{"id":73006,"date":"2023-11-24T16:27:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T23:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=73006"},"modified":"2023-11-24T16:27:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T23:27:35","slug":"pupusas-festival-brings-multiple-nationalities-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/11\/24\/pupusas-festival-brings-multiple-nationalities-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Pupusas Festival brings multiple nationalities together"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Calgary Salvadorian Folkloric Association president and artistic director Melvi Alvarado and event coordinator Wendy Mendoza pose with the Surf City display at the Pupusas Festival held in the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. They want people to know that El Salvador is the surfing capital of the world. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

M<\/span>ulticulturalism is part of the fabric of life in Calgary. That was on display in Calgary\u2019s Chinatown on National Pupusas Day.<\/p>\n

The Calgary Salvadorian Folkloric Association held their second annual Pupusas Festival on Sunday, Nov. 12 with the goal of connecting Salvadorian culture with the community at large and show how amazing it is with food and music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been around in Canada for so long and there has never been any cultural representation,” said association president Melvi Alvarado.<\/p>\n

Alvarado explains that they want to show how vibrant and progressive his country is<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually the first country who legalized Bitcoin. We have Surf City, so we\u2019re being named the world capital of surfing, and are also hosting very important events such as Miss Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pupusas have been around for centuries and were created by the Indigenous tribes of El Salvador known as the Pipil. Popusas festivals are held each year on the second Sunday in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most representative recipe of Salvadorian culture around the world,\u201d said Alvarado.<\/p>\n

Pupusas are flatbreads made from corn flour that can have different toppings such as cheese, loroco flower, pork or beans. They are a staple at many Latin American-themed events such as the Latin Festival and Expo Latino held in Calgary. According to the association\u2019s event coordinator Wendy Mendoza, who is from Nicaragua, the loroco plant can only be found in El Salvador.<\/p>\n

The festival was held at the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre. According to Mendoza, the event was attended by people from Edmonton, Red Deer, and High River.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have so many cultures today,\u201d said Mendoza. He considers the venue to be a multicultural location in its use and in a centralized location.<\/p>\n

Although numerous attendants were of Salvadorian heritage, there were multiple nationalities present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always interested in exploring different cultural foods,\u201d said Ron Balser, an attendee in line to try his first pupusa. \u201cI\u2019m interested to see some more stuff here today that I\u2019ve never tried before, that I might become addicted to very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event was made possible by the hard work of diverse volunteers who took part in the setup of the Henry G.D. Chow Auditorium. They also had the opportunity to try the dish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered this dish only today and it\u2019s very nice,\u201d said volunteer Tymur Horbach, who is from Ukraine. \u201cI hope (the festival) will be very fun and cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are about 134,395 Latin American people in Calgary which is 2.3 per cent of the population, according to a 2021 census<\/a> by Statistics Canada. There are 2,335 Salvadorian people in Calgary according to a 2016 census.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSalvadorian pupusas and culture is amazing,\u201d said former association member Oswaldo Canales.<\/p>\n

Interest was obvious as the auditorium contained more than 300 people of all ages, many of whom were in a long line to get pupusas and Kolashanpan drinks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely want to create more awareness of the Hispanic-Latin community just in general here in Calgary, but also what El Salvador has,\u201d said Ingrid Martinez. Martinez became the first Latin woman to win the Ms. Calgary pageant in 2023. \u201cCalgary is my home and El Salvador is my roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendee Ricardo Menjivar says he enjoyed the festival because as a Salvadorian, pupusas brought memories, are part of his culture and deserve recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up eating them,\u201d he said. \u201cJust a lot of memories associated with it, that I\u2019m happy I get to have them in Calgary as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival included vendors from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia and Panama. A variety of goods were sold such as candles, jewelry and bags. The event held face painting, dance and pupusa eating contests with giveaways and performers such as Chucho Flores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that new immigrants know that it is a community here,\u201d said coffee vendor Amel Adames, who is from Panama. She says that the association is very welcoming to other cultures and nationalities.<\/p>\n

This festival marks the Calgary Salvadorian Folkloric Association\u2019s final event of the year. They are expecting to resume in the spring with Expo Fiesta El Salvador, which will showcase Indigenous culture and food such as tamales and empanadas. There will also be the Independence Day celebration in the summer.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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Oswaldo Canales and Gem Polino enjoy Fiesta Time by DJ Cesar at the Pupusa Festival held in the Henry G.D. Chow Auditorium of the Chinese Cultural Centre on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. (Photo by Fernando Moreno-Prado\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multiculturalism is part of the fabric of life in Calgary. That was on display in Calgary\u2019s Chinatown on National Pupusas Day. The Calgary Salvadorian Folkloric Association held their second annual Pupusas Festival on Sunday, Nov. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":874,"featured_media":73016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"SP2 Pupusas Festival FM","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,212,1431,1592,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-73006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-downtown","9":"category-food-and-nutrition","10":"category-music","11":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73006"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73144,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73006\/revisions\/73144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}