LATINOS JOIN RIGHT IN WHEN IT COMES TO THANKSGIVING

One thing that might be taken for granted by the Anglo community is that Hispanic Americans tend to quickly adopt to celebrations, holidays, and customs like if they had been born here in the United States of America.

Let’s take the traditional Thanksgiving as an example, even though many of us including many Americans born here don’t truly know the history of how Thanksgiving came about we as Latinos tend to join right in. The way I understand it Thanksgiving is a day to gather with friends, family, and loved ones and give Thanks to Almighty God for providing for us during good times as well as bad times and to Thank Him for all of His blessings.

It was the Pilgrims who sailed to this Country aboard the Mayflower after fleeing their home in England and later Holland to escape religious persecution. These were the English Separist Church a (Puritan sect 1620-1621). After their first Harvest Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and prayer to God. This feast lasted three days with food such as turkey (a name given to any wild fowl), corn, geese, ducks, eel, bass, plums, and corn bread.

In 1623, colonists with a proclamation of prayer and fasting answered a period of drought. Governor Bradford proclaimed November 29th as a time for pilgrims to gather and render Thanksgiving to Almighty God. Many proclamations since then were made, in 1789 George Washington proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday in November in honor of the new U.S. Constitution. Later, Thomas Jefferson discontinued it, calling it “a kingly practice”. So in 1863 Sarah Josepha Hael author of “Mary had a little lamb” convinced Abraham Lincoln to proclaim Thanksgiving a national holiday as the last Thursday in November like Washington had proclaimed. Then finally in 1941 it was changed to the fourth Thursday in November, as we now know it.

Here in America Thanksgiving is not only giving Thanks to God for all he does for us, but it also becomes a day of watching football, being with family, and the unofficial beginning to the winter holidays.

For us Latino’s we have embraced this significant holiday, as if it had been our own.

We are family oriented individuals, who love to get together; we are also spiritual in knowing that it is good and right to give thanks to God. So by having this special day we accomplish so many things in one day. Besides the turkey, depending on where we were born we add many of our own traditional favorites to the turkey meal. Many add home made tamales, menudo, rice and black beans, special desserts, like flan, rice pudding,

Plus so much more. It becomes a feast that we need to keep inviting our family and friends over for leftovers. (Unless some of the family took the leftovers home with them)

I remember when my family arrived from Cuba. We did not know of this holiday, my father was one that likes lots of good seasoning in his meats, like oregano, salt, cumin, pepper, lemon, garlic, etc. So turkey was somewhat bland for him. Finally after a few years of being here, my mother with my fathers help came up with a solution for the Thanksgiving Turkey. What my mother started doing was to take all bones out of the turkey. With the turkey meat mixed with pork, seasoning, pieces of eggs she would stuff the turkey skin, sew it up, put it in the oven and we would savor a boneless turkey that would cut like a meat loaf. It was delicious. I still miss those days.

The bottom line is that at times we as Hispanics might not know exactly how the tradition started, or what it is all about, but we respond by joining in, and being part of the American melting pot. We are proud of our culture and heritage but we also know that America gives us something to celebrate about. As we prepare to give our Thanks to our Creator next week Thursday, I Domingo Casañas wish you and your family and Happy and full of Blessing Thanksgiving.