When I write I cry, because writing makes me remember who I am. This quote is from a much larger piece that is set to be in an anthology about Food by one of my favorite food love advocates, and it is set to have some pretty badass folks participating in it.

"I remember the first time I made Nicaraguan nacatamales, I remember my  beautiful and hard-working abuelita Rosa.  I remember her laughter, and  her infectious joy.  I remember parts of her that I had forgotten  because I had given her a role in my head about who she was: cook, and  then I had participated in erasing all other memories of her.   Remembering her resilience reminded me of an inherited resilience I too  held within me, all while mimicking her hands when I made that maza.  Or  I remember mi tia, Carolina, who made tostones with queso frito every  time I visited, making that for me was her specialized kind of love.   She loved me with food, and showed me I deserved love by feeding me.
I began to see more of myself in these women and I realized that  whether intentional or not these women had paved a way for me, they had  drawn a map for me to run back to them in my heart when I got lost, and  that map had food.  That map was drawn with grease, flour, and  Nicaraguan homemade candies, and that map was mine even when I had lost  sight of that."