The bowl is warm and savory, 12-bean soup made with bacalao, salted cod. It’s called la Fenesca. in the week before Easter, in South and Central America, families take time off and gather — and this is the taste of the holiday.
Maria Soria from Ambato in Ecuador, Lucia Quizhpi from Deleg in Ecuador, and Gabriela Cruz from Oaxaca in Mexico, have come to talk with me about their faith and celebrations, and they’ve given me something as close to them as memories of their grandmothers in the kitchen. They’ve given me stories of home.
When I was editor of Berkshires Week, Gwendolyn VanSant, chief executive officer and co-founding director of Multicultural Bridge, worked with me to create a series of columns, storytelling to lift the voices of people who live here. We talked with a family of ranchers in Becket, leaders of the NAACP, a union negotiator at the Rising Paper Mill, tattoo artists in Dalton …
We shared their stories for three years before Bridge gathered them into a book as Berkshire Mosaics. Now, with permission from them and from the Eagle, I am bringing those stories here — and looking to the future.
Local people share their stories ...
Will Amado Syldor-Severino holds his three-week-old son, Abi. Skip Meade sits at a wooden desk in the sunlight surrounded by books and photographs. Satyana Ananda stands in the winter fields beside a stone cairn at Starseed, her sanctuary in Savoy, and Mike Zabian tries on a tie and an orange vest at Zabian’s, his family business in Lee — press photos by Siobhan Connelly. For stories, scroll on down …
Photo by Siobhan Connally
Patricia Cambi, seated, Maria Soria, standing at left, and Rocio Chavez share memories from their childhood homes, and at the top of the page, Steve (in the hat) and his father Bill Robinson pose for a portrait at Sunny Banks Ranch in Becket — press photos by Caroline Bonnivier Snyder, courtesy of the Berkshire Eagle. And Rabbi Josh Breindel of Temple Anshe Amunim sits in his study with his chin in his hand. Press photo by Ben Garver, photo also courtesy of the Berkshire Eagle.
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