From the first week of May to the beginning of August, I worked as an intern for the Paths to the Plate project; an exhibit which will go on display in the Hatcher Library highlighting the contributions of immigrants to Michigan's foodways. I worked between ten and twenty hours per week, alongside my part-time serving job.
This project was. . . difficult. Physically it was exhausting, hunched over a computer for hours on end, shut away from sun, reading article after article. Mentally though, this project was a mix of good and bad. I’ll discuss the academic stuff first. I am an anthropology major with a minor in museum studies. This means I read a lot. Like a lot. Twenty pages per assignment kind of a lot. Still, the classroom setting of anthropological study is not capable of recreating true independent research. This project felt like my first real dive into cultural research, building up my endurance for intensive exploration of any topic. On the other hand, I also had to read a lot of text that I would consider inaccurate, ignorant, or blatantly insensitive. Articles, books, and even encyclopedias, confusing the different foods of a culture, misrepresenting traditions, or outright using dehumanizing language. Most frustratingly, these published accounts of immigrant life were written at the same time these immigrants and their children were writing about themselves. For white academics at the time though, these were not sources of information; only their own perception was worth documenting. To see my forebears be so openly uneducated was disheartening, if not painful. Still, what’s done is done. All I can do is correct the mistakes of the past with the work I’m doing now.
Thankfully, this internship really helped me feel like I was doing that. I began with indigenous cultures, with personal focus on the Anishinaabek because I grew up in an area of Michigan heavily influenced by them. In 2021 the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan published Healthy Cooking: The Anishinaabek Way, a cookbook which guided the reader through different seasonal recipes. Ingredients presented are native to the state and the book included cooking and preparation tips for a variety of hearty and light dishes. The goal of this cookbook goes beyond sharing recipes though. It is the work of several individuals and organizations to increase the accessibility of native people to their own culture. With these recipes comes a rich history of life and living on this land that predates any of the immigrant populations we were going to be researching.
The next group I researched was Black Americans. In the University of Michigan Library we have access to several African American cookbooks, and the one I want to focus on is the Ella E. Hall Recipe Book. There are two versions, the original which is only accessible through the Special Collections at the Hatcher Graduate Library, and a reprint which can be checked out any time. I wanted to look at both. The reproduction which was published only this year is a really beautiful tribute to Mrs. Hall’s legacy and impact on Ann Arbor. The Hall family immigrated to the greater metro-Detroit area post reconstruction, with Ella arriving in Ann Arbor at a time when the area was nearly 50% black. She worked as many things, a homemaker, a sorority chef; and she owned several properties in the area. Her contributions to Ann Arbor food culture are seen throughout her cookbook, from Gamma Phi Beta Parker House Rolls to Liberty Muffins. She created and collected recipes, not purely for the pleasure of food, but also to support herself and her family. She was a business owner and her business thrived in Ann Arbor where she left a long-standing impact.
As a Mexican-Lebanese person, I took great pride in researching the Arab and Latino immigrants. Lockwood and Lockwood discuss the "Arab American Thanksgiving" a phenomenon that I hadn’t known I was patient zero of until I read The Meal: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Thanksgiving, the classic American holiday, manifests itself in different ways for different families. In Arab families, the Lockwoods observe a version of culinary creolization that is unique to this group. On the table one might find turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, then with it, hashweh, harissa, arab bread, stew, and lamb. A combination of the traditions from the home country and the host. The celebration of American holidays was seen as a rite of passage for immigrants, while the continuation of past traditions brought with it a sense of belonging. For the children of those immigrants from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and other countries, the Thanksgiving meal was a chance at connection; a dedicated time which was spent engaging in culture and tradition, learning from parents and grandparents.
This, the children of Arab immigrants have in common with that of Latinos. What made it difficult to research Latino recipes was the simple fact that many times are the younger generations are taught orally. At least, this was how I learned from my grandparents: not written recipes, but active work put in by the teacher and the student, the parents and the children. Those in the Mexicantown barrio of Detroit have put in the work to continue the recipes that were once taught to them, sharing them with others. Over the past century of Latinos coming and going from the area, many restaurants, mercados, food trucks and carts, bakeries, and more have served the greater community, contributing their snacks and drinks to the culture, which in contemporary time have helped define the Detroit foodie scene. Honduran and Dominican restaurants have established themselves as staples in their neighborhoods, not far from black and Arab businesses. This is the impact that Latinos have had on Michigan, specifically Detroit.
This was what I spent my summer learning. This history of my state, and the history of my people.