Join us on Saturday, February 13 at 11:00 am for the first Crop & Cuisine workshop, “Latino American Culture and Food,” at the Branigan Cultural Center.
Food lies at the heart of our daily and communal identity. From planting seeds to preparing dishes to sitting down to a meal, our foodways celebrate our history and our future. In this four-part series hosted in conjunction with La Semilla Food Center and part of the Latino Americans: 500 years of history programming, we explore different aspects of the rich world of Crop & Cuisine in New Mexico.
In this program, we will look at two features of our local foodway heritage. Dr. Lois Stanford of NMSU will present a talk examining the ways that agricultural traditions and local recipes and techniques have intertwined over time in the Southwest. She will contextualize contemporary ideas about Latino cuisine within the broader history of agricultural innovation and cultural exchange that characterizes Southern New Mexico. Following this, a demonstration of ancestral wellness through diet will introduce participants to the varied ways that indigenous communities built healthy and healing meals out of local ingredients.
La Semilla Food Center’s mission is to build a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region of southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. They envision a vibrant food system that prioritizes community and environmental health.
La Semilla was established in 2010, the result of community garden, youth development, and food system education efforts in southern New Mexico. Owing to these efforts, La Semilla is the only non-profit organization solely devoted to fostering a healthy Paso del Norte region food system. Since their inception they have taught thousands of elementary and middle school students how to grow and cook fresh food while establishing a 14 acre education and demonstration farm in Anthony, New Mexico. La Semilla is committed to building strong relationships that empower youth and families to grow and cook good food, create positive change, and foster connections between food, health, and local economies. Learn more at www.lasemillafoodcenter.org.
This program is part of the Latino Americans: 500 years of history programming series. Latino Americans: 500 Years of History has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.
Learn more about this and other upcoming events at tinyurl.com/LC-LA500.
The Branigan Cultural Center received the six-part, NEH-supported documentary film “Latino Americans,” created for PBS in 2013 by the WETA public television station. The award-winning series chronicles the history of Latinos in the United States from the 16th century to present day. (Learn more about the series at www.pbs.org/latino-americans/en/.) The series will run through Saturday, March 19, 2016. There will be open discussion panels after each showing with guest speakers.
The Branigan Cultural Center is joined by a number of community partners on this grant: the Amador Hotel Foundation, Community Cornerstones Partnerships, La Semilla Food Center, NMSU Museum, and Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, as well as a number of other regional scholars, organizations, and community members.
The museum is located at 501 North Main Street and is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Saturday, 9 am to 4:30 pm. For additional information, visit the website at: http://las-cruces.org/museums or call 575.541.2154.
If you need an accommodation for a disability to enable you to fully participate in this event please contact the museum 48 hours prior to the event.