Food has a way of bringing diverse groups of people and cultures together. That is the idea behind Gallafe, which began as a food blog in 2015 by Zyra Castillo. To further the mission of Gallafe, Castillo created the Food 4 Thought series. The series kicked off at Lions and Rabbits Center for the Arts in Grand Rapids on Sunday, May 22. The events are BIPOC-centered and the conversation focuses on food, culture, identity, and community.
The panelists came from a variety of backgrounds and shared their experiences living in West Michigan as members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Kelsey Marquez is a first generation Filipino American and is studying Computer Engineering at Grand Valley State University (GVSU). She grew up in Battle Creek and her parents didn’t teach her much about her Filipino heritage. She described feeling like an outsider while visiting family in the Philippines.
“It felt like I was a stranger to them,” Marquez said. “It is important to be thankful and proud of where you come from but also to be thankful and proud of where you are.”
Glen Valdez is a professor at GVSU and is the son of Filipino immigrants. His parents were amongst the first wave of Filipino immigrants to the United States in the 1960s. Valdez has lived in Grand Rapids since 2006 and he says he never felt “other” until moving to West Michigan.
“It was a couple of days after I moved here, I was talking to neighbors across the street and they asked if I celebrate the 4th of July where I’m from,” Valdez said. “There are so many layers of identity here. There’s a lot of complexity where you’re trying to put someone in a box.”
Jasmine Rivera joined the conversation remotely via Zoom. She is a director, writer, producer, and actor from Detroit Michigan. Her non-profit Rising Voices aims to develop leadership and civic engagement of Michigan AAPI women and families. Rivera is a daughter of Filipino immigrants.
“I grew up between the Black and white worlds of Detroit. My parents were activists and my sense of Filipino identity is framed around this,” Rivera said. “My parents did this with the knowledge that I would have the strength to deal.” Darline Rodriguez was born and raised in Wyoming, Michigan. Her parents moved to West Michigan as refugees from the Vietnam War. She talked about struggling to find her voice and encountering a lot of Asian hate while growing up in West Michigan.
“I finally found a space with food and food bloggers but I’ve spent my whole life being asked where are you really from?” Rodriguez said. “I remember sitting at a restaurant with my family, a drunk man leans over and tells me I’m the least American person sitting at the table.”
Khara DeWit is a 4th generation American. She is a co-founder of the South East Market, a grocery store whose mission is to increase food justice on Grand Rapids’ southeast side. She grew up in Hawaii and joked that her Japanese-American family was singlehandedly responsible for making short grain rice popular in the 50th state. She described the culture in Grand Rapids as being really hard to crack into.
“I felt intense pressure to assimilate into American culture,” DeWit said. “A lot of us are starting to tell our stories, but it comes with fear and trepidation of being other, and not finding a place in the binary of black and white.”
The food for the inaugural event was provided by Gallafe and Sanse Filipino Cuisine. It included lumpia, turon, ube halaya and singkamas salad. The Food 4 Thought series will continue in the coming months. These conversations will be open to the public. For more information, check out the Gallafe Facebook page.