The Owners' Manual | Issue 21 | Spring/Summer 2021

Pedro Martinez, Meriden

I am from Puerto Rico and growing up in Puerto Rican culture means spending a lot of time with family and close friends! It’s a little more challenging to see loved ones when we all live in different parts of the country, but that doesn’t stop us! Every Christmas season we all gather in one place: Florida! It is literally a convenient location for those that live in Puerto Rico and for others, like me, that live up in the Northeastern U.S. We also have many relatives that live in Florida which makes it easier for them to host and join the festivities! Christmas Eve, or as we call it, Noche Buena, is the time where our family reunites at my aunt’s home in Saint Petersburg. We greet, talk, and catch up with each other as the Puerto Rican Christmas music is playing in the background. We eat an array of food, like pernil (pork), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), pasteles, pasta salad, Abuela’s famous potato salad (with pieces of apple!), and tostones (fried plantains). For dessert, we indulge in Arroz con dulce (sweet rice dessert), pastelillos de guava (puff pastries filled with guava), flan (custard), mantecaditos (sugar cookies with guava paste on top), and cake (since it’s also my Abuela’s birthday!). After dinner, we usually spend some time singing and dancing to some of the Puerto Rican Christmas music playing in the background. We even pull out some instruments to create a livelier moment! To wrap up the night, we exchange and open gifts while still talking and laughing amongst each other. This reunion celebrates more than just Christmas and my Abuela’s birthday, but it ultimately celebrates life and the wonderful blessings that came with it for all of us in the past year. When then look forward to the greater opportunities in the new year.

issue 21 // 19