Book Launch & Conversation

Book Launch: Las hermanas de la milpa: comienza con la calabaza / The sisters of the milpa: it begins with the squash

Sat, Nov 5, 2022

2:00 PM–4:00 PM

Bruckner Mott Haven Garden (678 E 136th St., Bronx, NY, 10454)

Archives in Common is thrilled to invite you to the launching of Las hermanas de la milpa: comienza con la calabaza / The sisters of the milpa: it begins with the squash, a bilingual and indigenous (Mixteco) cookbook by chef Natalia Mendez of La Morada restaurant.

Like other initiatives devised by La Morada, this book seeks to disseminate indigenous knowledges and practices, and at the same time to conceptualize and expand the ways of doing mutual aid. Chef Natalia shares eight Oaxacan recipes that use all the parts of the squash plant, in different stages; teaches us, readers, how to take care of the soil; and also gives tips to grow food at home!

The book is also, in and of itself, an art project: it includes illustrations by poet, artist and activistMarco Saavedra, photos by photographerCamila Falquez, and has been beautifully designed byLucky Risograph.

In the words of Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya, who assisted with the transcription, edition, and translation of the texts, Las hermanas de la milpa / The sisters of the milpa “is the embodied memory, in narrative form, of the chef of one of the most important mutual aid hubs that emerged during the pandemic in NYC (and perhaps the only one that still continues to operate as such), and an eloquent document of the ongoing struggle for food sovereignty led by migrant indigenous communities.”

When: Saturday, November 5, 2 pm – 4 pm

Where: Bruckner Mott Haven Garden

678 East 136th Street, Bronx 10454

Email [email protected] to RSVP

This event is media co-sponsored by the Archives in Common: Migrant Practices/Knowledges/Memory project as part of the Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research from the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center CUNY.