February’s Culturally Responsive Dinner
On Saturday, February 25 we will study and celebrate the people, culture, and food of Puerto Rico. Unlike all other cultural dinners, the people of Puerto Rico are citizens of the United States.
Located directly north of Venezuela between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, someone leaving Miami, Florida would travel between Cuba and the Bahamas, pass Haiti and the Dominican Republic to reach the capitol city of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Tourists remark that the food of Puerto Rico is not hot and spicy as some may suspect. This is good news to many of us as we have experienced overly spicy food with some cultures. Puerto Rico dishes will be very appealing to our more sensitive taste buds.
For our Cultural Responsive dinners the Church Council decided we will move to the fellowship hall in the church during the winter months.
At 4:00 people, who are interested in learning about the history of Puerto Rico starting with Columbus, can meet to watch a video and discuss the details.
At 5:00 we will start the dinner putting out the Puerto Rican foods to sample while listening to the music of the country. Next, we will respond to ten questions for discussion as we have in previous times, covering immigration, contributions to the arts, politics, and literature, and the positive and negative impacts of immigration and relationships to the mainland.
Finally, we will discuss other cultures for future months and vote for our next country. This summer we have a family of immigrants from Bangladesh who have agreed to share their stories.
You will soon receive an email with assorted Puerto Rican recipes for your consideration. Select one of those to make or research others for you to bring to the dinner. Remember those who prefer not to cook can donate money for paper products used at the dinners.