I met Maya Castellon last year at the IU Indianapolis Multicultural Center. There, we connected over studying abroad and about things in other cultures that we find most fascinating.
At a time when the rhetoric around immigrants in the U.S. is at its most divisive, with Maya’s consent, I wanted to highlight all of the beauty that goes on behind closed doors at her home. Maya’s mother is Mexican and her father is Honduran.
Maya and I talked about food, her parents and about her sueñitos, or little dreams.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
It was hard for you to choose one recipe. You had multiple recipes you wanted to give me for my cookbook.
Maya: Yea! When you asked me, at first I thought about my favorite food my mom made for me, which is chile relleno. And while I was thinking about it, so many foods came to mind. The entire culture of food in my home was what I wanted to showcase. Like, for me it’s more about how Mexicans show love, and how no guest in my mother’s home will ever leave hungry.
When we’re all together we’ll have sopes, bombaso tortas and sopa de coco from my dad’s side, because he’s from Honduras. I can’t think of just one thing without thinking of the love of everything.
So, the collective of all the dishes. What do they feel like?
Maya: They feel very warm. I think because I struggled a lot as a kid from emotional neglect. My parents worked several jobs to help us live.
The food was always so full of love. That was always very consistent, seeing how hard my mom worked to feed us after working so hard. She’d make sure that after I came home from school I had dinner. She only had maybe about 5 hours of free time a day, because she’d work from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m.
She’d come home, sleep, and get ready to go back to work around 1 p.m. So in her free time, all she’d do was cook and clean. All the food was always so warm and filled with so much love.
But you still did submit just one recipe.
Maya: It’s the chile rellenos.
What are chile rellenos?
Maya: They’re stuffed poblano peppers, with cheese or sometimes meat, that then gets fried in an egg wash. So basically, the greatest thing mankind has ever made.
Ingredients
For the chiles:
- 4 large Poblano peppers
- 4 egg whites
- 4 egg yolks
- All-purpose flour, for dusting
- Oil, for frying
- 2 cups of cheese or cooked ground meat to stuff the chiles
For the tomato sauce (caldillo):
- 4-5 ripe tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove
- A small piece of onion
- 1 Maggi seasoning cube (or substitute with chicken bouillon cube)
- ½ medium onion, sliced into rings
- Oil, for sautéing
Preparation
- First, roast the poblano peppers. Then put them in a plastic bag so they can sweat. After a bit, take them out and peel off the skin, then take out the seeds too.
- Next, beat the egg whites until they’re nice and fluffy, like stiff peaks. Once they’re ready, add the yolks and beat everything together.
- Choose your filling. It can be cheese or meat. If it’s cheese, you don’t need to do a lot of prep.
- Now take your cleaned, stuffed chiles, dust them with a little bit of flour so the egg sticks better, dip them in the egg mixture, and fry them in hot oil until golden.
- While that’s going, you can make the tomato sauce: blend up the tomatoes with a clove of garlic, a piece of onion, and a Maggi cube.
- In a separate pan, fry up some onion slices in oil, then pour in the tomato mix you just blended. Let that boil for a bit so the flavors come together.
- Once it’s boiling, gently place the fried chiles into the sauce. Let them simmer there for a few minutes — and that’s it!
What is a way that your family connects through food that you don’t really see many other places?
Maya: Both my parents cook. I got to be surrounded by the warmth of both cultures, and see them talk and argue about their little differences.
My parents will go back and forth about how they make their own horchata, one from Honduras and one from Mexico. Just seeing the discussions they have about food and how they cook is just really special and I don’t think a lot of families have that.
That’s really dope. What’s one of your favorite memories around food?
Maya: During my birthday, when my mom made exactly what I wanted and it would come out the exact same way every time—even though she’d never use any measurements. (Laughs)
The measurements are when the ancestors tell you to stop, huh?
Maya: (Laughs) Literally.
I think of the birthdays, but I think the best is when I would come home from school. Without fail, there’d be food on the stove waiting. It was so normal for me. But I don’t think I really recognized how special it was until high school.
As (my mom) got older, and seeing how tired she was, it would just always mean so much. She’d always leave the house by saying “I’ve made dinner, have a good night, and sleep well.”
What was it like when you finally clocked just how special it was?
Maya: I think it came at a time when I started to recognize that my parents are their own people. They do make their own mistakes, but they also work very hard. You know, getting out of that bratty middle-school mindsight.
It comes with a lot of gratitude. How blessed I am to have both of my parents in my life, how blessed I am to have two parents who cook for me and love me. It’s something that I know I’m not going to have forever, so I’m grateful to cherish it while I do.
Wow, that’s very beautiful.
Maya: Thank you.
Do you ever feel like food culture is different for you vs. the rest of the world?
Maya: Food is important to all human beings, but there’s varying levels of importance depending on the culture. For example, who you eat with, to me, is so very important. Like who do you want to have at your table, and have access to your energy.
I think for me and my culture the food we eat represents community. It’s why it hurts so much to see the people who make my favorite foods, kitchen cooks who put so much love, care, thought and energy into the meals that I enjoy, be attacked and arrested for just existing.
Now that we’ve talked, and cried our tears and laughed our laughs, Maya, tell me about your little dream?
Maya: I want to bring comfort and hope. What I really want to do is bring people together—the same way my parents did through food, you know?
Food transcends language, and the social constructs we have built, to target people’s emotions directly. I think I want to do that, but with art.
Sueñitos de Strangers
Keaun Michael Brown is the author and curator of “Sueñitos de Strangers,” a community cookbook that also collects people’s stories. He’s sharing some of those stories with Mirror Indy.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Keaun Michael Brown is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at brownkea@iu.edu.
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