If I had to name my Abuela’s (“Wella” for short!) favorite activity to do, it would probably be cooking. Wella is to cooking as Picasso is to painting; a dash of adobo here and a bit of cilantro there and she will have you dreaming about her food for days. Me, on the other hand, I am to cooking as Van Gogh is to knitting; the two aren’t really connected at all, truthfully. As a vegan and aspiring adult, however, I knew I wanted to integrate more cooking into my life. I also wanted to be part of something larger than myself, something that would celebrate and empower the lives of Latino families. That’s why I became involved in the cooking classes organized by Monroe County 4-H and SNAP-Ed.

I had the great fortune of working with Damaris Ortega, Susan Coyle, and Iluminada Vilca on curating four different recipes for the families. With me leading mindfulness activities and sharing fun food facts, Damaris helping the families log into the classes and translating, Iluminada cooking the food and sharing nutritional information, and Susan helping coordinate food drop off, we were honestly like the Avengers of the kitchen. Thank you to Dr. June Mead for assembling us! Because I am a little biased to veganism and wanted to cook foods that were mostly allergen-free, all of our recipes were deliciously vegan. We even made my favorite food ever, Arroz con Habichuelas! In all seriousness, I was truly privileged to work with such an extraordinary team of individuals. I was blown away by the dedication and passion the team showed. Seeing the families show up every week to make a new recipe filled me with so much emotion and joy, and I felt so grateful to be accepted into their space to lead a mindfulness exercise at the beginning of each class or give some fun facts about tofu. Even when I got a little nervous or stumbled over my words, the families were so kind to me and made me feel as though I was in their kitchens cooking right alongside them. Within the pixelated squares of zoom, we truly created a comunidad , or “community”.

Logging on to the Zoom classes became a regular part of my week that I looked forward to. Even Wella would watch some classes (and carefully observe whether enough garlic or oil was being added)! The last day of the classes was bittersweet. I remember the families being very emotional and extremely grateful for the work of the entire team, especially Ms.Ortega. Through a pandemic we built a small space where for one hour, nothing else mattered. For one hour a week, we laughed, added too much tomato paste, and asked Iluminada questions. It was our own little world where it felt like we had known each other for years. I learned so much about the different Latin cultures and the unique perspectives they brought to the cooking. I really will miss this experience and all of the people that made it possible. I truly hope to work on a project like this again. Thank you so much to Susan, Iluminada, June, and Damaris for allowing me to be a part of something I will never forget.