NEW YEAR’S EVE IN LATIN AMERICA : A Photographic – Poetic Journey

At the stroke of midnight, eat one grape at each toll, making a wish of what you desire the New Year to bring you.
©Lorraine Caputo

 

Tonight, as this old year ends, people will be celebrating throughout Latin America. Fireworks burst across the midnight sky, and twelve grapes are eaten with each stroke of that hour, to bring twelve wishes to fruition. Viejos (Old Man Year) are set afire, finally exploding into a million sparks shooting into the new year. Food and liquor flow into the wee hours.

 

One of Latin America’s most common New Year Eve traditions is the Old Man Years, often representing politicians, sports stars or other people in the news. photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

The most explosive of the customs is the Años Viejos (Old Man Years). These effigies represent politicians, sports figures, entertainment celebrities or other famous persons. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, they are dragged to the middle of the street and lit ablaze. Once the flames reach the center of the effigy, the fireworks stuffing explodes.

Some Latin American neighborhoods have contests for the best one, in which civilians and public services, like the bomberos (fire department) will participate. In Ecuador, the end-of-year custom also includes displays summarizing the year’s events in political, sporting and other arenas. Often Años Viejos are accompanied with a testamento, a word of advice or with a list of the things to be burned before the New Year begins.

 

Colombians believe that a sheaf of wheat placed in your home brings abundant food and prosperity in the New Year. ©Lorraine Caputo

 

Colombia has a bevy of traditions (agüeros) not practiced in other parts of Latin America. They believe that a sheath of wheat placed in your home brings abundant food and prosperity in the New Year. At the stroke of midnight, Colombians will walk the block with a suitcase (to bring lots of travel in the next year), count money over and again (to make it multiply), or take a champagne bath (to ensure good fortune and prosperity). They also have a number of other ways to draw wealth, good luck — and even divine the future year.

 

Yellow for luck in life, red for luck in love. ©Lorraine Caputo

 

One custom that Colombia shares with its southern neighbor, Ecuador, is wearing yellow underwear to draw good vibes. Red will fulfill passionate desires.

 

Ecuador’s most unique New Years’ custom is the Viudas Alegres, or Merry Widows. ©Lorraine Caputo

 

But besides the fireworks and the Viejos, that equatorial country seems to have something all its own: the Viudas Alegres, or the Merry Widows. Ecuadorian men dress up as women and joyfully greet all on the streets. Why do the men do this? Some state that these are the Merry Widows of Old Man Year, so happy to see him finally gone and done with. Others say, to disguise themselves from the problems of the old year, so those troubles don’t follow them into the New Year. But you’ll see everyone, man and woman, child and adult, dressing up. Quito’s Centro Histórico streets are crowded with vendors selling everything from cheap, florescent wigs to pointy witches’ hats.

 

Street vendors and shops begin selling colorful wigs the day after Christmas. ©Lorraine Caputo

The perfect eyelashes to go along with your new hair-do. You may also pick up shimmering, pointy witches’ hats, and an array of body parts: breasts, tushes, and aprons covering the (ahem) nether regions. ©Lorraine Caputo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Ecuadorian custom is to have a baño – or spiritual bath, to cleanse oneself of negative energies. Business owners also sweep their stores clean, from back rooms to the front door, with brooms made of eucalyptus, rue, chamomile and other herbs, then lock the shop up tight until the New Year.

 

To enter the New Year spiritually clean, Ecuadorians line up for a baño. photo ©Lorraine Caputo

 

Since 1988, I have spent most northern winters travelling in Latin America. I have rung in the New Year in large cities and small towns in Mexico, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina.

One scene that stays with me – that I have never witnessed before or since – are the fireworks in Santiago de Chile: The burst formed one giant blue heart, from which emerged another blue heart and yet another and yet another … Such a beautiful way to end a night of feasting, drinking and bottle dancing in the middle of a street at a block party.

In Trujillo (Honduras), like everyone else, I dodged the Bárbaro. This Garífuna custom involves a bare-chested man dressed in a grass mini-skirt, covered in rouge or grease, demanding spare change from all on the street. (The money is used for community parties and projects.) If you don’t give him even a mere centavito, he will give you a big bear hug – thus covering you with grease (or rouge).

In Havana, I spent the night with Cubans, eating and dancing to the world’s best music. At the midnight hour, the national anthem played, everyone singing along, to mark another year of the Revolution. (Yes, that scene from the Godfather II is true: At the stroke of midnight, dictator Fulgencio Batista announced he was throwing in the towel and, loaded down with millions of dollars in cash, art and jewels, boarded a plane into exile, thus handing victory over to the guerrilleros after their decisive victory in Santa Clara, under the command of Ernesto “Che” Guevara.)

In Bucaramanga (Colombia), at the invitation of the hostels’ family, I lit a candle for my next year. In Puerto Ayora, Galápagos (Ecuador), I saw the beauty pageant, in which those lovely Viudas Alegres showed off their talents, modeling and answering “probing” questions.

In Mexico, I pondered what the New Year would bring to a world on the brink of war. In Ecuador, I watched a Syrian refugee immerse himself in the local customs.

Today, let us poetically journey to these celebrations and ponderings.

May the New Year be full of Light, and wishes come true.

Safe Journeys!

 

“ … & at that hour / they are burnt …” photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR

(Colombia)

Midnight approaches

without a

bell toll

 

Already rockets burst

in green & white

in a red heart

against a sooty sky

The old men are dragged

to the streets

 

& at that hour

they are burnt

firework stuffing

exploding

 

& we eat grapes, one

by one

Gabriel counts his money

over & again

Rice is thrown, scattering

in the still air

Someone walks around a block

suitcase in hand

 

To welcome in a

better year

 

published in:

The Blue Hour (1 January 2013)

 

“ … blasts of fireworks / To scare away the demons …” photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

NEW YEAR’S TRIPTYCH

(Mexico)

I.

Outside the empty

streets echo

with blasts of fireworks

To scare away the demons

that lurk in the shadows

of time a’changing

 

& within this silent house

my mind echoes

Scare away those demons

of war, hunger, disease

Scare away those demons

of misery & poverty

Scare away those demons

of corporate greed

that is destroying this planet

 

II.

At midnight

the streets fall silent

I eat a grape

at each stroke of the hour

& wish

May there be no war

& wish

May there be peace on earth

 

& then

more cracks to scare

the last demons away

 

III.

Come dawn

the smell of a fire

creeps along the

abandoned streets

A police car’s red-blue-red-blue-

yellow lights silently

reflect off windows

 

Standing in the

ochre fog that slithers

past sleeping homes

& closed shops

I look for an answer

of what this new year

may hold

 

published in:

The Blue Hour (1 January 2013)

 

“& the man in the bright pink wig dances …” photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

DANCE FOR A NEW YEAR

(Ecuador)

The near-midnight streets

are littered with

the frenzied sales of this day

Someone sweeps them

into large piles

& sets them ablaze

On one corner a family sits

drinking to music

 

& the man in the bright pink wig dances

 

On corners

& midways down blocks

the Merry Widows of this dying year

stop cars for coins

dancing, lying atop hoods

 

& the man in the bright pink wig dances

 

On stages decked with eucalyptus

Old Man Years slump in plastic chairs

a DJ spins, a young woman sings

 

& the man in the bright pink wig

dances with abandon

 

The midnight hour

the Old Men are dragged to

the center of those cobblestone streets

gasoline poured & set afire

 

& the man in the bright pink wig

dances with frenzy

 

As far as the streets climb

steeply up, the fires blaze, fireworks

explode

 

& the man in the bright pink wig

frantically dances

to forget he cannot go home

to his war-rent country

his family cannot get out

his uncle dies of poisoned water

a wife to be found, a family to be formed

 

Heavy smoke filled the narrow streets

stinging eyes, burning lungs

creeping past shuttered shops

creeping past the migrant indigenous

families come to the city for work

round dancing to Andean cumbia

 

& the man in the bright pink wig

dances, dances

 

published in:

Prachya Review (Bangladesh) (Summer 2016)

 

 

Another year ends, another yet begins. ©Lorraine Caputo

 

MIDNIGHT TOLL

(Ecuador)

Even before those

midnight bells ring

 

This valley resounds with the explosion, the sizzle of fireworks spiraling green, white, red sparks against the yellow-light speckled hills.

The Old Men are dragged to the streets & set afire. Eager to see this year ended, people leap over the flames, beckoning luck to come.

 

Yet I await that

new year hour to toll

 

Awaiting to embrace my future dreams

bursting, sizzling before

 

The fireworks die … fading. Silence fills the streets. Music of distant parties throbs in the land’s crimps.

The smoke of Old Man Year’s fires & of the fireworks lowers with the silence, mingling with the clouds lowering, obscuring this valley’s slopes.

 

poem © Lorraine Caputo

Recipe Corner : HOW TO DRESS A SALAD

Chilean navel orange, Mexican jicama, red sweet pepper, arugula on bib lettuce – an elegant salad simply dressed with a bit of salt. Served with white tuna fillet, stuffed with spinach, mushroom and shrimp, seasoned with leek and garlic, in a white wine and garlic sauce; and Mediterranean brown and wild rice. photo © Lorraine Caputo

Sara, quick. Can you lend me the phone please? I have a recipe emergency!

I had received a facebook chat from a friend:

 

I’m going to my aunt’s for lunch today. … I told her I would prepare the salad we had on Sunday: spinach with mango, white onion and sweet pepper.

The dressing is soy sauce, vinegar, honey and a little mustard?

The phone number at auntie’s is xxx-xxxx. I think we’ll be eating about 1.

But at any rate, that’s the dressing I’m going to make.

 

I looked at the computer’s clock. It was going on 11 a.m. I should be able to catch her before she begins to prepare the dressing. My taste buds can’t even begin imagining that combination! Oh, gosh, what a ….

I try the aunt’s number. No answer. I try my friend’s phone at home. No answer. Bloody heck. Her cell number. And I reach her before the culinary crime could be committed ….

The small, round limón (Citrus aurantifolia) commonly used in Latin American cuisine is the prized Key lime. To confuse matters even more, the fruit known as lemon in English is called lima in much of Latin America. photo © Lorraine Caputo

In Latin America, tossed salads are frequently dressed simply with limón (key lime) and salt. In the tropics, this is a refreshing way to top off fresh vegetables – and gives an added boost of Vitamin C.

Occasionally, though, a more elegant dressing may be called for. Go to the supermarket and you’ll go into economic shock: A bottle of commercial dressing costs around $3 US. That’s a hefty blow to a budget traveler’s wallet.

Homemade dressings are simple to make though. Whisk the ingredients with a fork in a cup, or use an empty jar. Your dinner will soon have a touch of finesse.

It all begins with the basic vinaigrette. The age-old rule of thumb is 3 tablespoons of oil to 1 tablespoon of vinegar. To this are added herbs, spices and other accoutrements.

However, the gastronomic magazine Bon Appetit disputes the classic ratio, stating that additional ingredients like mustard or anchovies shift the balance between the taste of oil and vinegar. It promotes the ultimate guide: your taste buds.

I prefer my dressings to be a bit less oily, and more acidic – a cleanness to allow the flavors of the fixings to spring from the plate. But let your tongue be YOUR guide!

¡Buen Provecho!

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ORIENTAL DRESSING

This is the dressing my friend wanted to prepare for her aunt’s luncheon engagement. It’s my preferred dressing for a spinach-fruit salad.

 

Salad Fixings

2 handfuls of spinach

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 small red sweet pepper, thinly sliced

1 large mango, cut into chunks

¼ cup fresh beet root, peeled and grated (optional)

Wash the spinach well. Trim off the stem. Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Toss in the other ingredients.

Note: Instead of mango, you may use strawberries (well washed!), kiwi fruit, pear, mandarina (tangerine) or other fruit.

 

Dressing

3 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

pinch of red pepper flakes

½ inch of fresh ginger root, peeled and finely minced

scant teaspoon of sugar

pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients together. Adjust to taste.

Note: Ground ginger may be used in place of the fresh ginger.

 

 

HONEY-MUSTARD DRESSING

This is another of my friend’s favorite dressings – and undoubtedly confused this recipe with the other, creating what undoubtedly would have been a very interesting gastronomic adventure!

This dressing is perfect for any type of tossed salad – or as a dip for fried chicken fingers.

 

3 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

      —or— 2 tablespoons white vinegar + juice of 1 limón (or of half a large lemon)

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

Mix the ingredients together. Adjust to taste.

Spinach, onion, green pepper and tomato salad, with Italian Dressing. Served with homemade chopped chicken liver sandwiches. photo © Lorraine Caputo

ITALIAN DRESSING

The classic Italian-style vinaigrette is the best way to dress a salad to accompany pastas.

 

3 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 clove garlic, finely minced

½ teaspoon basil

½ teaspoon oregano

pinch of red pepper flakes

scant ½ teaspoon sugar

pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients together. Adjust to taste.

 

Water purification drops can also be used to make your vegies and fruits safe to eat raw. Follow the instructions given on the bottle. photo © Lorraine Caputo

Tips

• Lettuce and spinach as well as vegetables / fruits that cannot be peeled can be made safe for eating by soaking them in a chlorine or silver iodine solution. Bottles of such preparations (like Microdyn in Mexico, or Star-Bac in Ecuador) can be bought in supermarkets or pharmacies. Follow the directions on the bottle. Plain (unperfumed) chlorine bleach may also be used.
• Tear the lettuce and other greens, instead of cutting them with a knife. This allows them to capture the dressing better.
• Feel free to experiment with the basic vinaigrette. Want a French flair? Add fines herbes (parsley, thyme, tarragon and chervil) to the oil and vinegar. For an avocado salad, add limón juice, cilantro and a touch of ground cumin to the vinaigrette.
• Make your salad attractive. Include a variety of colors. Cut the vegetables into different shapes: matchsticks, circles, etc. Mix textures and flavors, like creamy, mild avocado with crunchy, piquant radishes.
• Worried about having to buy the ingredients? Take a look at the stuff other travelers have left behind in the hostel’s kitchen – you might be mightily surprised at what you’ll find! (Of course, be sure to ask the hostel staff before you use any foodstuffs from the kitchen – it might, after all, be their stash!)

CHRISTMAS IN LATIN AMERICA : A Poetic – Photographic Journey

Navidad procession in El Cocuy, Colombia. photo © Lorraine Caputo

The streets are crowded with people rushing from shop to shop, buying gifts. Vendors call, Wrapping paper, five sheets for a dollar! Barely heard above the ruckus are the greetings of the jolly fat man dressed in red, perhaps accompanied by two curvaceous elves dressed in micro-minis. At schools and workplaces, partiers are dressed in costume, and bags of candies or large boxes of viveres (dry goods) gifted.

Pase de Niño. photo © Lorraine Caputo

Processions wind through narrow streets. From before Christmas through the Feast of Epiphany, city traffic will be stopped for the Pase del Niño. Schoolchildren dress as José, María, the three Wise Men, shepherds (pastores) and angels to accompany the baby Christ. And, of course, in the novena leading up to Christmas Day, the pre-dawn prayers and song of the faithful softly echo down the cobblestone lanes.

Large manger scenes decorate the churches, homes and even hilltops. In living rooms, families read the novena in front of the nativity scene. On Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), they go to the special mass where the baby Jesus is presented, kissed by all, then placed in the manger scene. The midnight sky is painted by the bursts of hundreds of fireworks, celebrating the birth of the Lord Savior. After the mass, families retire home for a big feast and to exchange gifts. (In few places do they keep the custom of gift-giving on the Feast of Epiphany, the Day of the Three Magi – 6 January.)

Christmas-season dinners differ from country to country. There may be turkey or tamales (a.k.a. hallacas). A Mexican side dish is ensalada de Nochebuena (Christmas Eve Salad), made of apple, celery and walnuts dressed with heavy cream. In Argentina, they’ll be sitting down to a parrillada (barbecue). A common desert is pan de Pascua or panetón, similar to the Italian delicacy, panettone (a sweet bread with dried fruits and nuts). Rompope, a drink very much like eggnog, will be spiked with rum; this typical drink is called cola de mono in Chile.

Everywhere, villancicos are sung. Some of these Christmas carols are familiar, like Noche de Paz (Silent Night). Others are unique to Latin America, such as El Burrito Sabanero. Unlike northern European (including US) traditions, caroling from house to house is not common.

In Latin America, the weeks leading up to 25 December are like much elsewhere. But each country, each place also has its traditions.

In Mexico, are the posadas, nine days of processions through neighborhoods, topped off with tamales and hot atole drink. Also in Mexico – specifically Oaxaca – is the Noche de Rábanos, or Night of the Radishes, celebrated on 23 December with a popular competition of the best-carved giant radishes.

In Trujillo, on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, the Indio Bárbaro accosts people for donations to community projects. If you happen to be out on the street when he passes by, and you refuse to give him a “tip,” he will bear-hug you with his grease-covered body! Another Garífuna tradition in these Black Caribe towns, is Hüngühüngü (also called Fedu), the women-oriented processions of the singing, dancing grandmas.

Cousin Its in Málaga, Colombia. photo © Lorraine Caputo

During the Christmas novena (16-24 December) in the small mountain village of Málaga (Colombia), teens dress up as Matachines (masked, Cousin-It-looking creatures). They prowl the streets, brandishing gaily painted, inflated cow’s bladders. Money collected from would-be wallop victims is used to fund the carrazo floats in the parades at the beginning of January.

Everyone heads to the beach during the Christmas-New Year holiday, if they can. Prices rise – for transport, lodging and food – and the strand is über-crowded with lots of drinking people blaring music. This is definitely a time to witness Latin American partying at its finest. (If you prefer your beach scene to be, well, rather saner, I recommend you wait. Leave the beaches to the locals during holidays – you can go any time.) And some folk, in order to finance these family vacations, resort to petty thievery in the weeks leading up to the holiday: Keep an eye on your belongings!

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Since 1988, I have spent most northern winters travelling in Latin America. I have passed the Christmas season in large cities and small towns in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina.

I have witnessed and celebrated many of these traditions. My encounter with the Indio Bárbaro in Trujillo (me, barefoot, recuperating from a broken toe, returning from the beach with nary a centavito in my shorts, is one of the culturally most embarrassing moments I’ve ever, well, enacted …) In Estelí (Nicaragua), I shared a meal with a Quebecois, of whatever special things we could find in the market ($1 US for an apple!). In Chile, I took a train on Christmas Eve, arriving in the capital like the Virgin Mary: no room at the inns.

Today, let’s take a poetic-photographic trip through the sights and sounds of Navidad in Latin America.

And however and wherever you are celebrating this holiday, may your season be bright, and the New Year be full of wishes come true.

Safe Journeys!

This beautiful pesebre in Iglesia Señora del Carmen (Pamplona, Colombia) extends half-ways down the nave. photo © Lorraine Caputo

For the past few weeks, Catholic churches and public spaces throughout Latin America have displayed crèches, These Nativity scenes – called belén (Bethlehem), nacimiento or pesebre in Spanish – display Mary (María), Joseph (José) and the three Kings (Tres Magos or Tres Reyes Magos) along with shepherds and angels.

Beyond the usual cast of characters, though, is a motley assembly of animals: Among the expected sheep, camels and burros are farm animals – chickens, pigs, cows, etc. – and local fauna, like llama. The animals and humans are of a variety of sizes. It is not unusual to see a cock towering over a Magi.

 

MÉRIDA MAGI

(Mérida, Mexico)

In the oldest cathedral

on the American continent

built of Maya temple stones

On the day the Three Kings

visited the manger

in this side chapel

Mary tenderly places the Christ child in his cradle

Joseph presents him with out-stretched hand

Slowly the Magi approach

passing by a giant cow

by a giant tapir

Yellow lights drape the plastic pine boughs

& dried palm fronds hung

with colorful glass ornaments

They wink in electronic rhythm to

 

Oh, All ye faithful coming

shepherds     magi     & others

Hark! Do you hear the herald angels singing

with the jingling bells?

Even Santa Claus is coming to this town

on this silent night

when joy has entered the world

Frosty the Snowman watches

those who come a-wassailing

 

Through the open windows

wrought-iron-grilled

the sound & smell of traffic passes

The chapel begins to resound

with the cathedral bells pealing

for five-o-clock mass

 

poem © Lorraine Caputo

 

Iglesia San Sebastián, located on the eastern flank of the Panecillo, reflects the barrio’s indigenous heritage: José and María are from the Shuar nation. The three Magi are from Otavalo, Esmeraldas and Tsáchila. The scene also includes the fathers and nuns of the Oblate order doing missionary work among Ecuador’s other indigenous nations. photo © Lorraine Caputo

The infant Jesus is not added to the Nativity scene until tonight, 24 December. At the night mass, the infant is presented to the congregation. Each devotee shall kiss him, before he is tenderly placed in the straw-filled cradle in the center of the pesebre.

The Latin American custom is for the family to attend mass together (however, the Misa de Gallos, or Midnight Mass is quite rare these days), and then break fast with a huge family meal.

 

NATIVITY

(Valladolid, Mexico)

Near midnight       on Christmas Eve

Within the aged church

A line of people slowly passes to the front

 

Each stoops to kiss

the Christ child nestled

in the arms of a woman

A nun stands next to her

handkerchief in hand

ready to wipe away lipstick

 

Fathers with their young sons and daughters

stop in front of the manger

framed in winking lights

to ponder the miracle

of the still-empty cradle

 

After the last mother, the last child

has welcomed that baby

He is laid into the straw-bedded cradle

his hands wide open to this world

his fat legs kicking the air

 

& the families step into the streets

washed clean by the rain

the sunset lightning had forebode

 

poem © Lorraine Caputo

 

In many Catholic homes, families also present a manger scene. In the evenings, they gather around it to say the novena and sing villancicos (Christmas carols). It is not uncommon for the manger cradle to hold more than one infant Jesus. They are the personal Christs of several generations of the family: mother, daughters, aunts, grandmother. photo © Lorraine Caputo

Nativity scenes aren’t just relegated to churches. Many homes and businesses will also have one set up – like this inn in northern Mexico.

 

COURTYARD CRÈCHE

(San Fernando, Mexico)

The moon is almost full

sometimes visible through

the swift heavy clouds

 

Beneath, within the black of this night

Mary recently full, now illuminated

stares down upon her child

Her hands are crossed

against her full breasts

Joseph looks plaintively

upon her child

They are framed

in winking multi-color lights

Each strand alit for just a moment

then still in the gusty night

 

The courtyard is dark and quiet

Puddles from the days of passing rains

glisten in the holy lights of this chilled night

 

poem © Lorraine Caputo

 

The crèche in Iglesia La Merced, in the Historic Center of Lima, Peru, occupies one large side chapel of the church, and includes scenes of the Peruvian life in the countryside and the city. photo © Lorraine Caputo

We grow up with the tale of ghosts of Christmas past. In Northern European indigenous traditions, ghost stories are told around the Yule log. This season, it is believed, is one of the times of year when the veils between the World of the Living and the World of the Dead part, allowing families and friends to once again reunite.

One year in Buenos Aires, I could sense those spirits and I thought about relatives who had immigrated to that port city almost a century earlier.

 

MIDNIGHT NAVIDAD

(Buenos Aires, Argentina)

In these narrow streets

of San Telmo

lit by a nearly

full moon

Midnight Navidad

erupts with the burst

of fireworks

set by boys & men

The sparkles reflect

in windows of

Gardel’s day

The cracks splinter the

mourning song

of bandoneón

In the shadows

of doorways stand

families shawled in

the cool of summer’s eve

& the spirits perished

from cholera & yellow fever,

of immigrants surviving

in cramped conventillos

 

published in:

North Dakota Quarterly (issue 86.3 / 4, November 2019)

 

Iglesia Santo Domingo (Quito, Ecuador). photo © Lorraine Caputo

One thing – especially for travelers from the Northern Hemisphere – that is much different about Navidad in Latin America is that a White Christmas exists only in song. Only in the extreme north of Mexico (perhaps, depending on the year) and the highest of mountains will you find snow. Most of the region is located in the tropics, and it is summer south of the equator.

 

RESISTENCIA CHRISTMAS EVE

(Resistencia, Argentina)

All day
the heat, the humidity
strummed sultry,
multi-grey cumulus mounding
high into the heavens

until late afternoon
when its crescendo
erupted into thunder
pulsed by lightning

a rain washing
the blistered streets raw
& the clouds
into a uniform tone

Near midnight
the cathedral is dark
A man eats cake
before resting
on his blanket
upon the steps

A few kiosks are yet
grilling sandwiches, serving beer
to customers
at sidewalk tables

All else is closed
(save a pharmacy)
security guards murmur

Festive lights pulsate
in darkened windows
The laughter, the music
of a party drifts
down a deserted street

As that twelve o’clock hour nears
the crescendo of rockets
mounts, pulsed by sprays of
multi-colored sparks across
the heavens, clouds of gunpowder
drifting skywards
Resting birds startle
from a tree

The hotel watchman
sits in a lawn chair
on the front walk,
sipping sidra &
listening to chamamé
on his radio

 

poem © Lorraine Caputo

The scene in Quito’s most luxurious church, La Compañía, has a classic air to it, in harmony with the temple’s Baroque interior. photo © Lorraine Caputo

Recipe Corner : (CHICKEN) VEGETABLE SOUP

This Miracle Soup will knock a winter’s cold out of you in a flash! photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

It is so tempting to call this a “Miracle Soup” or a “Curative Soup” – because that is precisely what it is.

When the winter snows or rains come and the inevitable stuffed-sinuses-running-nose-achy-body symptoms arise, this soup will shake the cold right out of you. Even if you’ve been suffering for a couple of days already – as I recently was – a bowl or two of this will give it a one-two, and the next morning you’ll be breathing much easier.

Vegetarians can fix this without the poultry and have fantastic results as well. However, several scientific studies have shown that chicken soup has a better effect on clearing your upper respiratory tract than other hot liquids.

Once an Ecuadorian friend asked me, “But isn’t it spicy,” when I told her how much garlic and ginger is in it. No, it isn’t. Even the delicate Ecuadorian palate will find the blend of spices to be pleasantly understated. And it is precisely those spices, I am convinced, that packs a bowl of this soup with such curative properties.

 

Estimated cooking time: 30 – 40 minutes

For: Vegetarians or Carnivores

 

1 pound of chicken – optional

3 tablespoons of butter or oil

2 medium carrots, thinly sliced

4 potatoes, cut into small chunks

1 large onion, cut into chunks

3 – 4 large cloves of garlic, finely minced

1-inch (2.5 cm) length of fresh ginger root, finely minced

3 stalks of Swiss chard (acelgas), cut into ribbons

2 or 3 tomatoes, cut into chunks

2 teaspoons of salt

 

In a hot, 4-liter pot, melt the butter (or heat the oil).

Optional:

Add the chicken and lightly brown on each side. Take out and reserve.

Add the carrots and sauté until they are becoming soft. Add the potatoes and continue sautéing until slightly soft, then add the onion. Continue sautéing. Add the garlic and ginger, then the Swiss chard, tomatoes, chicken (if using) and salt. Add enough water to fill the pot to within an inch (2.5 cm) of the top.

Turn the fire low and let the soup simmer until the vegetables are fork-soft.

Serve hot with bread.

¡Buen provecho!

 

Tips

• Chicken back with wings (espaldilla con alitas), cut into pieces, works quite fine. If you are on a tight budget, go for menudencias (a mixed bag of liver, heart, gizzards, neck … and chicken feet).
• The carrots may be replaced with a winter squash (calabaza, zapallo, uyama).
• The Swiss chard may be replaced with another green vegetable, like peas (chícharo, guisantes, arvejas), green beans (ejotes, vainitas, chauchas) kale (col rizada) or bok choy (col china).
• Instead of potatoes, you may use one cup another starch like rice or pasta. (Add the rice with the last ingredients. Add the pasta in the last 10 minutes of cooking)
• Remember: The smaller the carrots and potatoes are cut, the faster the soup will cook!