Ah, Thanksgiving. Many people consider it an overwhelmingly American holiday—football, an obscene amount of food, the celebration of the pilgrims making it to America…the lot. However, if you’re Hispanic, it’s in your nature to put your own twist on things. Here just a few of the antics that go down if your family is Hispanic and celebrates Thanksgiving.
1. All of your friends eat at 2 in the afternoon…but in your house, the cooking is just getting started.
2. You’re probably not watching football.
3. Not only is there turkey…there is pernil, which is pork sent by God Himself.
4. So. Much. Rice (bonus points for arroz de gandules, which is yellow rice with pigeon peas with a little bit of heaven thrown in there).
5. Everyone you haven’t seen since before you left for college asks about your novio, to which you have to try really hard not to respond to with an eye roll.
6. Depending on where you’re from, there are probably tamales/pasteles, which you only get to eat on special occasions because they take a ridiculous amount of time to make, but they’re so good and so rare that you end up eating them for like 3 days after Thanksgiving.
7. Everything is seasoned with Goya. No exceptions.
8. You give thanks for your heritage, but you and your family also give thanks for being in this country, no matter how hard it is sometimes. You have your loud, proud, loving family, and you would not trade for anything in the world.
Happy Thanksgiving, Collegiettes!