by admin | Jun 15, 2020 | Taste From Home
Peter Vega, Executive Director, Chicago Cultural Alliance
Taste from Home is collection of recipes and stories inspired by the food that defines who we are and where we come from. As we are all home exploring new recipes and cuisines, we encourage you to share a recipe and story with us that connects you to your family and cultural heritage.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to lead the Chicago Cultural Alliance as its Executive Director and to advance its mission to support, promote, and connect museums and cultural heritage institutions.
The Members of the Alliance have taught me that museums and cultural heritage institutions are more than hosts for cultural events and performances. These institutions are pillars of their communities, neighborhoods, and the city overall. They are critical to the development of cross-cultural understanding by preserving and protecting the identity and characteristics of all the diverse cultures that make up the mosaic that is Chicago.
This is why it is imperative that we all participate in today’s historic Black Lives Matter movement. We must collectively support our Black communities and share the burden they’ve carried alone for hundreds of years. They need support from all of us. We must embrace, share, and amplify one another’s cultures, histories, and traditions.
Taste From Home was created to remind us of what makes us similar. Food and stories within each of our cultures help us to learn more about one another and celebrate our diversity, similarities, and differences. I hope you can join us in this celebration by participating in Taste From Home.
Tell us a story about your family and friends and how you all come together to celebrate your culture with food! The Chicago Cultural Alliance wants to elevate more diverse voices in our city. We do this by supporting cultural heritage museums and centers that promote and support cross-cultural understanding, diversity, and inclusion. We hope you will consider making a donation to help us continue this vital work.
by Marketing | Jun 10, 2020 | Taste From Home
Andrew Leith, Conservation and Collection Program Manager, Chicago Cultural Alliance
Taste from Home is collection of recipes and stories inspired by the food that defines who we are and where we come from. As we are all home exploring new recipes and cuisines, we encourage you to share a recipe and story with us that connects you to your family and cultural heritage.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
My name is Andrew Leith. I am the Conservation and Collections Program Manager at the Chicago Cultural Alliance. I have been at the Alliance since the beginning to 2017 but my relationship with this incredible organization dates back considerably further than that. You could say the Alliance and I came of age together over the past 16 years. When I was a young anthropologist in undergrad at Loyola University Chicago, I began volunteering as a facilitator for a recently minted program known as Cultural Connections through the Field Museum’s Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC). It was through that formative experience with community collaboration that I came to visit several of the city’s treasured cultural centers and became friends with amazing community stakeholders such as Soo Lon Moy, Dorothie Shah, and the late Stanley Balzekas Jr. As it so happens, that program evolved into the Chicago Cultural Alliance.
I love my work. I am honored to be invited into the museum collections spaces our Core Members call home. It is a privilege to work hand in hand with these visionaries I now call friends to help to care for their collections.
Though it has many iterations, my Grandmother’s particular recipe for haluski derives from an old Slovak mountain dish comprised of potato dumplings and fried cabbage. My great-grandparents brought it with them from the village of Klenovec, Slovakia to the United States when they immigrated in 1912. Simple, hearty, and cost-effective, it fed five children on the family farm in northern Wisconsin during the Great Depression. I grew up loving Grandma’s haluski and spent many happy moments helping her to prepare it—consequently learning how to replicate the recipe myself. As with many old recipes, it is the product of experience, taste, touch, and smell rather than any proper written instructions. A dash of this and a scoop of that—this recipe is very forgiving and can be easily adjusted. Today, I continue to use my great-grandmother’s heirloom cutting board whenever I prepare haluksi, and the smell of frying cabbage evokes memories of my grandmother’s kitchen and her stories of a Slovak-American upbringing. This is a tradition I look forward to share with my own son.
The recipe is in the link. A donation is not required to view the recipe. Any donations made will support the Chicago Cultural Alliance’s mission to promote, support, and connect museums and centers of cultural heritage for a more inclusive and equitable Chicago.
by admin | Jun 9, 2020 | Chicago Culture
We’re partnering with @SupportChicagoArts to #SupportChicagoArts!
As you know, COVID-19 has created a unique threat to the Chicago arts community. We were among the first to close, and without audiences we face unprecedented financial stresses for the immediate future.
That’s why we are proud to announce our partnership with #SupportChicagoArts. When you buy a lawn sign or medallion , Chicago Cultural Alliance receives 100% of the profits from your tax deductible donation – and you get to share your support of the arts with your friends and neighbors!
by Marketing | Jun 8, 2020 | Taste From Home
Why I Serve as Board President of the Chicago Cultural Alliance:
I believe that cultural heritage matters and should be valued, shared, celebrated, and preserved. If you do not know where you come from, you will never know where you are headed. My cultural heritage is my personal compass. My parents and grandparents emigrated from the Philippines so our family could have opportunities that were not possible in the Philippines. I am proud to serve as the Board President of the Chicago Cultural Alliance because our work helping to connect, promote and support centers of heritage is so critical. I enjoy sharing stories about my heritage and traditions. I also love to learn about other cultures which we are so fortunate to have in our dynamic city.
Who Taught Me This Recipe/How did I learn it?
I learned this recipe by watching my Lola (grandmother in Tagalog) and Mom make it ever since I was a child. I experienced this recipe by taste, enjoying many wonderful servings of Lola’s birthday punch. So, I know how to make it by taste, not so much by precise measurements.
What culture/country is this dish from?
This recipe is a product of the Filipino-American culture. My Lola invented it! In the process of working on my Taste From Home essay, I learned that this punch is not actually a recipe from the Philippines as I had originally thought. I found out from my Mom that my Lola invented this recipe herself. My Lola wanted to come up with something special for my first birthday party and created this masterful birthday refreshment. Lola’s Birthday Punch was such a hit that my Mom and Lola had to refill the punch bowl twice during my 1st birthday party.
When Do you Normally eat this Dish? Is it for a Holiday or Celebration?
Normally, you would serve this punch at a birthday party. This recipe is also associated with any large family celebration, such as holidays like Christmas or New Year’s. Anytime we have a large family gathering, you can guarantee, you will find Lola’s Birthday Punch served.
Why is it important to you?
This recipe is important to me because it symbolizes joy, family, and love. It will forever be the iconic taste of my childhood. It transports me back to simpler times when the world seemed less complicated and more innocent.
Growing up in a large, boisterous Filipino American family, some of my fondest childhood memories revolved around birthday celebrations. Without fail, just about every birthday party I can remember would always include Lola’s classic Birthday Punch!
I remember my Lola proudly placing our family’s modest crystal punch bowl on our dining table. The chiseled bowl was always filled to the brim with the most refreshing and delicious punch I have ever had.
Fast forward several years later to now, when I have a 12 year-old daughter of my own. One of my proudest “Filipino Mom” moments was making Lola’s Birthday Punch for my own daughter’s birthday party. My daughter, of course, has had this remarkable birthday treat before, but this was the first time I had ever shared this secret treasure with anyone outside of our family. I asked my Mom for her “pro tips” for making Lola’s Birthday Punch. I was about to embark on a milestone myself – making my Lola’s Birthday Punch for a group of kids who had never experienced the delight of Lola’s special birthday libation. The kids had just come back from playing outside and were thirsty and eager to see what I had been working on.
Just as my own Mom and Lola had proudly stood by our family’s crystal punch bowl, I was now standing in my kitchen in front of a large bowl of my Lola’s Birthday Punch with a huge smile on my face, proud of the memories that got me to this moment and grateful for the memories I was sure to make once these kids came to know the joy of my Lola’s Birthday Punch. My daughter and her friends guzzled down several servings of my Lola’s treasured punch. They all wanted to know how to make it. They marveled at how there was just the right amount of fizz and how all the flavors came together. They wanted to know why they did not have a punch like this before. Each question begot another and produced a flurry of excitement and merriment, just as I had experienced as a child at every birthday and holiday gathering.
Remarkably, Lola’s Birthday Punch had transcended generations and cultures. My daughter and her friends had just gotten a glimpse into my childhood and were eager to try to make my Lola’s Birthday Punch at their own homes, too. I love sharing my culture with others: you learn by sharing and you grow by trying new things.
Vanessa Vergara
by admin | Jun 1, 2020 | Chicago Culture
The Chicago Cultural Alliance stands in solidarity with the African American community and all those who have marched in the name of justice and equality here in Chicago and across the United States. We understand the outrage and desperation reverberating across our great nation. We urge our leaders at all levels of government not only to hear the voices but also to invest in communities of color and give them the resources they need not just to survive but to thrive.
As an Alliance that represents Chicago’s incredible diversity, we join the collective calls to end systemic racism as well as for peace and equality. Let us come together and build better and stronger communities through cultural enrichment and mutual respect. Let us strive together to seek equity and further inclusivity for all our communities by making the extra effort to consider and care for all of those around us.
Stay safe and support each other,
From the Chicago Cultural Alliance Staff & Board of Directors:
Peter Vega, Executive Director
Teresita Aviles Bailey, Membership and Development Associate
Andrew Leith, Conservation & Collections Program Manager
Ivonne Romo, Director of Finance & Operations
