Episode 55 - Season 6 Intro

Hola! Y bienbenidas to a new season! 

I’m Karina host of Elevating la Cultura podcast. I wrapped up season 5 in August, where I got into it with my own story. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t easy writing and recording those episodes because I had to dig a little into my past experiences to make the connection to how I interact with the world today, and specifically why I’m passionate about sharing stories and pouring into this community.

Over the break, you all kept listening and catching up on past episodes bringing us to over 2600 downloads! Muchisimas gracias for continuing to listen and share with your community.

And If you’re new here, or haven’t listened to the first four seasons, you can binge listen to season one featuring Latinas entrepreneurs, season two highlighting Latinas in the health and wellness space, and season 3 with Latina educators, and season 4 focused on artists and creators.

Each season elevates different stories, but all with the Latina perspective. We all have passion in our areas of expertise, while also pouring into and empowering the next generation. Because honestly it starts with us being willing to put in the work to make generational change.

This season, Season 6 is going to be featuring Latina’s in the food space.

We all know how food is like at the core of our cultural identities. I get so excited about food…and don’t you be lying because you know you do too. 

With the holidays coming up we are going to be really getting into amazing traditional dishes that just gets us feeling all warm and happy. 

But the reality is that I didn’t always have a good relationship with food. And it’s something that I’ve been working through now as an adult….an adult creeping into my late 30s. 

I started this journey of reclaiming relearning my own culture back which started in 2016. The first thing I did was travel to Mexico for a photography workshop. My intention was to clear my head, and to refocus how I took pictures. 

When I was in Mexico, San Miguel de Allende to be exact. We started our day with homemade breakfasts made for us every morning. I didn’t grow up eating typical Mexican breakfasts, so for me this was a treat. For lunch we were able to find a place to eat on our own. I was usually still full from breakfast, so I found a coffee shop for my afternoon cafecito and would have some yogurt & granola with fruta. And let me tell you, I have never NEVER had better yogurt and granola then when I find it in Mexico. We would then continue with the workshop and end at a nice restaurant. All of the food was included in the workshop price, so I got a little adventurous with my meals. And I felt like I was experiencing mexican food in a different way. It was delicious, it was different than street food, it was different than the Mexican Restaurants in the suburbs. It was amazing. 

After that trip I had a renewed spirit, and really wanted to share this part of Mexico with people because I saw the disconnect that the media portrayed fo this beautiful country. Which is how I came to pivot my business and launch fine art photography prints of Mexican cities.

But beyond that, I started to learn how to cook Mexican food. 

You see, I didn’t grow up with my parents cooking a lot of Mexican meals. My mom made a few things, and my father would cook more on the weekends when he wasn’t working. My grandfather would make a few things for us like chorizo con papas, and tamales. But I didn’t learn how to do any of it. 

So by this time, I knew that it would be up to me to take the initiative to learn. Which I started with the simple recipes, arroz from my mother, migas, other breakfast foods like huevos rancheros, frijoles de olla. I learned how to make my grandfather’s chorizo recipe, and then I started learning how to make other things that I remember I enjoyed eating. I started documenting these on my blog. I was a little nervous because these are super simple recipes…like for real…but they were more for me to remember…and to try…and to make memories with my kids. I have two years of recipe blogs on my website…and then in Dec 2020 I got covid and lost my taste and smell! I recovered….mostly…my smell and taste never came back! I had been trying to reconnect with my culture through food, and it was taken away from me! 

I kept having hope it would come back…until I didn’t have hope anymore. I spent a year without having any sense of smell or taste…but every time I went to Mexico, I would gain a little bit of it back. It’s really unexplainable and not something I shared because it sounded so absurd. But with every trip I would get it back…most things still tasted off. Like not what I remember them tasting like, but little by little it’s been coming back. Still two years later in 2022 I haven’t fully recovered, but I can definitely taste more than in 2020. Some fruit still tastes off to me, and things that I didn’t like the taste of before, I do now! Man, covid really is mind boggling. Actually I had covid recently and have been able to taste a little bit more. 

However, being so disconnected to food which is such an important part of any culture was so sad to me. I didn’t cook for two years. I did take baking classes all through 2021 with my friend Eliceo, and with each class I had hope that I would taste something. I also enjoyed having the family enjoy the pastries I made even if I couldn’t. 

Anyway, I’m getting excited about food again, and have thought about bring my blog back…but honestly it’s so hard because I often feel like I can’t trust my taste buds.

During this time in the 2021 I started working with a nutrition coach…shoutout to Emma! and I’m so glad I did because he helped me stay eating and stay fueled even when I couldn’t taste and didn’t feel like eating. She also helped me shift my relationship with food…which was HUGE! And I started following other people in the food space that supported in helping me shift my relationship with food, especially cultural foods.

I grew up with what I realize now was an unhealthy view of my body. Perhaps others can relate to comments being made about being “too skinny” or “too big”. I even remember being in Mexico once on vacation, and this random lady swimming in the ocean grabbed my leg somehow and commented that wow I’m “pretty healthy”. Like WTF. I remember My father made a comment about how some jeans I was wearing looked too tight on me….and then a year later after losing some weight, I was wearing the same pair of jeans and he said oh those look really baggy. You should get clothes that fit you. I saw my mother exercise and go on diets quite often, so that message was passed down to me. And thinking back, it could be a reason my mother didn’t cook a lot of mexican food, because at the time a lot of our foods, were viewed as “unhealthy” especially in a predominantly white space. I would hear going to a Mexican restaurant as like a “cheat day” Thinking back I mean come on. Anyway, growing up with those messages transferred to my own skewed perception on my image, and my weight, and what I should or shouldn’t eat. 

But like I said working with Emma was pivotal. In our first session together, she asked me “how long have I hated food” or “how long have I had a bad relationship with food” and in my head I though, how dare you. But really I didn’t know how to even answer that. I was disillusioned into thinking that the way I thought about food and dieting was normal. But from then on I realized how I’d believed this lie that I shouldn’t or couldn’t find joy in my cultural foods unless I was in Mexico, or unless it was on a limited basis. 

I’m excited to hear from other Latinas and how they have embraced the culinary industry and are celebrating Latinx food in their everyday life and business. Honestly the fact that we are made to feel shame about our cultural foods is a control tactic that we see come from a colonizing mindset. Recently we’ve seen our own foods appropriated and called “spa water” or “street corn salad” and it’s time to say that’s enough. We are not having it anymore. 

I want to pass down recipes to my kids, and too cook for my future generations. so I hope this season is inspiring, and perhaps even nostalgic as we hear stories we can relate to, and talk about our favorite foods. 

I’m always up for continuing the conversations so subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss when an episode goes live. I also encourage you to share with others because the more people we have talking about our stories as Latines living in the US, the easier it will be to make a collective change for a better future.

There will be a new episode every Tuesday, so after you listen feel free to take a screenshot to post on IG and tag @elevatinglacultura or send me a DM. You can also comment on our YouTube video if you’re watching online. I always like to hear from people and how they resonate with the stories I share. SO leave a review on apple podcasts so we can get more ears listening to these stories and we can continue elevating la cultura.

Alright, enjoy the rest of the day/afternoon/evening whenever you’re listening, y nos vemos next week.