Crossing Cultures,  Festivals, Sacred Rituals, Religion,  Food & Dining

A Peruvian (non)Thanksgiving Epiphany

It’s Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States but which, in Peru, is just November 26. We don’t celebrate Turkey Day or Black Friday in this Andean nation of 30 million people. No pilgrims landed here. Just conquistadors. The locals were eating cuy, not turkey, when Pizarro invaded the place and smashed the Inca Empire. The conquistadors weren’t big on saying Thanks. They just grabbed.

A cuy (guinea pig) dressed up like a pilgrim. Don't ask me who dreams up these cards.

I was feeling unexpectedly sad yesterday morning. It was my third Non-Thanksgiving Day in Peru, and you think I would have gotten over it, but I hadn’t.

What made  my disappointment a surprise is that I’ve never been big on the holiday. Back in the States, I’d viewed Thanksgiving as a stressful exercise in hurried long-distance travel and overly elaborate meal-making. All that fuss and…no costumes, no candy, no presents? Thanksgiving doesn’t have the razzle-dazzle of other holidays, just an enormous feast full of arcane recipes that bear little resemblance to how Americans eat nowadays. And seeing family — well, we were going to do that again in another month anyway, on the 25th, so why the big schlep just to turn around and fly/drive back home the next day?  The pragmatic workaholic American in me couldn’t quite see the payoff.

Well, as Joni Mitchell once said, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”

I found myself missing Thanksgiving yesterday and realizing what it is that is so resoundingly good about the holiday — all that stuff that I had overlooked before. Thanksgiving is not commercial. It’s not about buying stuff. It’s about making real food by hand and eating with your family and asking them how they’re doing.

In other words, it is what America used to be, at least though the 1970s.

So I was feeling mopey yesterday, and so was El Fotógrafo. He was born in Peru but lived in the U.S. for 25 years so he is deeply Americanized, to the point that some of his relatives now call him a gringo, and that’s not a compliment.

El Fotógrafo makes kickass homemade mashed potatoes and can cook a turkey perfectly, plus carve it really thin without the turkey flying off the carving board. When we lived in Florida, he and I made the Thanksgiving meal together each year. We would have cooked a turkey yesterday, except I didn’t have the day off from teaching, and Thanksgiving dinner needs at least 24 hours’ preparation.

The saddest thing about going to teach yesterday was that no one at UPC, besides me, cared that it was Thanksgiving.

EF gave me a hug before I went off to teach, and all yesterday morning I felt mopier and then, grumpier. All my friends and relatives in the States were eating stuffing and turkey, and I was missing Thanksgiving. Screw Peru. Screw the university.

I would have kept on digging deeper in that trench except Peru snapped me out it.

I went to a nearby restaurant to eat lunch. I was by myself, as usual. Inside the restaurant, there were all these large groups of Peruvians —  office workers, professors from UPC — eating together.  What struck me, looking at these jovial groups, was how generally pleased these people seemed at being able to sit together for an hour and chat and eat and laugh their heads off. Peruvians love to laugh. They love to tell jokes (except the sourest academics) and they love, love to eat.

It wasn’t like those office lunches I used to have with my coworkers in the U.S. — slightly awkward, hurried affairs with people glancing at their watches, afraid of being late to the office.  In general, Peruvians like being with each other and make time every day for relaxing almuerzo, whether at work or at their homes.

They also (in general) like being with their families. Most Peruvians spend Sunday afternoon at a big family almuerzo and not only do they not resent it, they (gulp) like it. The food is made (generally) by hand — by an empleada or by the family itself. After the meal, people hang out and talk and maybe go for a walk in the neighborhood, and that’s considered a successful day.  And people are (generally) thankful for what they have — food, time to relax, each other.

I was thinking about this yesterday, as I observed the Peruvians very pointedly not observing “my” American holiday. And it occured to me: They didn’t need it.

In their own quiet, un-remarked-upon way, Peruvians do celebrate Thanksgiving — They do so every day of lives. Only they call it “living.”

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

11 Comments

  • Gorda

    Love your article!!!!
    I didn´t know you felt so sad….
    Hugs & kisses!!!!
    Pelao & Gorda

  • El Turkey

    Yum; turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, mmm….

  • Mitch

    Great point about Peruvians not needing thanksgiving! Yes, here, getting together with family is a big deal, “special.” But there, it’s normal. You perfectly described my Sundays in Peru.

  • Barbara

    Thanks, Mitch. You have blogged regularly about the great meals that your wife has made — those posts have made me hungry just reading them.:)

  • Mitch Teplitsky

    What a compliment to my wife Barbara! she’s getting the link to your comment, pronto! Of course at least once a week I have to endure the comment “The chicken has no taste here.” (mostly true). Then again, we have Trader Joes.

  • Kelly

    Other than a little rumbling for some turkey and stuffing, I didn’t miss Thanksgiving at all… and now I realize why. 🙂

  • Barbara

    Glad you didn’t have Turkey Day withdrawal pains, Kelly. I guess we’re so well fed here, the weaning process is painless.

  • Fiorella

    I always read your blog, and I didn’t know you teach at UPC. May I ask what you teach?Is it on the field journalism? I always wanted to take a class there, but I live in California and can’t make my vacations longer than a month.

  • Barbara

    Hi, Fiorella, I teach English (intermediate, advanced, conversation, business) at UPC. If you’re looking to take workshops in Peru, check out the photography and art classes at Centro de la Imagen, in Miraflores. They have month-long classes, some of which are taught by my DH, el Fotografo.:)