Seeds of Our Ancestors

Maya grew up in Costa Rica in a “restaurant family,” eating a variety of foods fused from different cultures and cuisines. Her mother is Chinese and her father is from Boston. Within the Faulstich-Hon ancestral line, from Maya’s grandparents to her parents to herself, there runs a spirit of experimentalism, play, and curiosity winning out over strict family recipes and a specific assortment of foods. Their ancestral seed, in this case, was more a seed of nonconformity, of problem-solving, and of experimentation.

Born in Puerto Rico, Darich Peréz-Reyes learned at a very early age to appreciate ancestral food. For him, experiencing different food traditions, especially those of his ancestors, helps him get closer to his true identity. “My identity through food becomes more rainbow the more I look at it. It only makes me feel closer to other traditions and cultures. I understand now that we are really just one family that has been separated into different cultures around the world, creating a beautiful quilt of traditions.”

This month, Grace speaks with Sylvia of Pilar's Tamales about her journey from El Salvador to Ann Arbor. Food and community have played an integral role in Sylvia’s journey, from small child in Central America, all the way to successful entrepreneur and passionate philanthropist serving up everything she does with love and care.