La Plaza Cocina, a museum in L.A., is exploring the history and culture of Mexican food. The exhibit is called “Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories.”
USC Spanish Professor Sarah Portnoy put together this exhibit with her team of students.
Sarah Portnoy: “I’ve been teaching about Latino food culture for 12 years now at USC in Spanish. And so I’ve been assigning my students to do what are called oral histories for a long time. Interview somebody and ask them about the food story. And over the pandemic, I got this idea to create an exhibition for this museum called La Plaza De Cultura Y Artes Cocina downtown. "
The exhibit is divided into three different themes: identity, place, and the dish.
Vibrant family photos hang on one wall telling us the stories about who they are.
Another wall has a large map that shows us where they’re from. Colorful threads crisscrossing on the map link their roots in Mexico to their SoCal neighborhoods.
And there are QR codes sprinkled around the exhibit with audio stories, like this one by Margarita Nevarez:
Margarita Nevarez: “Food brings people closer together. And that’s one of the things that I did learn from my mother, that food, no matter what it is, it could be a pot of beans. It could be una olle de frijoles recien cocidos, un arrocito, unas quesadillas, una salsita, that food alone brings people together and you’re laughing, you’re sharing, you’re happy, you’re content and your belly is full.”
And then there’s the cookware, the value of which the facility coordinator at La Plaza Cocina, Natalie Martinez told me about.
Natalie Martinez: “It kind of shows how these culinary devices that we use in the everyday kitchen are not just, you know, items that we just put in a drawer. They have historical significance to them and to these families. Those are things that you should keep with you just because, you know, you’ll never you can’t purchase memories in a store.”
And as Sarah Portnoy says, cherishing memories is exactly what this exhibit is about.
Sarah Portnoy: “It’s a way for people to feel pride in their identity, their culture, their culinary traditions, and, uh, value them and recognize that it’s important to pass that down through generations. Right? Not just the one month of the year that’s Latinx heritage month, but all the time. It was kind of a love letter to all those grandmothers to kind of say, ‘Hey, thank you for what you’ve done for the family. Here is something to dedicate to you.’ And as a reminder for the public to be like, it’s not a whole respect your elders, gallery is more like honor your elders, thank your elders for what they have endured to get you to where you are.”
The exhibit is free and open Wednesday through Sunday at noon through October 23rd.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Prachi Singh.