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Published: August 23rd 2014
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Soul Food (reflection by Stan)
While there is much greater diversity in Cuban cuisine than I had previously thought, black beans and rice still provide the anchor, the go-to staple for the vast majority of households. I have shared a few items from our culture, such as the grilled cheese sandwich and deviled eggs, and people are generally polite and gracious in their responses, but I don’t think there’s any danger that these will become standard fare here. So we have learned the art of beans and rice, which is lesson one in preparing a full Cuban meal. After soaking the beans, you pressure cook them with about double the amount of water as beans, for 25 minutes. Take the pressure cooker off the heat (we have, like most folks, a small, portable stove with one eye) and put on a skillet with oil. When the oil is hot, sauté minced garlic, chopped onions, and ají (small green and red sweet peppers). When all the steam is released from the pressure valve, take off the lid and add the sautéed veggies and oil. Take a stirring spoon or spatula and gently mash the beans to fully release the
flavor. Add salt and cumin to taste (usually a generous portion of each for the Cuban taste), and cook for five more minutes for the flavors to mix. Using liquid from the beans, add equal parts liquid and rice to the rice cooker (along with as many beans as you like) and turn it on.
When the light on the rice cooker goes off, you’re done, and voila, you have what is commonly called “Moros y Cristianos.” That is to say, Moors (blacks) and Christians (whites), which gives you a sense of the racial dynamics of a country whose religious practices have historically been dominated by Catholicism (practiced by the lighter skinned folks) and Santeria (a syncretistic mixture of traditional African religion and Catholicism, practiced by the darker skinned folks). To confer on their main dish a name with so much racial overtones is consistent with a culture in which people don’t think twice about using racial references when speaking to or about someone. ¿Cómo anda mulato? (How’s it going bi-racial man?) Or, “¿Qué bola negro?” (Wha’sup black man?) Or, “¿Sabes la hora blanca?” (Do you know what time it is,
white woman?) or “Hola mi china” (hello my Chinese woman). While this everyday common racial referencing is not the slightest bit offensive here, it takes some getting used to for these sensitized white ears, given our country’s history of racial slurring.
My thin slice of experience into Cuban culture has been largely through the filter of the Fraternity of Baptist churches that I have come to know and love. On the surface, if all I had to go on was the life of these communities of faith, I would suspect that Cuba had no racial problem. The churches are largely inter-racial, and many of the families in the churches are inter-racial. The board of directors of the Fraternity is inter-racial. There are light skinned and mulato and dark skinned men and women pastoring Fraternity churches.
Conversations, often over a bowl of Moros y Cristianos, have helped me gain a deeper understanding of the racial divides of the island. On the one hand, my friends acknowledge that our two cultures are very different in how these divides play out in our different countries. For instance, the shooting of a black man (or anyone
for that matter) by a police officer is unheard of here. There are no Michael Brown type stories in Cuba to stir the pot of racial unrest. That said, my friends have been eager to point out that the superficial convivencia existing here is just that, superficial, masking deeply troubling dynamics and discrimination prompted by a long legacy of brutal racism stemming from slavery and the sugar culture. Challenges of poverty and mal-employment continue to strike the black community harder.
This week is Carnaval week in Cuba. The Carnaval here, unlike Mardi Gras, is not part of the Christian liturgical calendar. Its roots go back to slavery times, when the slaveowners tired of hearing about all the many holy days the slaves brought with them from their traditional religions, and they decided to set aside one week for one big festival that would take care of all the holy days in one fell swoop, which presumably would satisfy the slaves and make them more productive in the cane fields. So here in Matanzas this week, all throughout the city, streets are blocked off for peddlers, parades, music, dance, drumming, drinking, and lots of street food. While the crowds are inter-racial, there is a noticable majority of Afro-Cuban participation. I did notice, though, as I perused the street food, that it is basically the same fare everyone likes in Cuba. Lots of fried chicken and pork prepared in a variety of ways, and all served up with that staple of Cuban soul food, Moros y Cristianos. Buen provecho.
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Ken Sehested
non-member comment
If you have the time, you can turn off the burner under the pressure cooker when the jiggler (pressure regulator) starts its dance, then cover the pot with a heavy towel and let the whole thing sit until it cools enough to release the pressure (about 1.5 hours). Greg Yost taught me this little trick to save a little energy.