Redefining our culinary traditions while safeguarding our cultural heritage
In the heart of diverse communities across the United States, a movement is growing. Veggie Mijas, a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) collective, is empowering Global Majority women and gender-expansive individuals to adopt plant-based lifestyles while honoring ancestral food traditions.
Founded in 2017, Veggie Mijas began as a crowdsourcing Instagram page for plant-based people of color to share their cultural recipes with a vegan twist. Today, it has evolved into a vibrant community of activistas de la tierra (Earth activists), promoting veganism as a means to reclaim cultural identity.
One of the members of Veggie Mijas Chicago is Daniela Torres. Torres, who has been vegan for five years, confessed her veganism to her family as a journey, not a diet. To illustrate her point, she hosted the Manteniendo Nuestra Cultura, or Maintaining Our Culture, Potluck, where attendees shared their veganized versions of traditional dishes.
Torres, who grew up in Oak Park, a predominantly white neighborhood outside of Chicago, felt isolated from her Peruvian ancestry. Veggie Mijas has offered her a platform to share her plant-based takes on cultural foods with a wider community. She has veganized some of her favourite Peruvian dishes, such as Locro de Zapallo, a lesser-known but traditional Peruvian stew with a butternut squash base.
For Torres, cooking is more than just preparing a meal. It's about experimentation and blending the traditional with the modern to create something new, yet nostalgic.
Meanwhile, Daniela Medrano, a member of Veggie Mijas, finds comfort in a humble yet flavourful dish: gorditas. Medrano enjoys gorditas because they satisfy everyone in her family and remind her of past holidays, Mexican nineties music, and her time in Mexico. The name "gorditas" also resonates with her, as it is used as a term of endearment in many parts of Latin America and represents the beauty of vegans coming in all shapes and sizes.
Medrano's family initially had difficulty accepting her vegan lifestyle, but they eventually found ways to honor her wishes while maintaining their cultural roots. Today, gorditas filled with beans and vegan cheese are a staple in her household.
For those interested in learning more about Veggie Mijas, their official Instagram account @veggiemijas is the best resource. Here, you can find posts, videos, and updates about their mission, events, and community initiatives. By following Veggie Mijas, you'll gain insights into their approach to veganism through culture, identity, and accessibility, and you'll be part of a growing community dedicated to preserving cultural identity while embracing a plant-based lifestyle.
The Veggie Mijas community, an Earth-oriented group of activists, is using veganism as a tool to preserve cultural identity, especially among Global Majority women and gender-expansive individuals. Daniela Torres, a member from Chicago, has successfully combined her Peruvian heritage with a plant-based lifestyle by veganizing traditional dishes like Locro de Zapallo.
Cooking is not just a meal preparation process for Torres, but an opportunity for experimentation and blending tradition with modernity, creating something new yet nostalgic. Meanwhile, Daniela Medrano finds comfort in gorditas, a flavorful dish that brings her family together and reminds her of Mexican culture.
Veggie Mijas offers a platform for members like Torres and Medrano to share their plant-based takes on traditional dishes, promoting cultural food traditions within a vegan context. The official Instagram account @veggiemijas is a valuable resource for learning more about Veggie Mijas, their mission, and community initiatives, including cultural-travel opportunities that honor food-and-drink, art, and lifestyle.
