By Satya Vargas.
What is the food that you remember from home?
Reyna's eyes light up in response to the question. ?I would choose the beef broth. There in Guatemala we call it beef broth. Have I tried to prepare it here?
Like her broth, Reyna has proudly brought her culture to the United States, however, bringing it to a different place is no easy feat. Although she likes to cook and explains to me with great pleasure how to prepare a "chuchito", Reyna has not always had the opportunity to create everything she wants with ease, since at first she had difficulty finding the ingredients. Then she describes to me how she took off a mask and decided that she could prepare "chuchitos."
And in that little sentence it is clear that Reyna has not let the world tell her what she can and cannot do, but rather she tells the world. Reyna has decided to bring the culture with her, and find a way to make it possible here.
For example, it is important for Reyna to wear her huipil to special events, although Americans often ignore her. They do not see. How is it not important? Or when they see her in her suit on the street, they approach her and ask, "Where are you from?" Oh, Guatemala!? and they hug her making a big show. Despite this, she continues to wear her suit because, like her beef broth, "it's something special to me."
Just as your clothes have a special place close to your heart, language holds an equal meaning. For Reyna, her house would be incomplete without the K?iche sound bouncing off the wall.
Just like in her hometown of Chichicastenango, Guatemala, K?iche is spoken at home and she hopes that in the future her grandchildren will also learn it, despite living in the United States.
However, it is not necessary to wait for subsequent generations to adopt something from the United States. Reyna's life has not only been built by bringing Guatemalan culture to the United States, she has also adopted some of the American culture and involved it in her own.
While being away from family and on a different calendar means she can't celebrate the same holidays as her childhood, she has adopted traditions like Thanksgiving (baking a turkey) and continues to celebrate Christmas, which he celebrates with his close family.
Since Reyna's arrival in 2014, she has created a special house for herself and her children. In a strange country, far from family, culture and familiar language, he has found a way to recreate what matters to him and add a pinch of American culture.
Sitting in front of me with her huipil full of hand-embroidered flowers, describing her beef broth, Reyna tells me that just like searching for the ingredients for her beef broth, she has found...not lost. I feel like I find what I need here. What I did there, can I find it here?
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