Learn to cook tostados with Latino Community Center
Pittsburgh’s Latino community’s has grown by more than 70% since 2000. But it’s still fairly small, accounting for just 2.1% of the population in Allegheny County, or around 25,000 people. Which could explain why some people aren’t aware of Latino culture’s contributions.
The nonprofit Latino Community Center has come up with a way to create more cultural connections. On May 13, it will host a new cook-along class fundraising series that will explore the foods of Latin America.
To make it even more personal, the class will be taught live by a longtime community member from her own kitchen, allowing those who sign up to ask questions as they cook alongside the chef.
“We hear often that people want to know more about the Latino community in Pittsburgh and the individuals who’ve immigrated here,” says development director Angelica Perry. “We also know our community members make some of the best food in Pittsburgh. So we decided to showcase the vibrancy they bring to our region.”
Next week’s inaugural class will feature Guatemalan food, with Jacqueline Guadamuz and her daughter, Genesis Caplan, as instructors.
Ms. Guadamuz immigrated to Pittsburgh from Guatemala City in 2004, when Genesis was just 9. Neither spoke much English and other than a few family members, barely knew a soul. Yet like so many immigrants to the region, they took the leap anyway because Pittsburgh promised better opportunities.
“It was scary, a big adventure,” she says.
“It was definitely an adjustment,” agrees Ms. Caplan.
The family ended up settling in Squirrel Hill, where Ms. Guadamuz found work cleaning houses and Ms. Caplan, now 27, graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School and earned a degree in interior design from Chatham University. They have built a large family here.
“However, we are not all connected by blood,” says Ms. Guadamuz. “We found each other within our community and created a new picture of family away from home.”
Founded in 2017 by Rosamaria Cristello, the Downtown-based Latino Community Center (latinocommunitycenter.org) provides a wide range of services for the region’s small but growing Latino community. The education arm offers everything from early childhood education, after school and summer programs to ESL classes, college readiness programs and assistance for students in college and trade school.
On the family side, LCC provides bilingual case management services, home visits for health and well-being, and food and nutrition counseling.
“And right now, we’re really working on getting the community vaccinated,” says Ms. Perry.
In addition to helping with registraton, the center takes people to and from appointments.
In a normal year, the community center serves about 100 unique families a month. The pandemic nearly tripled those numbers, to about 270 families a month, Ms. Perry notes. All services are free, with funding from private grants, the county Department of Human Resources, corporate and community donors and fundraisers like next week’s cooking class.
Much of that population lives in Beechview and neighboring Brookline, where Latino- run businesses IGA Market and Las Palmas have a dedicated following.
During the May 13 class, Ms. Caplan and her mother will demonstrate how to make the popular Guatemalan dish tostadas de pollo (chicken tostadas).
“Food is my passion!” she says. “It’s such a vehicle to share culture and learn about each other. It’s how you connect with the world around you.”
She should know: As LCC’s new food and nutrition specialist, Ms. Caplan is the point person for anything food-related at the center. She also served with FoodCorps in 2019 and worked doing food and garden education at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. She’s returning to Chatham this fall to pursue a master’s degree in food studies.
Ms. Guadamuz says she chose to demonstrate tostadas because the dish is served at every party in Guatemala, as well as at local markets. Think of it as a deconstructed taco. It starts with a flat, super-crispy fried tortilla, with layers of shredded chicken, parsley, tomato sauce, onion and crumbly cotija cheese piled on top.
“It’s very colorful and has a lot of flavor,” she says.
“There is a lot of prep, but it’s easy,” adds Ms. Caplan.
Another reason to take the class? Guatemalan food can be hard to find in the city unless you make it yourself. Ms. Guadamuz knows of only one restaurant serving the foods of her native country, and it’s a bit of a hike — Juanita Restaurant in Washington, Pa.
“I would like people to start liking [our] food,” she says. While it’s easy to find Mexican, Peruvian and even Colombian food in Pittsburgh, “We want to show we also have good dishes.”
Tickets to the class on Zoom, which runs from 6-7 p.m.. cost $30. It includes a step-by-step recipe, along with a list of ingredients and local grocery stores in which to source them. Registration is open until the day of at eventbrite.com. (search “Latino Community Center”).
Ms. Perry says they’re working on pulling together a second class in June featuring more guest chefs and community members.
“It’s about elevating the Latino culture many don’t see or know about.”