Decolonize Your Diet

In this workshop, we will share public health research that shows that recent Latino/a immigrants have better health than their American-born children. We will discuss the need for decolonizing our diets through reclaiming ancestral foods, recipes, cooking techniques, and remedios. Our ancestors ate a plant-based diet, with a heavy reliance on nixtamal corn, beans, wild greens, nopales, and other healthy vegetables. They used herbal teas and medicines to cure ailments. They ate in community and gave thanks to Mother Earth. Before colonization and capitalism, food was consider to be sacred and the preparation of food was a spiritual practice.

 It is time to return to these ancestral ways. Our presentation will include a cooking demonstration and afterwards we will share a small tasting menu of cactus smoothies, homemade corn tortillas, and vegetarian tacos. This experience will be paired with poetry by Liz Hinojosa, La Chankluda Boladora.

Luz Calvo received her PhD in the History of Consciousness Program at UC Santa Cruz in 2001. She is an associate professor of Ethnic Studies at Cal State East Bay, where she teaches a course entitled, “Decolonize Your Diet: Food Justice in Communities of Color.” Luz traces her food genealogy to her paternal grandparents, who ran a Mexican restaurant in San Fernando, California, from the 1940s through the 1970s. The Calvo business began when the grandparents began selling tacos to the cannery workers, with her grandfather purchasing fresh, seasonal ingredients from the LA Central market, and her grandmother preparing and packaging the tacos.

 Liz Hinojosa is a graduate of California Institute of Integral Studies, where she received a M.A. in Expressive Arts Therapy.

 Admission: $15-20. Doors at 4:00 Workshop at 4:30.

 Tickets will not be sold in advance for this event. Please arrive at the Red Poppy when doors open to purchase tickets.