institution and so there's a there's a

1133
01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:27,720
Speaker 4: dynamic there, there's a complex there.

1134
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:31,600
Speaker 6: But yeah, that video.

1135
01:04:31,600 --> 01:04:35,200
Speaker 4: When it came out, at first I was fine and

1136
01:04:35,760 --> 01:04:37,320
Speaker 4: I was like, oh mee, din't get on eat.

1137
01:04:37,360 --> 01:04:39,680
Speaker 6: Though there's more views. This is a good.

1138
01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:43,720
Speaker 4: Thing, they say, you know, controversy is good. But then

1139
01:04:43,760 --> 01:04:47,160
Speaker 4: after a while of me of reading things that said

1140
01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:51,520
Speaker 4: like you're a Timu Mexican or another one that said

1141
01:04:52,080 --> 01:04:53,280
Speaker 4: a Temu.

1142
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:56,600
Speaker 1: Mexican that they called me shit, that's insane.

1143
01:04:56,720 --> 01:04:59,440
Speaker 4: I want to say though, that it's equal parts hilarious

1144
01:04:59,640 --> 01:05:04,600
Speaker 4: and equal parts cruel, because it's like, wow, Team Mexican.

1145
01:05:04,640 --> 01:05:06,920
Speaker 1: It took me a second to register what you said,

1146
01:05:07,480 --> 01:05:10,360
Speaker 1: you know means yeah.

1147
01:05:11,280 --> 01:05:13,440
Speaker 4: Then you know, there was another one that said like

1148
01:05:13,600 --> 01:05:17,520
Speaker 4: all of you come from a ste bloodline or something

1149
01:05:17,600 --> 01:05:17,800
Speaker 4: like that.

1150
01:05:17,880 --> 01:05:19,400
Speaker 6: I'm like that's okay, that's terrible.

1151
01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:22,400
Speaker 4: There was a lot of and even some Salvadorns in

1152
01:05:22,440 --> 01:05:27,439
Speaker 4: the comments who were saying things like, uh, you guys,

1153
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:30,480
Speaker 4: we just need to say it like we ain't shit,

1154
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:36,040
Speaker 4: or there was another one that said like Salvadorn food

1155
01:05:36,080 --> 01:05:38,840
Speaker 4: is the best, said no one ever. Uh. It was

1156
01:05:39,480 --> 01:05:42,160
Speaker 4: just hateful, like to the point where I was like,

1157
01:05:42,520 --> 01:05:45,760
Speaker 4: should I start blocking people because this vidtriol is like

1158
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:49,800
Speaker 4: it feels so exact like I I and I never

1159
01:05:49,880 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 4: said anything hating on Mexican.

1160
01:05:52,320 --> 01:05:54,280
Speaker 1: No, you didn't. That's why I was so shocked by

1161
01:05:54,280 --> 01:05:56,560
Speaker 1: the comments and why I'm bringing it up today because

1162
01:05:56,600 --> 01:05:59,640
Speaker 1: you didn't say anything negative. You were speaking about your

1163
01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:03,200
Speaker 1: experien Yes, you never said I was so offended because

1164
01:06:03,200 --> 01:06:05,760
Speaker 1: they thought I was Mexican, Like here we go again.

1165
01:06:05,840 --> 01:06:06,600
Speaker 1: You didn't say that.

1166
01:06:08,200 --> 01:06:12,360
Speaker 4: But yeah, So I think that there's there's a lot there.

1167
01:06:13,080 --> 01:06:15,640
Speaker 6: And you know, the.

1168
01:06:17,160 --> 01:06:21,480
Speaker 4: Media people that we that this was for emailed me

1169
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:24,200
Speaker 4: and said, you know, we're really sorry. You know, we

1170
01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:28,400
Speaker 4: can't control the comments, and and.

1171
01:06:28,320 --> 01:06:28,880
Speaker 3: That was that.

1172
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:32,240
Speaker 4: You know, I feel like they could have had perhaps

1173
01:06:32,320 --> 01:06:36,760
Speaker 4: a little bit more of moderating going on, or perhaps

1174
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:42,560
Speaker 4: pinning certain comments or keeping some sort of like, you know,

1175
01:06:42,600 --> 01:06:46,400
Speaker 4: it was poor form. I feel, you know, manners right,

1176
01:06:46,520 --> 01:06:49,800
Speaker 4: like if you have a guest on the show, there's

1177
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:52,800
Speaker 4: kind of an a disease about that, right you take

1178
01:06:52,800 --> 01:06:56,960
Speaker 4: care of people. And I just felt like there was

1179
01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:01,640
Speaker 4: something about all of how that happened that they were like, oh, well,

1180
01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:06,480
Speaker 4: this brings numbers up, so okay whatever. But yeah, so

1181
01:07:06,800 --> 01:07:08,840
Speaker 4: I think that there's a lot of reasons for it.

1182
01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:11,600
Speaker 4: I think that the it never made sense to me

1183
01:07:12,080 --> 01:07:15,040
Speaker 4: that Mehico and were always pinned against each other because

1184
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:18,280
Speaker 4: I'm like, they're entirely different. And one of the things

1185
01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:19,960
Speaker 4: I was people have asked me like, why can't I

1186
01:07:20,080 --> 01:07:23,280
Speaker 4: call sabi food just like a type of Mexican food,

1187
01:07:23,360 --> 01:07:28,040
Speaker 4: you know, And I'm like, okay, okay, let's you like

1188
01:07:28,120 --> 01:07:30,880
Speaker 4: to unpack that. But here I solve it this way,

1189
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:33,200
Speaker 4: and I say do you have siblings?

1190
01:07:33,640 --> 01:07:34,600
Speaker 6: And they'll say yes.

1191
01:07:34,680 --> 01:07:37,600
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, So if your mom is calling for you,

1192
01:07:37,760 --> 01:07:42,160
Speaker 4: but she says your brother's name, does that irk you? Yes, okay,

1193
01:07:42,200 --> 01:07:44,400
Speaker 4: because you have a name. So do you have the

1194
01:07:44,440 --> 01:07:45,120
Speaker 4: same mom and dad?

1195
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:45,360
Speaker 1: Yes?

1196
01:07:45,440 --> 01:07:45,880
Speaker 6: Okay.

1197
01:07:46,080 --> 01:07:49,800
Speaker 4: So then when even though you come from the same people,

1198
01:07:50,360 --> 01:07:54,400
Speaker 4: it is still rude and dare I say, disrespectful for

1199
01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:56,080
Speaker 4: your mom, who loves you and gave birth to you,

1200
01:07:56,640 --> 01:07:59,080
Speaker 4: to call you by your brother's name, because that's not

1201
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:02,040
Speaker 4: what you're in is. And the same thing can be

1202
01:08:02,080 --> 01:08:04,640
Speaker 4: said about cuisines. The same thing can be said about

1203
01:08:04,760 --> 01:08:09,800
Speaker 4: a whole you know, identities, right, they're just not the same.

1204
01:08:09,880 --> 01:08:14,120
Speaker 4: And even if they were, so, you know, there there

1205
01:08:14,240 --> 01:08:18,880
Speaker 4: is enough there too. There's a world of there's a

1206
01:08:18,920 --> 01:08:22,839
Speaker 4: galaxy on each of us, you know, And so the

1207
01:08:22,880 --> 01:08:25,000
Speaker 4: only thing I feel we're meant to do in this

1208
01:08:25,120 --> 01:08:28,200
Speaker 4: life is really to pay attention and explore the things

1209
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:32,160
Speaker 4: that grab our attention. So I don't know, I do

1210
01:08:32,240 --> 01:08:34,599
Speaker 4: think there's a lot there, And I don't even think

1211
01:08:34,600 --> 01:08:39,200
Speaker 4: i've the intellectualizing of all the reasons I have it all,

1212
01:08:39,760 --> 01:08:46,120
Speaker 4: But I know that what was experienced, I felt naive,

1213
01:08:46,520 --> 01:08:49,200
Speaker 4: thinking that we had been over that, that we were

1214
01:08:49,479 --> 01:08:53,960
Speaker 4: smarter than this, that we were more like I don't know,

1215
01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:56,559
Speaker 4: I just felt like if we've moved beyond it, yeah,

1216
01:08:56,640 --> 01:09:00,320
Speaker 4: like yeah, Geller Mosuperrado, you know, so yes, it's so

1217
01:09:00,600 --> 01:09:06,840
Speaker 4: like nineteen ninety you know, but no, that's not us.

1218
01:09:07,120 --> 01:09:10,759
Speaker 6: But I just think that they'll be the boring people.

1219
01:09:11,080 --> 01:09:16,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, because there's so much more exciting things, and it

1220
01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:20,559
Speaker 4: was a shame and it definitely told me something. And

1221
01:09:20,600 --> 01:09:26,040
Speaker 4: now I'll always think of timu Mexicans as something I've

1222
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:27,799
Speaker 4: been called that's nuts.

1223
01:09:28,080 --> 01:09:30,640
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like we've talked about this on the

1224
01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:34,360
Speaker 2: podcast before, but I think that's something that Mexican Americans

1225
01:09:34,360 --> 01:09:36,680
Speaker 2: have not yet come to terms with. Is like in

1226
01:09:36,840 --> 01:09:40,280
Speaker 2: la and in Latin America, we are in a position

1227
01:09:40,320 --> 01:09:45,240
Speaker 2: of power and from the chief of police and the

1228
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:48,240
Speaker 2: chief of the sheriffs and the city council, and I

1229
01:09:48,280 --> 01:09:52,400
Speaker 2: mean we hold positions of power while still sort of

1230
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:56,519
Speaker 2: occupying this place, whether real or psychological or a hybrid

1231
01:09:56,600 --> 01:10:01,439
Speaker 2: of two, a feeling other WHI actually being power players

1232
01:10:01,600 --> 01:10:06,040
Speaker 2: in real tangible ways. And we are not like the

1233
01:10:06,439 --> 01:10:09,880
Speaker 2: oppressed group that we once were, at least if at

1234
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:12,240
Speaker 2: least if you've been here for a generation or two.

1235
01:10:13,520 --> 01:10:16,200
Speaker 2: And then in Mexico in relation to Central America, like

1236
01:10:16,280 --> 01:10:19,120
Speaker 2: we're a proxy of the United States and so there's

1237
01:10:19,240 --> 01:10:22,960
Speaker 2: that that superiority and inferiority at the same time.

1238
01:10:24,280 --> 01:10:26,479
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's like, you know, obviously, like I love

1239
01:10:26,520 --> 01:10:29,120
Speaker 1: being Pruian, I love being Mexican, but it's like we

1240
01:10:29,240 --> 01:10:30,200
Speaker 1: can't like.

1241
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:31,320
Speaker 6: We have to.

1242
01:10:31,360 --> 01:10:33,800
Speaker 1: We have to be able to critique nation states, you know,

1243
01:10:34,080 --> 01:10:38,439
Speaker 1: and it's like that fierce nationalism that we see, it's toxic.

1244
01:10:38,720 --> 01:10:42,080
Speaker 1: It allows us to treat each other, that's it allows

1245
01:10:42,160 --> 01:10:45,120
Speaker 1: us to treat folks that are of Latin America but

1246
01:10:45,280 --> 01:10:49,160
Speaker 1: from different countries, from a different quote nation that way.

1247
01:10:49,360 --> 01:10:53,600
Speaker 1: That really fierce, toxic, gross nationalism, you know, and so

1248
01:10:53,760 --> 01:10:57,160
Speaker 1: we have to be able to critique that without hating

1249
01:10:57,200 --> 01:10:59,759
Speaker 1: each other, you know, without calling it like a hatred

1250
01:10:59,800 --> 01:11:03,240
Speaker 1: of the people. You know, we're critiquing the nation. We're

1251
01:11:03,280 --> 01:11:05,160
Speaker 1: critiquing the nation state in the same way we do

1252
01:11:05,200 --> 01:11:07,240
Speaker 1: the US one percent.

1253
01:11:07,320 --> 01:11:11,400
Speaker 4: And even that's why I you know, I've never used

1254
01:11:11,479 --> 01:11:16,360
Speaker 4: any of the flag colors. I didn't want, Like I

1255
01:11:16,439 --> 01:11:18,479
Speaker 4: was almost like the blue that we have in the title.

1256
01:11:18,520 --> 01:11:21,160
Speaker 4: I was like, can it be a different color? Because

1257
01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:24,679
Speaker 4: I was really like, I if I'm not gonna wear

1258
01:11:25,520 --> 01:11:31,240
Speaker 4: first of all, just yes, critiquing nationalism it's propaganda, it's indoctrination,

1259
01:11:31,600 --> 01:11:37,200
Speaker 4: Like it's disgusting, right, And so I when I started

1260
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:39,000
Speaker 4: doing this work, a lot of people would be like,

1261
01:11:39,080 --> 01:11:42,479
Speaker 4: I don't see any of the Salvi flag on there,

1262
01:11:43,640 --> 01:11:46,560
Speaker 4: you know, Like are you embarrassed, and I'm like, oh me,

1263
01:11:46,840 --> 01:11:48,760
Speaker 4: you and I can't have the same conversation. You're not

1264
01:11:48,800 --> 01:11:51,400
Speaker 4: there yet. Call me when you are, because that's I'm

1265
01:11:51,439 --> 01:11:54,519
Speaker 4: not going to waste my time. And you know, there's

1266
01:11:54,640 --> 01:11:57,719
Speaker 4: there's so much that I think is just toxic. Also

1267
01:11:58,280 --> 01:12:01,240
Speaker 4: it's tacky. Let's just talk talk about on a style.

1268
01:12:03,360 --> 01:12:08,720
Speaker 4: It's a little taggy sometimes and it's just again, these

1269
01:12:08,720 --> 01:12:13,479
Speaker 4: are made up places that have power, that have stripped

1270
01:12:13,520 --> 01:12:18,400
Speaker 4: agency of so many communities, that have done so much harm.

1271
01:12:18,840 --> 01:12:23,560
Speaker 4: And I think that you know, yeah, it's it's nationalism,

1272
01:12:23,800 --> 01:12:28,519
Speaker 4: and it is that whole kind of complex of no

1273
01:12:29,800 --> 01:12:32,120
Speaker 4: me and so I have a right, but then I

1274
01:12:32,320 --> 01:12:36,519
Speaker 4: don't see it. Mike yoago, Right, it's like Latino men

1275
01:12:36,560 --> 01:12:39,880
Speaker 4: in some ways, like oh my goodness, this.

1276
01:12:39,920 --> 01:12:42,040
Speaker 1: Is a whole other episode.

1277
01:12:43,120 --> 01:12:43,360
Speaker 6: Back.

1278
01:12:43,479 --> 01:12:45,840
Speaker 1: I know, No, it's so true. I mean I am

1279
01:12:45,880 --> 01:12:50,000
Speaker 1: always like against nationalism until like and copa America. Then

1280
01:12:50,040 --> 01:12:53,280
Speaker 1: I'm like I put my T shirt on. Yes, But

1281
01:12:53,840 --> 01:12:55,400
Speaker 1: you know I think that like to your point of

1282
01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:58,200
Speaker 1: that longing, I do also have like empathy for like

1283
01:12:58,520 --> 01:13:01,800
Speaker 1: the nationalists, right, because I like, you feel like so

1284
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:05,719
Speaker 1: far from home that all you have is your little flag,

1285
01:13:05,800 --> 01:13:08,640
Speaker 1: all you have is your coma. All you have is

1286
01:13:08,640 --> 01:13:10,880
Speaker 1: your language, and so you feel like you fiercely cling

1287
01:13:10,960 --> 01:13:13,840
Speaker 1: onto it. But like you said earlier, like if it's

1288
01:13:13,840 --> 01:13:16,160
Speaker 1: not changing, it's not growing. And so if we're so

1289
01:13:16,400 --> 01:13:19,960
Speaker 1: fiercely like hold onto it, we romanticize speaking more for

1290
01:13:20,040 --> 01:13:23,959
Speaker 1: like the proven community. We romanticize these places our home countries,

1291
01:13:24,120 --> 01:13:26,679
Speaker 1: and it's like we don't see the harm that they

1292
01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:28,960
Speaker 1: that they've caused to like their own people.

1293
01:13:29,720 --> 01:13:33,040
Speaker 4: You know. One of the things, too, is the whole like, uh,

1294
01:13:34,000 --> 01:13:38,519
Speaker 4: the fandom of like certain sports teams, like I think

1295
01:13:38,760 --> 01:13:42,920
Speaker 4: so much of it is like the nationalists effort for

1296
01:13:42,960 --> 01:13:46,000
Speaker 4: the working class right, and how so many of our

1297
01:13:46,400 --> 01:13:49,320
Speaker 4: parents like like I know, whenever Mexico.

1298
01:13:49,000 --> 01:13:52,160
Speaker 6: And we're playing against each other, like no, it's a thing,

1299
01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:54,479
Speaker 6: and you're just like, no, I'm not going.

1300
01:13:54,880 --> 01:13:56,760
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not participating in that.

1301
01:13:57,400 --> 01:14:01,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so I think that there's the there's definitely

1302
01:14:01,120 --> 01:14:04,640
Speaker 4: like one of the most tender things I've seen with

1303
01:14:04,760 --> 01:14:06,840
Speaker 4: folks who have gotten the book is that they'll take

1304
01:14:06,880 --> 01:14:09,640
Speaker 4: photos and they'll tag me. And I've noticed that some

1305
01:14:09,680 --> 01:14:12,040
Speaker 4: of them, like they put all their belongings that are

1306
01:14:12,080 --> 01:14:15,920
Speaker 4: salvy in this photo, and that's that's what we're addressing,

1307
01:14:16,439 --> 01:14:19,599
Speaker 4: is that we have so few relics, right, so few,

1308
01:14:19,760 --> 01:14:22,599
Speaker 4: like some of them aren't even worth anything. Right, it's

1309
01:14:22,680 --> 01:14:26,839
Speaker 4: just like unmante or one.

1310
01:14:26,680 --> 01:14:32,200
Speaker 6: Little cross, right, that's from and this is the the.

1311
01:14:31,920 --> 01:14:35,720
Speaker 4: Amalgamation of what makes me salvadorin are these items right?

1312
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:38,479
Speaker 4: And we're longing to hold a piece of it, right,

1313
01:14:38,800 --> 01:14:41,800
Speaker 4: And so whether it be sports or flag, if that's

1314
01:14:41,880 --> 01:14:44,400
Speaker 4: all we fucking have that you can get off at Amazon,

1315
01:14:44,439 --> 01:14:49,280
Speaker 4: so it's like readily available, right, then there is there

1316
01:14:49,360 --> 01:14:51,720
Speaker 4: is such an intimate struggle that you have to make

1317
01:14:51,840 --> 01:14:54,599
Speaker 4: room for it. But I think that's why we have

1318
01:14:54,680 --> 01:14:58,680
Speaker 4: to stay vigilant and even within ourselves, like how we

1319
01:14:58,760 --> 01:15:03,280
Speaker 4: touch home can and be toxic if we're not kind

1320
01:15:03,320 --> 01:15:07,880
Speaker 4: of like keeping a watchful eye over it. And so yeah,

1321
01:15:07,920 --> 01:15:11,200
Speaker 4: I think I don't know, for everything there is an allowance,

1322
01:15:11,520 --> 01:15:13,719
Speaker 4: but for everything there's a watchful eye also.

1323
01:15:14,960 --> 01:15:16,280
Speaker 6: And I don't know.

1324
01:15:16,320 --> 01:15:18,720
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's it's because of how I

1325
01:15:18,800 --> 01:15:23,160
Speaker 4: was raised or any of the how I've seen the world,

1326
01:15:24,600 --> 01:15:27,840
Speaker 4: but I always feel like we we would do better

1327
01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:30,880
Speaker 4: for ourselves if we just had more of a spirit

1328
01:15:30,920 --> 01:15:34,240
Speaker 4: of inquiry and just have those questions that we can

1329
01:15:34,560 --> 01:15:36,840
Speaker 4: poke at and say like why do I feel this way?

1330
01:15:37,360 --> 01:15:38,920
Speaker 6: Or why am I go with that person?

1331
01:15:38,960 --> 01:15:43,160
Speaker 4: Except for when we are at a salvad or Mexican game,

1332
01:15:43,240 --> 01:15:47,479
Speaker 4: you know, like all those things I think would benefit

1333
01:15:47,600 --> 01:15:49,519
Speaker 4: us or being a stad with each other.

1334
01:15:49,800 --> 01:15:54,160
Speaker 1: Agreed, Thank you so much for this incredible interview. Yes,

1335
01:15:55,120 --> 01:15:57,360
Speaker 1: tell our listeners where they can get your book.

1336
01:15:58,080 --> 01:16:01,720
Speaker 4: Yes, so this Alas cookbook is available wherever books are

1337
01:16:01,760 --> 01:16:07,200
Speaker 4: sold target, Amazon, Barnes, and Noble. Definitely support independent bookstores

1338
01:16:07,200 --> 01:16:11,280
Speaker 4: in LA. There's now serving in Chinatown, which I love them,

1339
01:16:11,400 --> 01:16:13,960
Speaker 4: and they are the only place in LA that has

1340
01:16:14,000 --> 01:16:18,280
Speaker 4: signed copies. And yeah on Instagram, everything is salv We

1341
01:16:18,439 --> 01:16:23,439
Speaker 4: Sould and the series Salvi La is on YouTube as well.

1342
01:16:23,760 --> 01:16:24,879
Speaker 6: I love that amazing.

1343
01:16:24,920 --> 01:16:28,200
Speaker 1: Also for LA locals, I saw the Salve Soul cookbook

1344
01:16:28,240 --> 01:16:31,200
Speaker 1: at Skylight in Silver Lake or in Los Velis, so

1345
01:16:31,560 --> 01:16:33,960
Speaker 1: you can check it out at multiple bookstores in LA.

1346
01:16:34,040 --> 01:16:35,360
Speaker 3: I think this is a great gift.

1347
01:16:35,880 --> 01:16:37,719
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, an excellent gift.

1348
01:16:37,960 --> 01:16:38,760
Speaker 6: Yes it is.

1349
01:16:38,880 --> 01:16:42,040
Speaker 2: Yes, with holiday season coming up, definitely pick up a copy.

1350
01:16:42,160 --> 01:16:45,920
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, and there's lots of holiday recipes in there.

1351
01:16:45,960 --> 01:16:49,720
Speaker 4: So if you have ever felt intimidated by that process,

1352
01:16:49,880 --> 01:16:50,920
Speaker 4: the recipes.

1353
01:16:50,520 --> 01:16:54,400
Speaker 6: Are there, so yes, all right, look I'm what us.

1354
01:16:54,400 --> 01:16:57,559
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning into another capit of lok Radio.

1355
01:16:57,640 --> 01:17:02,680
Speaker 1: We will catch you next time. Yes, look at a

1356
01:17:02,800 --> 01:17:06,440
Speaker 1: Radio is executive produced by Viosa Fem and Mala Munios.

1357
01:17:06,640 --> 01:17:09,120
Speaker 2: Stephanie Franco is our producer.

1358
01:17:08,960 --> 01:17:12,040
Speaker 1: Story editing by Medosa.

1359
01:17:11,400 --> 01:17:13,080
Speaker 2: Creative direction by me Mala.

1360
01:17:13,320 --> 01:17:15,920
Speaker 1: Look at a Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michael

1361
01:17:15,960 --> 01:17:17,240
Speaker 1: Dura podcast network.

1362
01:17:17,479 --> 01:17:20,040
Speaker 2: You can listen to look at Radio on the iHeartRadio

1363
01:17:20,080 --> 01:17:22,080
Speaker 2: app or wherever you get your podcasts.

1364
01:17:22,320 --> 01:17:24,519
Speaker 1: Leave us a review and share with your prima or

1365
01:17:24,560 --> 01:17:25,519
Speaker 1: share with your homegirl.

1366
01:17:25,640 --> 01:17:28,160
Speaker 2: And thank you to our local morees, to our listeners

1367
01:17:28,160 --> 01:17:29,719
Speaker 2: for tuning in each and every week.

1368
01:17:29,840 --> 01:17:33,200
Speaker 1: Besitos Loka l