In my presentation, I decided to talk about a dish that my parents introduced to me as a child.

The reason why this dish is so important to me has to do with a lot of things. When I was young, I would hear my father and mother talk about the war that ruined their lives. I didn’t know much about the country that was called “El Salvador”. I grew up with African Americans and Mexicans around me. I was not proud to be latina nor thought great things about a country I never visited. However, even with all of this, I felt like something was missing in my heart. Not only would I neglect the country my parents fled, I also wanted to flee the city I was born in. After a trauma that led me into depression, I wanted to escape.

Sadly, the pride I felt for being Salvadorian did not happen until I moved away to University in Humboldt county. After truly understanding what it meant to be homesick, I came back home to Los Angeles and my perspective on things changed.

Back then, I remember I would say I was from another ethnicity because I wasn’t proud of who I was. I honored other cultures but did not do so with mine. All of that changed when my father decided to take me to El Salvador and visit my family when I came back to Los Angeles. That emptiness I felt was soon filled with a sense of familiarity I have never felt before when I stepped foot in a country that had its blood running through my veins.

Now when I eat a plate of Platanos Fritos, I think about the country my parents came from, the country where my extended family lives, the country I would have been born in if the war did not happen, the country that is struggling to get back on its feet. It makes me proud to be Salvadorian but also someone from Los Angeles. It makes me proud because I have been given an opportunity to succeed under terrible circumstances. I am able to meet cultures from all over the world and I am able to have an education.

When I think about my country, I see the faces of hardworking people, of people who are determined to survive, and of people that seem familiar to me. I am now proud to say I am Salvadorian and want people to know more about this really small central American country.

I am proud to say I am Salvadorian but also from Los Angeles. That I am neither from here completely or there but I am a unique combination of both. When I have children, I will make them this dish and show them to love everything about their unique mixture of culture as well. I am excited to show them that part of their culture and the culture of my husbands. I believe that food is very powerful and can bring people together. I also believe that it is important to never forget the recipes that tell a story about a certain group of people.