A Monkey, a Python, and a Pot of Mole

by Mercedes Padro

by Mercedes Padro

Cont.

Introduction................................................................................. 7 Alphabet of Cultures.................................................................. 9

Burma.............................................................................. 19

Mexico............................................................................. 23

Guatemala.......................................................................

27

Conclusion.................................................................................. 31

Introduction

I

n the making of this book, I first sought out to change the world. Inspired by Victor Papenek’s words – I too would be a social designer creating work with both meaning

and function. Instead of changing the world, I found that this book and the people I’ve met along the way have effected me. People and human interactions are what this project is about. In this book, I conducted a series of interviews amongst people in the Kansas City community who have or who are going through an E.S.L. or E.L.L. program. I’ve asked them to share their experiences and stories with us to encourage cross-cultural awareness within the Kansas City area. This book is a collection of stories, poems, and illustrations that reflect people, ideas, families, food, and culture.

what I talk about when I talk about culture When I talk about culture, I mean in the following sense; culture is the way a group lives and exists on a day to day basis. Culture is an essential part to who you are and why you are that person today. Whenever I address culture the intent is to celebrate our differences.

7

intoduction

log of daily journal

8

intoduction

Alphabet of Cultures

A

lphabet of Cultures was a sub-project that acted as the research and creative process for this book.

The goal of Alphabet of Cultures was to promote

diversity and cross-cultural awareness through social media which included Instagram and Facebook. I posted a handlettered and/or designed letter of the alphabet inspired by a country along with a short blurb on each country. For example, A is for Armenia, B is for Burma, C is for Cuba, D is for Denmark, etc. The selection process for the country of the day was influenced by cultures represented within the Kansas City Community. And other times it was because making a letter for – lets say – India sounded fun and inspiring. This project lasted from February 1st, 2016 to February 26th, 2016.

As apart of the daily lettering process, I did extensive research and made mood boards for each country. I learned about different food, customs, and architecture before sketching and making my final post. The reception for this project was fun because a lot of people enjoyed seeing their culture represented and celebrated in a public sphere. I also found that people are curious about groups of people they don’t know much about.

9

a.o.c.

Qatar

embellishments

detailed

geometric patternwork

10

a.o.c.

Guatemala

G

Day 7: G is for Guatemala.

Guatemala is located in Central America with around 13,000

people that live there. This hand lettering is inspired by beautiful Guatemalan weaving that has ancient Mayan roots.

11

a.o.c.

India

I

Day 9: I is for India! India is the worlds largest, oldest, continuous civilization. Not to mention my

dream destination. India has a diverse culture with a population of 1.2 billion people. This letter is inspired by Indian stamps, textiles, and architecture.

12

a.o.c.

Pohnpei

P

Day 16: P is for Pohnpei! “Upon” (pohn) a stone altar (pei)” is an island apart of Micronesia that

is located in the middle of the Pacific a boats ride away from Australia. Pohnpei is one of the rainiest places in the world with 300 inches of rain a year and this P is inspired by the abundance of plant life that is on the island.

13

a.o.c.

tropical influence

floral patternwork

natural

14

a.o.c.

Spain

S

Day 19: S is for Spain! Spain brought God’s gift of paella to man. There are 43 million

people that live in this beautiful country that sits on the Atlantic Ocean between France and Portugal. The capital of Spain is Madrid and soccer is the most popular sport, shout out to Spain.

15

a.o.c.

oceanic

bold palette flat patternwork

16

a.o.c.

17 qatar

romania

yemen

pohnpei

wales

xi’an

oman

vietnam

a.o.c.

denamark

B B kenya

cuba

burma

india

japan

armenia

honduras

Alphabet of Cultures

guatemala new zealand

fiji mexico thailand

uruguay

egypt lithuania spain zimbabwe

“Alphabet of Cultures� is on display from April 15th through May 13th, 2016 at the H & R Block Artspace located at 16 East 43rd Street, Kansas City, Missouri.

18

a.o.c.

lives in KCK working as a medical interpreter.

jungle, joining an underground Karin army at the age of 17, and becoming a refugee. After UN approval, Carver and his family moved to the United States ten years ago. Today, Carver

Meet Carver. He goes to the KCK Community College where he’s taking E.S.L. night classes. Carver talked to me about growing up in Burma, hunting for monkey and python in the

CARVER HLA, 62

brother’s daughter and her family is in New York. I have a family who all together are five members. Me, my wife, my son, and my girls nineteen and seventeen. My daughter is studying in North Carolina. She’s studying…science. She’s learning biology, medicine, English, and I don’t know what else, many subjects. She tries a lot, she wants to become a doctor.

What would you say is your comfort food? Something you

really like to eat. We come from Asia and we used to always eat our food in our country. And when we come here we only want to eat our food. Not because we don’t like American food. American food is tasty and very delicious but we don’t like it. We have five members in our family. Three are our children, two are me and my wife. But our children are only eating American food. Because when we came here they were young.

Do you eat special holiday foods? We eat what we call Mon-

ga in Burmese land. And also noodles. We don’t always eat it, we eat it sometimes. Our main foods is rice, fish sauce, pepper powder, salt, and also like seasoning mixture.

Q&A

What family traditions do you have during the holidays?

How many languages do you know? How did you learn the languages you know? I know Karin, Burmese, and a

little English. My parents are Karin. But we stayed in Burma.

Burma is a country where the majority is Burmese. Only Burmese language is allowed to be studied in school. So when I was in Burma I spoke in Burmese, I wrote in Burmese, I sang in Burmese. I went underground and joined the Karin army in Burma and I stayed with the Karin people. And I very rarely see the Burmese people. I speak only Karin.

Yes sometimes we have a family reunion and the time we eat whatever we like. I remember when I was very young, my mother was a very good cook. I was saying we don’t like food the same. We have to eat many kind of food. In our country we like a kind of monkey that is very delicious. Karin people like it.

The best every, most of the Karin people. When you shoot the monkey, it falls from the tree, you cut the throat and the blood drains. And that blood is very good for energy and people mix it with alcohol and people drink it little by little every day. And it’s very good. Good for health.

Did you live in Burma the majority of your life? I stayed

eighteen years in Burma. When I was eighteen I went underground. Then the Burmese attacked our land and we became refugees in Thailand for many years. In the year 2000 our family sneaked from the camp and went to Bangkok and we applied for a refugee status. That is in the year 2000. In 2004 we came to America.

How many family members do you have in the U.S. now?

I have nine siblings total but my brother already died. My family who died his family is in United States in Minnesota. My

20

Burma

by Mercedes Padro

P y t ho n

Recipe (a Burmese Tale)

Once you’ve caught your Python After it snuck into your bed Take a machete and cut off its Nose so that it cannot smell you Or use it’s teeth to snap Then lock the python in your room Preferably with your third wife And now the recipe begins Preheat your oven to 375 Prepare a seasoning of curry and lime Check the room to see whom is dead If the snake is still breathing Find your oldest child Th Oo Who is likely hiding in the woods Wrangle the Python Into the preheated oven And cook for five minutes

Culture is something that we receive from our own ancestors.

– Carver Hla

21

Burma

we cook a lot of food for the whole church. And the next day we bring food to the church and we bring some rice and whatever you can bring. And we have a potluck. But at that time our church cook a big pot of curry. We have enough curry for the whole church. Korean soup and everything.

Do you miss that sense of community from home? Yeah,

there is something that comes from Christian religion. We celebrate Christmas and New Year we have the whole week.

Every night we have church worship. Every night. And also at Christmas time our church has a whole Christmas pageant.

What does the word culture mean to you? Culture. Culture

And the hair, they only take out the hair. And then when it is a little less, they burn it a little, burn out the hair. And then they eat the whole monkey. Is it a big monkey? No its not big, not big like baboon. They eat everything. Only the poop is very hard to eat. That part they don’t eat. And very delicious. And we also eat many kind of snake. Nearly every kind of snake we eat. What’s your favorite snake? Python is good. It tastes like chicken. But cobra tastes better. But this part (pointing to neck) you don’t eat. Because it has – what do you call it – the venom you don’t eat. How do you cook it? We cook it when snake is big. We take out the bone inside. When snake is small we chop and grind it with the bone in it.

is something that we receive from our own ancestors. Like some believe something that we do every day of our life. Or for me, we receive our American culture. We dress Karin dress every, hear too, in Kansas City we celebrate our Karin New Year.

And every Sunday when we go to our church we dress in Karin dress. They call it Hosanna Karin Baptist Church. But my church is not here it’s in North Carolina. My wife and two children are in North Carolina. Only one of my children are here. I live with my son and his family. When we started coming here to the United States. I got a good job in North Carolina. What job do you think? House cleaning job. A very good job in North Carolina. Especially at the University of North Carolina. The easiest job. Here I work for Catholic Charities.

Do you have a favorite childhood memory or memory of being home? We remember our church in our country. Our

church and especially at Christmas time. The whole church we have a gathering. And especially on the first of January every year. Our whole church and every people and every family came to the church. And before Christmas and New Years Eve

22

Burma

ing the United States as a child. Today, Victor lives in KCK works doing maintnence work for an apartment complex.

Meet Victor. He goes to the KCK Community College where he’s taking E.S.L. night classes. Victor talked to me about growing up in Mexico, eating his mother’s different soups, and visit-

VICTOR TAPIA, 43

Where are you from? I’m from Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua.

When did you come to the United States? The first time I

came here was in 1997 for vacation. I can say that in 1995 I moved here. Yes I have a lot of family here. Mostly from my father’s side. Do you have any children? Yes I have three.

My daughter Daniela she’s the oldest she’s eighteen, then Louis he’s sixteen, and then Eric he’s the youngest one he’s eleven.

soup. Chicken soup she called caldo de pollo. And fish soup she called caldo de pescado. You can put any fish you want depending on how much money you want to spend. Do you affiliate with a religion and if yes why? I belong to Catholic church but I’m not a real real Catholic because I don’t go every Sunday. But my parents teach me when I’m little. And also my kids go to private Catholic schools. My daughter and one of my sons go to school and the little one goes to Resurrection Catholic School. What does culture mean to you? Culture means to me the type of living of each country. What’s your job in Kansas City? I work maintanence for an apartment complex in KCK.

Do you have family traditions that you do during the holidays? Well it’s kinda the same. Christmas and New Years. But

we celebrate Dia de los Muertos and a different Independence Day. Do you have a favorite childhood memory? Yes in Mexico, we can do a lot of things that the kids here don’t do.

We can play with a lot of things. Those are great memories. Of all the things I did in Mexico.

What’s your comfort food or something that reminds you of home? I like mole and soups. Beef soup, chicken soup.

Yes, my mom used to make soup all the time. She made beef

24

Mexico

by Mercedes Padro

a

Ghost in Chihuahua

Victor stared at the crunchy ceiling as he listened to his sisters’ breaths move rhythmically in a symphony of snores and exhalation.

Smiling to himself, he ran into the forest, found his old red bicycle beside a mango tree, and sped down the mountain.

The world came to him in a blur of every shade of green.

An overgrown plant stretched toward the window and acted as a percussive bravado to their slumber.

“Sale loco de contento con Au cargamento para la ciudad Ay, para la ciudad, lleva en su pensamiento Todo un mundo lleno de felicidad, ay, de felicidad.”

Illuminated by the moon, Victor recounted who was sleeping where tonight: Anna Delia and Gloria beside him, Seraphin and Elisa above him in the hamaca, and Carmen and the rest at his feet.

He sets off happily with his cargo to the city to the city, carries in his thoughts a whole world filled with happiness.

Quickly and methodically, he made his way, pausing only to see if he disturbed the rhythm.

“Usted es un cheetah,” Seraphin teased when Victor would appear in the fields.

“Que es esto un cheetah,” he would reply.

Victor reached an intersection in the road as he sang his tune of Barceloneta.

“Just at the chorus,” he liked to say, “mis ojos were as big as a jack fruit.”

Culture means to me the type of living of each country.

– Victor Tapia

25

Mexico

The trees and the birds grew silent as an amorphous figure appeared from the dirt.

She asked for help with her Buick as it appears to be smashed but can likely be repaired.

“I don’t see a car!” Victor yelled as he threw his bike and sprinted past the grinning figure.

“I’ve never ran so fast in all my life,” he recalled.

He also made a point of questioning his logic.

A worker found Victor a few hours later shaking underneath a truck.

“Boy what’s wrong with you?”

26

Mexico

visiting the United States with her family. Today, Evelyn lives in Kansas City and works as a neuro-ophthalmalagist technician.

Meet Evelyn. Evelyn took E.S.L. classes when she moved to the United States at fourteen years old. Evelyn talked to me about traveling all over Guatemala, eating yummy enchiladas, and

EVELYN OROZCO, 27

What’s your favorite childhood memory? My favorite mem-

ory is traveling all over Guatemala. I love exploring. So my dad was in the army so he moved every four years to a different base. But I think my favorite one was when we’d go to the Mayan ruins in Peten. It’s tropical weather. And I have some of my favorite memories there because we would bring all of our siblings. All of our extended family from the states and we used to get a private plane and we could fly anyone. And all we had to do was go hiking and eat fresh fruit and go to the lake.

Where are you from? Guatemala City, Guatemala Do you miss that sense of community from home?

Something that I miss is my grandparents from Guatemala.

That was really hard. We didn’t have enough money to go to his funeral. Only mom or dad goes, ya know? You kind of miss your extended family. I miss them. But I also miss the way of life everything is so much more relaxing there.

Do you have a job? If yes, what is it? Yes! I’m a neuro-oph-

thalmalagist technician. Are you in school right now? I’m taking online classes through the company. And I’m taking classes through the children’s hospital for the specialty that I’m doing.

My dad was deployed there twice so we spent eight years there. He was the director of the regional hospital. We just had to tell the air force how many people and family members were going to come visit. So we’d make sure we have a big enough plane. Because it wasn’t just for our family it was for the other people who are also in that base. Everyone has big families over there. And my grandma was always super late so the plane couldn’t leave until all the Orozco family is in. We’re so close to my mom’s siblings. They’re just so down to

When did you come to the United States? I came when I was

fourteen to the United States but we traveled to the states a lot to visit my mom’s siblings. How many siblings do you have?

I have one brother and he lives in Minnesota. His name is Irvin.

28

Guatemala

by Mercedes Padro

at my

Weetha’s house

I imagine the porcelain cows moo-ing as she cooks enchiladas for our reaching hands.

Hands seem to mostly be reaching when the stomach quakes like the oceanic volcano so close to our home.

Walking beyond the kitchen a man sat in a yellow chair in front of a static television slowly moving a wire hanger.

Weetha grabs a roll of coins from a drawer that appears to only have rolls of coins.

“Pero no estamos en Guatemala” she would lament as the pot rumbled and our hands reached.

My culture describes me.

Loving and joyful.

– Evelyn Orozco

29

Guatemala

with salsa dancing the past couple of years. When I went to Miami they did different salsa because they’re all Cuban. Hottest thing ever. I love Cuban salsa dancing. I love the culture.

Can you tell me a story about your family? My family’s a military family. We adapt easily. We love to meet new people.

We love to host people and share our culture.

What’s your comfort food? What’s the strangest thing you’ve eaten? Enchiladas! They are warm and fuzzy. If it’s

earth. If there is one bed in an apartment, three of us can fit in that one bed. There’s no boundaries. And even if you’re hurt or you’re mad they still love each other. My grandparents have eight kids. So there are four boys and four girls. And all of them have married someone from a different nationality in the states. So we Moroccan, we have Spanish, we have Caucasian, Mexican, Salvadorian, Puerto Rican. I think that’s it.

Some of my cousins are half Moroccan, half Guatemalan, born in the states. It’s so cool. And everyone has curly hair but me.

When I was little my mom used to perm it so I could pretend to be apart of the family.

raining, I don’t crave soup, I crave enchiladas because they’re so warm. I love green salsa or mole. Those are my favorite ones. I cook the chicken and shred it. And then I roll the chicken with tortillas and rice. And then I put it in a pan and I just drown it in sauce.

I had snake for meat in Guatemala in Peten. They have all the rare meats. Him and some soldiers were doing a drill and they skinned a snake and we ate it. I barely remember it!

What traditions does your family have? We love to cook

and celebrate life. Major holidays.

What’s your favorite hobby? There’s no language when

you’re dancing. There’s not that barrier, you just go and have fun. That’s why I like weddings so much because I know there’s going to be a dance. You’re moving and working out. Either dancing or soccer are two of my favorite things. I’m obsessed

30

Guatemala

by Mercedes Padro

Taino

Pedro Juan Padro came out of a mystic’s womb and into a house on the mountains of Seales, Puerto Rico.

His father wrapped Pedrito in a burlap bag that had the inscription Padro Plantacion de Cafe.

Elisa pulled back her hair into a knot, closed her legs, and reached for her eighth child.

Serafin always said hair was her asset.

Thick as the first Taina’s and dark as El Yunque at nightfall.

Nightfall in El Yunque, he liked to specify, just as the coqui’s sang their tune and the flowers turned toward the ground.

“Pedrito has your chiquito nose and my head of hair. Te amo mi Pedrito.”

Elisa called the rest of her children into the single room house.

The house consisted of one hamaca for Seraphin to sleep on and a kitchen that had three large stones to cook three meals on.

The seven Tainas shuffled into the house to meet their new brother.

They formed a single line to greet Pedrito with a kiss on each cheek.

As Elisa quickly wiped off her brow And began to pound the yuca and light the fire for dinner.

31

conclusion

Conclusion

I

believe learning about where your family is from and an understanding of your culture allows for a better understanding of yourself. My mother’s family is from Guana-

juato, Mexico and my father’s family is from Manati, Puerto Rico. My mother traveled to Mexico in a crowded van with her father and siblings for two days. She recounts going to dances with cousins and playing in the streets. The smell of enchiladas, rice, and beans reminds her of home. My father grew up in the mountains of Puerto Rico with many siblings and all of whom called him Pedrito. He was born on a coffee farm in a single room house with a hamaca and three large stones to cook three meals on. These are the stories my parents tell me.

My culture has greatly influenced how I engage life in the fullest sense and I appreciate my background. This appreciation allows for a general empathy, curiosity, and appreciation for other cultures. An appreciation that hope to instill in others as well.

32

conclusion

thank you

...to everyone involved in this project including students from the Kansas City Kansas Community College, Joseph Tuzzolino for filming interviews, professors in the Kansas City Art Institute’s design and creative writing departments, and Jessica Blanford from KCK Community College. Special thanks to my parents Susan Padro and Pedro Padro for always being supportive.

Mercedes Padro is a Kansas City–based designer, writer, and illustrator. She is a recent graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute. Her hope is that everyone who reads this book has a better appreciation for and love of multiculturalism as much as she does!