Minnesota Mexican restaurant owners plan to help Morelos hometowns

By |

Several years ago, Lorenzo Ariza returned “in a low mood” from a trip to his native Mexico. He described his distress over the poverty and lack of economic opportunity he’d seen to fellow Mexican entrepreneur Ramon León. León began to share his vision of a brighter economic future for Mexico with Ariza, and they are now working to make that vision into a reality. As president and vice president of the Mexican Restaurant Association Minnesota (MERA-MN), they are celebrating their first year. In order to promote lasting change, MERA-MN members are working with local officials from Morelos on economic development projects. Their desire is to assist their hometowns long term and thus alleviate the problem of mass migration to the United States.

Continue Reading

Vegetarians, turkeys and family holiday feasting

By |

I still remember my first holiday meal disappointment after becoming a vegetarian 16 years ago. I had called ahead and asked my grandmother to please bake some of the Thanksgiving turkey stuffing outside of the bird so that the juices wouldn’t mingle with my stuffing. When I arrived to the meal I was relieved to see that she had baked some of it in a separate glass dish — only to be disappointed moments later when I learned that all of the stuffing had been made with chicken broth.Vote on what YOU want as a vegetarian at the holiday table. “How could she have done that?” I thought to myself. As a hormonally-influenced and admittedly judgmental teenager at the time, I suspected foul play (no pun intended). “It must have been on purpose. Continue Reading

Twin Cities top tacos: Starting in St. Paul

By |

Ten of us began our quest in the heart of one of the oldest Latino neighborhoods in the Twin Cities: St. Paul’s West Side. Our mission: to test the tacos nominated by TC Daily Planet readers, friends, family and other assorted taco fans as  “top tacos in the Twin Cities.” Most of the taste testers had enjoyed tacos in Mexico and the United States, and one had eaten tacos on five continents during military service. Our first expedition visited two restaurants in St. Paul — more to come later! 

Continue Reading

Celebrate Day of the Dead — Día de los Muertos — in Minneapolis, St. Paul

By |

If you could spend one more evening with your dearly departed relatives and friends, what would you serve them? What were their favorite foods? What did they like to drink? What kind of music did they listen to? What else could you do to make them feel welcome, to entice them to pause in their roaming across the earth and take an annual rest stop to eat, drink and be merry one more evening with their you? If you celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), these questions are urgent, since Mexican traditional beliefs dictate that your ancestors’ spirits will visit soon (typically November 1st and 2nd) and you must prepare an altar in your home to receive them.

Continue Reading

Morelos means business in Minnesota

By |

Though Morelos is the second-smallest of Mexico’s 31 states, it has sent more than 100,000 immigrants to Minnesota, making up more than half of Minnesota’s Mexican immigrants, and many of its immigrant entrepreneurs. Why so many Morelenses in Minnesota?According to Ana Luisa Fajer Flores, Mexican Consulate in Saint Paul, many immigrants from Morelos have chosen Minnesota for work opportunities, family reunification, and the fact that Minnesota has a reputation for being a “welcoming state.”Most Morelenses have arrived in the past 40-45 years, the majority having settled in the Twin Cities metro area.  Significant numbers of immigrants from Morelos can also be found in greater Minnesota, particularly in the meat-packing industry. Many Morelenses are entrepreneurs. Fajer Flores describes Morelenses as tending to be “very hard workers, united, tied to their towns of origin and desiring to give back to their communities.” She also characterizes the community as valuing its traditions, exemplified by the celebration of the patron saint of Axochiapan, San Pablo, every January at Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Church in Minneapolis. (See video clips of the festivities: Axochiapan Celebra en Minnesota and Feria Axochiapan 2012- Minneapolis) The Assumption Church (305 E 77th Street) in Richfield also has members from Morelos. Alberto and Elvia Zuniga (photo by Erin Collins)Morelenses Alberto and Elvia Zuniga  have been living in Minnesota for 20 years. Continue Reading