by Mike O'Sullivan on January 27, 2012
Los Angeles is home to people from many countries who share their culture, and their food, with their neighbors. We talk with a family with roots in southern Mexico that is preserving and teaching others about their culinary traditions.
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Gilberto Cetina Junior and his father are conducting a special class to teach high school students about the food of Yucatan, their native state in southern Mexico. The food is distinctive, with marinades made from tropical spices and citrus.
Chef Cetina says his restaurant, called Chichen Itza after an ancient city of the Mayan people, appeals to people of all ethnicities. “We try to show our culture to the world,” he said.
Gilberto Cetina Senior worked for 20 years as an engineer. But for the past 11 years, he and his son have run this small restaurant in a Los Angeles marketplace. Critics have praised their cooking and included Chichen Itza on lists of the top Latino restaurants in the country.
Some of the food is standard Mexican fare, including tortillas, the ubiquitous Mexican flatbread. Other dishes have roots in the cultures of southern Mexico: the ancient Mayans and the more recent Lebanese immigrants. When they settled in Yucatan a century ago, they introduced a popular treat called kibis, fried patties of meat, bulgur wheat, mint and spices. Dutch merchants brought gouda cheese, which is now a local staple.
The signature dish, called cochinita pibil, is pork simmered in spices and wrapped in banana leaves.
The lives of Mexican immigrants revolve around family -- often extended families whose members live in both the United States and Mexico. Son Gilberto Cetina Junior was raised on both sides of the border. “So I really got to experience the culture, the food. I was very involved with our family and obviously, anything that involves family with us involved cooking,” he explained.
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The Cetinas have shared their family recipes in a cookbook called Sabores Yucatecos, or Yucatan Flavors. Most of the recipes come from Gilberto Cetina Senior’s mother and had never been written down.
Coauthor Katharine Diaz says the Yucatan peninsula, although a part of Mexico, remained somewhat isolated after the Spanish conquest 500 years ago. “And so it’s always maintained a bit of independence. Hence, its food is very different as well,” she stated.
Members of this immigrant family take pride in sharing their cuisine and traditions with their neighbors.
by VOA News on January 27, 2012
The U.S. economy, the world's largest, grew at its fastest pace in a year-and-a-half in late 2011, but questions remain whether the advance will continue in coming months.
The U.S. government said Friday the country's national economic output increased 2.8 percent in the October-to-December period, a bit below the 3 percent estimate economists had projected. But the fourth quarter advance was the best of the year and the quickest pace since the April-to-June period in 2010.
For the year, the U.S. economy grew just 1.7 percent, after expanding 3 percent in 2010.
The government said the fourth quarter advance was boosted by companies rebuilding their inventories, and heightened consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the national economy. But some of the spending came as Americans cut their savings rate.
While analysts said the American economy ended 2011 on a reasonably positive note, the advance could slow in the first months of 2012. With inventories rebuilt, businesses could ease their spending, and the U.S. is faced with a stalled economy throughout Europe, which could limit exports to one of its major trading partners.
The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, this week forecast the country's 2012 economic growth at 2.2 to 2.7 percent, a slightly lower projection than it made just two months ago.
The U.S. economy has struggled to recover from the recession that extended from 2007 to 2009, advancing by some measurements, retreating in other ways.
The country's jobless rate, while still high by historical standards, declined to 8.5 percent in December, a figure that the nation's central bank says could edge lower in the coming months. About 200,000 jobs were added to the economy last month, but 13 million workers remain unemployed, with millions more having given up looking for work or employed in part-time jobs even as they seek full-time work.
The U.S. housing market is perhaps the weakest link in the national economy, with the fewest ever number of new homes sold in 2011, based on records dating back nearly a half century.
Central bank officials have often expressed disappointment that several policy shifts have failed to consistently boost the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve this week said it would keep its benchmark interest near zero through late 2014, a year-and-a-half longer than previously announced, in a renewed effort to assure financial institutions that their borrowing costs will remain low for the next three years.
But the continued low rate also was an acknowledgement that the U.S. economy is still not advancing as fast as government leaders has hoped.
The national economy has become the key issue in the country's 2012 presidential race, as U.S. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, seeks a second four-year term. His two main Republican opponents - one-time venture capitalist Mitt Romney and former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich - have both staunchly criticized Mr. Obama's handling of the national economy as they vie for their party's nomination to oppose him in the national election in November.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
