La Cubana Chiquita

Catherine Gastelum
November 26th, 2013
Everyone is raised differently. There is no roadmap that tells you how to raise a child,
what to teach them, what morals are important, and what culture they should follow. Because of
this, the result brings us a unique person. My family loves how diverse each culture is, so my
parents would often try and teach me about all ethnicities, and food, and many other cultures that
we wouldnt find every day. From a young age my mom would take us to downtown LA after a
night out and we would go to some hole in the wall place, or fancy dining, and eat something
different. I remember once as a child, my mom took me to this Asian restaurant (by Asian, I
mean a country in Asia) in which we sat on pillows, the tables were very low, belly dancers all
over the room, and we had no utensils. The waiter actually looked at me weird when I asked him
for a fork, and ignoring my rude question, walked away. This is how it was for me growing up.
However, despite how many cultures I had seen and accepted, and enjoyed, my favorite was by
far my moms. My parents got divorced when I was 2 years old, and although they had joint
custody I would find myself at my moms house more often than my fathers. Both of my
parents were first generation US citizens, my moms family found their way to America from
Cuba a few years before she was born, and the same went for my fathers family in Mexico.
Although, I do find myself extremely close to the Mexican culture, there is still a part of me that
longs to find out more about my moms family and Cuba.
This first time I really remembered trying Cuban food, or was told what I was eating was
specifically Cuban, was my 13th birthday. It was Luau themed and my mom spent a lot of money
on making sure everything that I had imagined was there. Most of what we had at the party was
borrowed from our neighbors, and still she managed to spend more than 700 on the party. The

one thing that we couldnt manage to fit into the party was the cake. I wanted something fruity,
but I hated most cakes, and still do. I was never too fond of cheesecake, and found most cakes to
be too dry. My mom came up with the best idea, a Tres Leches. A Tres Leches is, as you can
guess, a Cuban cake made with three different kinds of milk, evaporated, condensed, and whole
milk and I loved it. My mom had gone to this Cuban bakery she had grown up with as a child,
called Portos. It is located in Glendale, and has all of the Cuban dishes she had grown up with.
When my dad showed up with a giant cake covered in fruit, I was worried. For a moment, I
thought that he was trying to give me something healthy, and I was angry. Really?! He was going
to try and make me diet on my birthday? Despite my beliefs, what I ended up having was the
creamiest sweetest cake I had ever had in my life, and I was happy. Ever since then, on my
birthday I go down to LA and indulge in a Tres Leches, as well as my other favorite dishes. The
birthday was great though. At the time my mom had a giant backyard. In the far right corner near
the hill leading up to the street was a play set, rosebushes created a border around our house,
allowing for us to know when to stop and not continue so younger children wouldnt find
themselves on the street. My mom told me once that in this house we had exactly 97 rose bushes,
my mom couldnt find anywhere for the final 3. On this birthday my mom set up tikki torches
paralleling the rosebushes. They would illuminate the flowers, and created a warning layer to
anyone that came near. Since my birthday was in the middle of the summer I told my mom we
needed to have a slip n slide or a bounce house otherwise everyone would get bored, or hot and
want to leave. The result a slip n slide bounce house. This is where most of the money went. I
am pretty sure my mom has continued to hide the true price of the party to not upset me, but it
was amazing. We had an outdoor patio with an awning, and we created this sea above us. We had

set up nets and fake water using shimmering table clothes, fake crustaceans and sea stars. The
nets would hold it up, and it would give this thought that you were being held under the sea.
Although the party itself was not inspiring to me in any way to write about Cuban food,
the cake was. I refuse today to eat any cake if it isnt Tres Leches, and if I do try any other cake, I
find myself extremely dissatisfied. My fathers Fiance has gotten frustrated a few times in the
past years when I have gone down to LA because I would force them to come with me to Portos
instead of just some other bakery that served the same thing. Although I would have rather gone
by myself then to have my father tell me how many calories is in what I was eating, I dont really
have a choice, because I dont drive.
How did Cuban food1 come along? What is their inspiration? I guess these questions
could be used for many topics including the origin of languages and everyday objects, however
food has always puzzled me. No one would believe at first that you could cook chocolate and
make it into a spice marinade for chicken. Or that a cows cheek is extremely tender, and is
usually moist and light in taste and texture. No one would know this until they tried it. That is
why it puzzles me to try and figure out, how did they know? Do you know what I found out?
Cuban food is a mixture between African, Spanish, and Taino2 food! I think thats interesting
seeing as how we read that article about the Taino people and the many countries that discovered
their land.

Hector Rodriguez, Cuban Food Profile,

about.com,http://latinfood.about.com/od/cuba/p/cuba_food.htm
1

2 Wikipedia,

Taino, Wikipedia, November 17, 2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taino

In 1492 the Spanish immigrated to Cuba bringing a lot of their culture with them to start new. At
this point in time many Spaniards would use the natives as slaves in the cane industry. The
Spaniards play one of the most important parts in Cuban cuisine. A lot of what is made in Cuba,
parallels what is made in Spain. Paella, is originally a Spanish dish with baked rice and often
with seafood in it. Rice is an extremely important side in Cuban food. It is used either on the side
or in most dishes. The second time Cuba was influenced in their cuisine was in 1847 when many
people from China3 moved from their homeland to Cuba. One of the most loved dishes from
Cubans is fried rice. This was influenced by the Chinese that came to live in Cuba.
I believe that the most important point in history for Cuba was in 1898 when Spain left Cuba for
the last time. Without the Spanish going to Cuba, the culture, cuisine, and people would have
been different. Where Cuba is today would not be the same.
In 1965 my moms family made the decision to leave Cuba, and wearing nothing but the
clothes on their back left to Miami Florida. Many people know that story, but HOW is something
that is very unclear in history. How my grandparents came to America, cannot be answered in a
history book, or found online, because no one even knew except those who were involved, or
lived through it. My grandparents had everything in Cuba, they were huge supporters of Fidel,
lived wealthy lives, and had lots of land, money, and publicity. At a very young age, my
grandmother was a star; she was on television and was loved by many people. So when she left,
along with a couple other stars, many people were furious, Castro wanted to find out how she
escaped, who did it, and figure out a way to bring her back. When he couldnt, he shut up
everything that talked about her. What he doesnt know is that a very important US citizen
Damian Hinohosa, Cuba1847, cuba1847,
2004http://www.cuba1847.com/IIIA_B3_National_Library.html
3

helped my family, along with a hundred other families, escape from Cuba. This man was JD
Rockefeller. To this day anyone I have told is shocked that a man who was so involved with
Castro, a close friend of his, had help so many people escape from his very own friends country.
I dont know much else, my grandparents talk about it as if it means nothing to them, for them, it
was more important what they did when they got here, then the methods of their travels. One of
the major families that left Cuba was the Portos family.
Rosa Porto4 left Cuba the same way my family did, with Rockefeller and around the same
time. Instead of starting new and adapting to the American lifetyle her family decided to use
what they knew and bring it to America. Moving to LA, she and her children created a small
bakery with the delicacies of Cuba, and it was a hit. Many people wanted to try all these foreign
foods and pastries, and in years to come profited from what she had grown up knowing her entire
life. To this day, her family continues to make these foods, they have spread throughout the Los
Angeles County, keeping this bakery in the family, and creating smiles when their name is called.
I know about this topic because my family has lived through it. My grandparents witnessed a
cultural change. They brought their culture to America. If I was to pick three places in reference
to what I am learning, it would be my great grandmother, Rosa Portos, and a few online sites
that I have used to make many of the famous dishes my grandmother has taught me. The internet
could only teach you so much. But people, who have lived through experiences, they can share
emotion, personal opinions. You cant get that on a news article.

Portos Family, about us, Portos Bakery http://www.portosbakery.com/content/porto

%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-bakery-cafe
4

The Island of Eternal Love5 is a great book because it shows Cuba through the
perspective of not just Cubans. The Chinese, the different cultures, that is what Cuba is all about.
It explains the different cultures that are involved in Cuba. How they brought their cultures to
Cuba, how they lived. The second book is The Cuba Commission Report: A Hidden History of
the Chinese in Cuba6. I would love to read this book if it wasnt too expensive. This book is a
journal of someones account when they came to Cuba for the first time in 1876. This man tells
about his life in Cuba, his family, how he lived. This is so important to Cuban history and how
they embraced a part of the Chinese culture. The last book that I find extremely important to the
Cubans history is their influence on other Cultures. That is why I find The Cubans, Our
Footprints Across America7, to be probably the most important book to read. Their inspiration to
other cultures is what makes them a part of history, what they do to today, how they make our
lives.
As I said earlier, I found out that we intersect with the Cuban culture with the Taino
people. Earlier this semester, we talked about how the Spaniards landed on these tiny islands that
were completely useless to them in the Bahamas. Little did I know, this was Cuba. Or at least
one of the islands was Cuba. The Taino people are the natives that expanded throughout these
Dana Chaviano, Island of Eternal Love, Scifilatino, 2010, Scifi
Latinohttp://scifilatino.com/2010/08/05/the-island-of-eternal-love-by-dana-chaviano-bookreview/
5

6Denise Helly, The Cuba Commission

Report: A Hidden History of the Chinese in Cuba,

Amazon, 1993, http://www.amazon.com/Cuba-Commission-Report-Original-EnglishLanguage/dp/0801846412/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383250081&sr=12&keywords=cuba+and+china

7 Fernando Hernandez, The Cubans, Our Footprints Across America, Amazon, 2013,

islands, they influenced each other, and yet each island was still different. This was in 1847,
during the time when the Spaniards sought out Asia.
If anything, one of the questions I would have was what happened to the Taino, and when
did the Cubans become Cubans instead of one of the Taino people. I would also want to know
what the food was like prior to Spain. How I could find this out, I have no idea, however, I think
it would be very interesting to find out.
This is a picture of my grandmother in Cuba. My great
grandmother would stitch all of her costumes for when she went
on stage in Cuba, This is one of her outfits

This is a picture of a Chinese restaurant in

Cuba. They influenced a lot of Cuban dishes,
including fried rice

This is a picture of a Taino village in Cuba. It has been reconstructed to look exactly like
it would have when it was first built.