Preserving our roots: Sayings

“Don’t get in over your head” is a saying that a grandmother might proffer. (In Spanish the same warning comes via a saying that one should avoid getting into a shirt that is too big and complicated).

Such advice given this way indicates that sayings or proverbs can be a complicated subject. These ephemeral phrases, often of unknown authorship, contain much history and in a way preserve popular recollections and wisdom, which are passed on from one generation to another through a most powerful weapon: words.

One of the most accurate definitions of a saying – which fits “like a glove” (in Spanish: a ring that fits one’s finger) – is what Miguel de Cervantes achieves through his immortal character, Don Quixote: “Proverbs are short maxims, derived from the experience and speculation of our ancient elders.” No doubt he was right; consider the Hispanic saying that tell us that the devil knows more because he is old and experienced rather than because he is the devil.

But delving into the issue – and not “sugarcoating” the matter – the indisputable wisdom that is demonstrated by each saying is occasionally rejected by some. This should not come as a surprise, given that there are people who while they know what irritates them (in Spanish: “where the shoe irritates them,”), they love to pretend things are not there – they can “blot out the sun with a single finger.”

Sayings are full of truth, even if they might lack diplomacy; they have that popular flavor that scolds one in the manner of a gentleman wearing white gloves, mixing irony and humor. When more guests arrive than expected, a Hispanic might let loose with a saying about how a “grandmother gave birth” to many; and when luck is nowhere to be found, he might recall the saying about how when the poor wash their clothes, it inevitably rains. Or when a beautiful woman ignores a man, that elicits a disdainful remark about how “those fleas won’t be hopping in my bed.” In cases where one wishes to exclude an unbearable office colleague, one might resort to the saying about how he does nothing yet gets in the way – as in the “dog in the manger” story.

Sayings can also allow us to send a subliminal message to a pair of lovebirds who are about to start their married life: “Now you will find out what it is like to love God in a foreign country.” And if the marriage does not work out, then there is little to be done about it, so the saying is along these lines: What God does not bless, neither can the saints. And there is also one about mothers-in-law that invites them to stay away, even if they sweet as chocolate. With such advice, surely the couple will live happily ever after.

The truth within the sayings goes beyond idle talk. What better way to say that people only come around when things are good – those “fair weather friends” – than when there are tasty prickly pear fruits on the cactus, or when the cattle are fat, not when they are skinny.

So, each to their own, as communicated in the saying that a “shoemaker should attend to his shoes.” And beware that you are not sold “a pig in a poke,” or in the Spanish version, given a cat when you thought you were getting rabbit.

Photo by Juan Miret

Hispanic barbecue: cooking with an attitude

Temperatures rise, pools open – and out comes the barbecue grill. It is time to enjoy grilled meat, but Hispanic style – this isn’t about hamburgers and hot dogs.

This kind of Hispanic cooking or carne asada comes with a certain attitude, standing out from the other outdoor roasting perhaps because there is a mix of different cuts of meat and sometimes even a bit of pork, such as chorizo sausage, and chicken or seafood.

When we hear the melodious words, “carne asada,” we immediately think of a succulent plate of steaming meat, sprinkled with onions and, why not, some charro beans, fried cassava and a good portion of picot de gallo or Argentine chimichurri.

Looking for the best meat

But to attain the perfect carne asada, one must start with the selection of the meat, which is why the Hispano de Tulsa posed the question to two butchers:

“Skirt steak (arrachera). That is the best meat for grilling,” said Silvestre Ocando, who has worked as a butcher for nine years in a store in east Tulsa. “This type of meat is very soft. It is a classic cut for grilling.”

This cut, whose name is very particular,” is an invention of the people of Monterrey,” said Ocando, referring to those from Monterrey, the capital of the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. “The meat comes from the cow’s diaphragm and looks like a girdle. And arrachera is a cinch – a cinch for horses.”

Ocando emphasized that the type of meat is not as important as the manner in which it is cut. “You can have the best meat, but if you cut against the grain, then you will eat a rock.”

Diners want a piece of meat that is tasty and easy to chew. “After the cut is correctly made, check the color. Fresh meat is pink. Dark red or brown is a bad sign. “

The loin and sirloin are the favorite cuts for José Estrada, a butcher originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, who has worked for four years in an east Tulsa supermarket. “The trick is to marinate the meat at least eight hours before grilling,” he said. “I use a lot of garlic, oil, lemon, black pepper, salt and a couple of chiles de arbol. That is my marinade.”

Charcoal or gas

Rogelio Martínez, who has a Mexican food truck in east Tulsa, says a charcoal grill is “much better than a gas one,” noting that “the heat is more uniform. But you have to wait until it is all just coals, without any flames. The flavor is better. It can’t be used commercially, but when one is with friends, it is the best.”

Two blocks from Martínez’s food outlet, Paco Gonzalez, who runs a mobile food unit, believes otherwise. “A gas grill will cook a lot faster than one with charcoal,” he said. “But if you don’t know how, you can burn the outside of the meat and leave it raw inside. You have to know how to use it.”

Martinez revealed his secret for lighting charcoal: “I do not use these automatic lighters; that would be like cooking with gasoline,” he said. “There’s nothing better than a newspaper with oil. You place it in the middle of the coals and light it.”

Enjoy the warm temperatures and take on the challenge of conquering the grill. It is the perfect excuse to mix in sausage, beef, nopales (prickly pear pads), cheese and even a mixed salad.

Photos by Juan Miret

Preserving traditions – Candles and votive candles: customs and symbols

Lighting a candle or a votive candle is not a casual or even trivial event. We do so often, just as our ancestors did – to dispel the darkness with that tiny flame, which issues a kind of mystical aura.

Perhaps because of their aesthetic sense and a kind of immediate connection to the past, candles and votive candles are for Hispanics – Catholics or not – a symbol of affection, meditation or devotion.

“In my house we always have to have a votive candle for the Virgin of Guadalupe,” said Graciela Naranjo, 68, a native of Piedras Negras in the Mexican state of Coahuila, who was making her usual purchase in a natural products store in Plaza Santa Cecilia, east of Tulsa. “Yet I also like the candles for St. Anthony to see if my granddaughters will each find a good boy.”

According to Naranjo, the candles “light the way,” but one must have much faith. “St. Anthony and St. Jude always help, but you have to indulge them with candles.”

Simon Navarro, a native of Guanajuato, Mexico, and owner of the store, sells a variety of candles. “Immigrants need to maintain their traditions and sometimes something as simple as a candle helps,” he said while holding an image of the baby Jesus Healer of the Sick. “This for example is a very ancient custom from Puebla.”

For María Concepción Duarte, 48, who is from Zacatecas, Mexico, May is the month of candles. “I remember my mother lit a candle every day in May,” she said as she chose a pair of candles in a market on the city’s east side. “That little flickering light makes me think a lot about her.”

Candles with images of the Virgen Morena or Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Toribio Romo and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, are mixed in with other candles, known as “prepared” candles, such as a black one dedicated to Saint Death.

“It is not witchcraft,” said Argenis Sandoval, who works at a Hispanic market in southwest Tulsa. “The Santa Muertegives money, luck and even love. What has happened is that she is followed a lot by the drug traffickers in Mexico and that’s why some people do not like it.”

Claudia Maldonado, 51, originally from Mexico City, has a different view. “I don’t like them having Saint Death close to the other votive candles,” she said as she carried one for Santo Toribio, considered the patron saint of immigrants. “I do not like it.”

Candles are part of the church, especially in their rituals. “That’s why the candles must have images that are respected, that are symbols of goodness,” said Maldonado. “What I love about the votive candles is that you can have a little altar in the house.”

Candles and votive candles serve as a kind of lantern to remind immigrants of the road they have traveled since they left their homelands in search of a better fate.

 Photos by Juan Miret

Taco King: Giving up metal for tortillas

Pedro García was a supervisor in a Californian metallurgy business for 17 years, but he decided to forge a new direction: open his own business and change his zip code.

Five years later and 1,400 miles away from the West Coast, he says that decision “is one of the best things I have done in my life. Tulsa and its people opened their doors to me.”

Now, at age 47 “but with the energy of a 20-year-old,” García has two mobile taco stands: one in east Tulsa and another in Broken Arrow, where he also has a grocery store. “My first trailer, I had to completely change it and modify it for this type of food,” he said. “I didn’t have much of an idea about the kitchen, but what was very clear was what is needed for a business: good customer service.”

Starting was not easy, he said. “But if you want to succeed, you have to be prepared for everything, for bad moments and very bad ones,” García said. “Many people told me I would not make it. Today they are my best customers.”

Two years after opening his first stand, García acquired a second one. “A bit bigger,” he said. “But it was a mess. I paid in installments. And now I have to have security guards at night to maintain order and prevent chaos in the traffic because of the cars due to all the people who come to eat.”

Garcia’s menu remains the same as when he began, but now it is printed and translated into English. “But they are still the same tacos with homemade flavor,” he says, listing off by memory the different meats, including buche(esophagus), asada, tongue, barbecue, sausage, pastor, carnitas, head, and suadero (brisket). “Tacos are everywhere, but these have ingredients that you cannot find anywhere else. But the most important thing is consistency. My tacos taste the same at any time and on any day. If you come by or call, you know that you will eat a good product.”

During the Cinco de Mayo Festival, which was organized by a group of Hispanic businesspeople in east Tulsa, following a taco-tasting contest by a jury, García was awarded the title of “Taco King.” "My participation in that great Hispanic fest was something very, very good,” he said. “Besides, now I am not only Taco King, but we have the perfect couple – since my taco stands are called The Queen [La Reyna].”

García said that by mid-day on the second day, he had served more than 3,000 orders of salsa that go along with each plate of tacos. “At that point I stopped counting, and we had no time to keep track, but had to help keep the line moving, and, of course, be ready when the judges showed up.”

García employs 12 Hispanic cooks working at the two food stands, and they show up to work as if it were a franchise – wearing colorful T-shirts that vary depending on the day of the week. “Marisol Jiménez has been an important part of this success,” he said, referring to the person who has perfected the recipe for the asada tacos.

That taco has three times more meat than a regular one, pickled carrots – “but real ones, not out of a can; we cut them here and make a homemade marinade,” said García. It also has sautéed onions, scallions and a chile toreado (grilled jalapeño) “made at the moment, hot off the grill.” It is served with two slices of lemon and two of his original sauces, a red one that “makes one cry” and a green one that “is milder.”

That taco, says García, “is a full meal, although sometimes you want to eat one after another.”

For now, García dreams of filling Tulsa with his “Reyna” food trailers, and, why not, of again winning the royal title next year.

  

The Taco King’s salsa

Through his roots of his native Zacatecas, Mexico, García modified his hot sauce until he found the right formula. “It was trial and error,” he said. “My customers would tell me what they thought, until finally I succeeded. And I have two; one is very spicy, and if someone says that it does not burn, well, they’re lying.”

Photos by Juan Miret

Discovering new trends – Tribal music: Musical or cultural movement?

What happens when you mix pre-Hispanic sounds with electronic music played with the rhythm of cumbia? The birth of the tribal guarachero movement.

According to Esteban Cárdenas, who authored an article and a nine-minute documentary for Vice magazine about Matehuala boots with elongated toes, tribal guarachera “is a musical genre, popular among the younger cross-border generation, that arises from a mix of tribal, Colombian cumbia and pre-Hispanic elements such as chants and flutes.”

Mónica Ramírez, 14, does not use the unusual pointy boots or any other accessory that would indicate her taste for a genre that began in cities in Mexico that border the United States . In fact,  for the dance where N-Tribal and El Eléctrico played on May 5 in east Tulsa , she wore the colors of the Mexican national soccer team and the number 14, worn by striker Chicharito Hernández.

But that night her attention was on Xavier Martínez, better known as El Eléctrico (the “electric one”), who has been a hit on YouTube, Univision, Mun2 and MTV Tr3s, among other media. “He changed the tribal dance,” she said. “Before his videos, no one knew how to dance it; now we all know.”

Martínez posted his first video on YouTube in July 2010. Since then, it has been seen hundreds of thousands of times, and he has developed a clothing line with lights that he promotes on his website. “El Eléctrico is the ultimate,” Ramírez said.

To Daniel Hidalgo, 19, tribal music is like the Hispanic youth who were born in the United States , but are as Mexican as their parents. “We speak the two languages, we like rock type music, but also tribal,” he said while taking a breather after 15 minutes of non-stop dancing to the music by El Eléctrico. “We are a mix, and that’s why I like tribal music, because it is a mixture; it is the new techno-cumbia”.

Patricia Romero, 14, could have passed as a Goth youth: black T-shirt and jeans, white shoes and dark  makeup. But when she heard “Cumbia de Ana,” she began hopping to match the steps performed on stage by El Eléctrico. “There is nothing better than dancing tribal” she said. “You dance and dance and you don’t get tired of dancing.”

Time will tell if this cultural and musical mix of pre-Hispanic sounds, cumbia and even norteña band music is a movement that has taken hold among youth who move between two cultures like fish in water. Also, it is evident, at least locally, that to enjoy a tribal rumba, there is no need for extreme pointy boots.

Other pioneers

Tribal music has three other supporters: Erick Rincón, Sergio Zavala and Albert Presenda, who make up the group 3BallMTY, a mix of cumbia and electronic beats.

In an interview in the February issue of the Spanish edition of People magazine, the group said that what makes tribal guarachero distinct are the fast beats. They said that the songs are generally measured by the beats, with tribal music having among the highest, or 132, much more than reggaeton, which has 94.

Photos by Juan Miret

Raspados: shaved ice full of flavor

There is nothing better to beat the heat than a cup full of shaved ice drenched in a fruity syrup, condensed milk and, why not – a touch of salt and a dribbling of the sweet and sour chamoysauce.

These snow cones, sold out of curb-side carts, are known as “raspados” (literally: “scraped” ice) and are a ticket back to childhood, as noted by María Eugenia Valladolid, who manages a mobile stand in South Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“When my friends and I would skip school, we always ate some raspados,” she said while putting together an order of 10 multicolored snow cones. “I’ve been at this spot for 11 years and I’ve seen how adults enjoy it as the children eat these raspados.”

These bulging snow cones, delicious on hot days, are a traditional and refreshing option, said Matty Gaytán, who runs a snow cone stand in Plaza Santa Cecilia in east Tulsa.

“The syrups are natural and we have many flavors,” she said, while working as a long line formed in front of the business. Among the buyers was Saúl Rosales, who said that the “diablito” (little devil) snow cones are his favorite. “The combination of sweet and spicy with the coldness of the ice is the best.”

Félix González prefers “sweet topping the sweet,” so he ordered his coconut-flavored raspado with condensed milk. “This is really a dessert,” he said.

Griselda Peña opened a snow-cone stand on April 15 in east of Tulsa. “My snow cones are not ground up ice with syrup,” she said while cleaning the tips of the bottles containing the fruit flavors. “My snow cones are a natural dessert; you taste the fruit throughout.”

Esteban Carrillo claims to be “king” of the raspados – or at least that’s what it says on his cart along Route 66 in southwest of Tulsa.

“My snow cones are different from the others because they have flavor from beginning to end. That’s because they have syrup down inside, in the middle, and on top,” he said, noting that he opened in mid-April this year because it got hot early. “I have some very sweet flavors and spicy flavors. Something to suit everybody.”

Gerardo Sánchez is a regular at Carrillo’s business. “I like the sweet to be very spicy. That’s why I come here, at least twice a week,” he said as he waited for his snow cone with mango, watermelon, pineapple and strawberry, and topped with salsa Valentina and a dash of lime.

So if you are facing an unbearably hot day, meet it head on with a snow cone. If the temperature does not drop, at least you will have enjoyed a customized frozen dessert.

Snow cones have other names in Spanish, such as in . . .

Mexico, Colombia, Panama: Raspado

Cuba: Granizado

Peru: Cremolada

Chile: Mermelada con hielo

Dominican Republic: Frío, Frío

Puerto Rico: Piragua

Venezuela: Cepillado

Photos by Juan Miret