Two Cultures One Thanksgiving

For the last 10 years Venezuelan citizens have had to migrate throughout the globe due to all the issues the country has suffered. We have had to adapt to new cultures and traditions as a result of this. In the United States Thanksgiving is one of the most important traditions. If you live abroad, it is the time to come back home and be with the family for one whole weekend. If you live at home it is when you get to spend time with your cousins and aunts who you haven't seen for a long time. This tradition usually takes place in my cousin's house. From the second you walk in you start seeing how two cultures collide between Venezuelan art pieces and American furniture. From American food to Venezuelan desserts.

Thanksgiving is very important to my family because since we are all over the place, it is the only time of the year where we force each other to gather in one place for one night. Fortunately, my dad’s side of the family has been living in Miami for the same amount of years as us. Throughout the years we have created our own holiday traditions. We have taken a little bit of the American traditions and mixed it with our Venezuelan traditions. Like the United States, everyone who is studying abroad or living in a different state or country flies back home. In this case, my cousins and I who don’t study in Miami.

The idea of thanksgiving has basically kept its essence despite of the little Venezuelan touches we add to it. For example, during the cooking process we stick to the traditional thanksgiving dinner which consists of the turkey, greens, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, wild rice and lots of gravy. My cousin Adriana adds her personal touch to all of these plates by using Maizina Americana for example. This ingredient is highly used in Venezuelan cuisine. Another personal touch would be her recipe book which has been passed down through generations. It belonged to my cousin Eduardo’s mother who enjoyed cooking a lot. She  passed it down to them when they go married and has been used in thanksgiving ever since. You can tell it has been around for many years just by looking at the state it's in. The binding of the book is now used as a bookmark and the pages are coming out of it's seems barely keepings itself together. But it has charm and it has been with us every thanksgiving.

The course of events of the night are the same every year. While dinner is being made everyone goes around catching up on each other’s lives while we drink wine and eat my mom’s “Pan de Jamón” which she only makes this time of year. The ones who don’t live in miami share stories about work, school and personal life. Later, during dinner, we tend to go around and say what we are thankful for. It's always a great time to express the gratitude we have for our friends and family, our health and our achievements. There is a portion of the night were we FaceTime with our loved ones who couldn't make it. This year both my sister and my cousin Karena where in Spain and couldn't be there with us but we still managed to say hi to them and tell them how much we miss them.

Towards the end of the dinner we get started on desert! My mom usually takes care of this part of the dinner. Her special cakes and pies ties the entire night together. Her chocolate pie is made from chocolate that can only be found in Venezuela making it a delicacy that is only served during the holidays. Although pecan pie is an American tradition my mom’s pecan pie beats all the pecan pies I have ever tried in the United States. She has perfected it during the years. By this time coffee is served and all the cousins sit around and play board games while the adults stay in the living room the rest of the night. It has been this way ever since I can remember. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite American traditions.