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For Johender Suarez, Thanksgiving starts as early as 8 a.m., with beef, garlic, capers and a kitchen full of family members.
The Venezuelan-born 20-year-old UF business management junior wakes up early each year to prepare hallacas, a traditional Venezuelan holiday dish, with his entire family.
His family splits the task of preparing, stuffing and tying the hallacas, a corn-based dough stuffed with meat and other fillings. The process, when divided by Suarez’s usual team of eight, takes about three hours to prepare for boiling.
Thanksgiving celebrates gratitude and gathering, typically with turkey, stuffing and gravy. But for UF students with diverse backgrounds and cultures, it’s an opportunity to share dishes from home.
Before moving to the U.S. when he was 12, Suarez wasn’t familiar with the holiday. So, his family created its own Venezuelan-style take on the 400-year-old tradition.
Suarez accompanies his hallacas with other family-favorite dishes. Pan de jamóon, a bread stuffed with ham, olives and raisins, and asado negro, a sweet, slow-cooked beef roast, also make an appearence on the Thanksgiving table.
Suarez’s family further stylizes its Thanksgiving display with Cuban food, implemented by his Cuban stepfather. Congri, a dish consisting of black beans and rice, is placed on the table, while the family continues cooking with La Caja China, a roasting box common in Cuba.
“Although there's something more commonly used, no one really necessarily judges what you're eating for Thanksgiving,” Suarez said.
A non-traditional Thanksgiving opens the door for cultural creativity in Hiya Raval’s household.
The 18-year old Indian American UF biology freshman said her family opts for macaroni and cheese with pineapples, sparkling apple cider and chocolate cake, skipping the popular turkey platter.
“We are vegetarian; therefore, we don’t go the normal turkey route,” she said.
For Raval’s family, it’s important to preserve their culture and adhere to Hinduism by abstaining from meat, she said.
For others, Thanksgiving is as much of an opportunity to enjoy non-traditional platters as it is to spend time with loved ones.
Dante DiPietro, a 19-year-old UF international studies and economics sophomore, said his family doesn’t typically have turkey.
Instead, they opt for Puerto Rican and Italian dishes.
On Thanksgiving, his dinner table is filled with sweet ham, guandules, or pigeon peas, and chicken and rice. When his family lived in New York, an array of pastas was their take on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
“They were able to take a holiday that’s so enshrined in American culture and turn it into their own,” DiPietro said. “It is something that I’m really proud of.”
Others at UF, like Vietnamese American Alexandria Ngo, take pride in blending the national celebration with their cultural heritage.
The 18-year-old UF psychology freshman prepares traditional Thanksgiving dishes, like mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and macaroni and cheese, with her sister. Meanwhile, her parents take the reins on Vietnamese-inspired dishes.
The classic Thanksgiving staples sit alongside dishes like cha gio, or fried spring rolls, to which her family adds crab, and goi ga, or chicken salad. Their meal ends with some sort of soup, like bun rieu, a noodle soup consisting of a tomato-based broth with a mixture of toppings.
ABut although they cook different meals, the process is one that occurs together.
“It’d be honestly hard not to incorporate my culture, because my grandparents grew up in Vietnam … so this is a new concept to them,” Ngo said. “I don’t think they really mind it, because any chance they have to hang out with their grandkids, hang out with their kids, have the whole family together, they’re obviously going to enjoy that.”
Regardless of what foods are served at the dinner table, one thing remains the same: family ties and cultural pride.
Contact Victoria Riccobono at vriccobono@alligator.org. Follow her on X @vickyriccobono.
Victoria is a junior sports journalism student and an El Caimán reporter in her first semester with The Alligator. In her spare time, she enjoys sports photography, reading, spending time with her friends and family, and trying new restaurants.
