Maria Soria from Ambato in Ecuador, Lucia Quizhpi from Deleg in Ecuador, and Gabriela Cruz from Oaxaca in Mexico, came to Multicultural Bridge in Housatonic to talk about La Semana Santa, Holy Week, in the places where they were born.
Read articleThe 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.
Photo by Caroline Bonnivier Snyder
Bridge stories
Berkshire Mosaics: Storytellers draw the world together
Eight years ago, Gwendolyn VanSant, executive director of Multicultural Bridge, and writer and journalist Roberta McCulloch-Dews and I began a new series of community stories, and they feel timely now.
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In Bridge’s Happiness Toolbox, youth celebrate their own stories
On a sunny morning, a group of young people stood in the meadow below an open ridge, reading a poem that Theresa (Miller) Beaudieu, a member of the Stockbridge Munsee Community Band of the Mohicans, wrote and set here in 1997 …
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Bridge sustainability program brings a generous harvest
Berkshire families are connecting with local farms and harvesting their own gardens, in a new food sustainability program Multicultural Bridge has grown in the the pandemic.
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A gift of story and song: W.E.B. DuBois on his home ground
W.E.B. DuBois traveled the world in his lifetime. He helped to shape ideals of independence in Africa and freedom and democracy in America. And I have begun to get to know him in the Berkshires, where he was born.
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Berkshire arts evolve in the wake of national protest
In wake of the murder of George Floyd and increased national focus on the Black Lives Matter movement, Berkshire arts organizations are re-imagining how to tell stories in the most diverse and equitable way possible.
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Zaccho Dance Theatre honors W.E.B. DuBois
Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre performs her immersive work Between Me and the Other World, rooted in DuBois’ book, Souls of Black Folk, drawing on it in the 21st century.
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A mother fights for her son in a tough contemporary world in ‘Pipeline’ at WAM Theatre
Dominique Morisseau’s new play, Pipeline, is one of the top 10 most produced plays in the country this year and an Obie winner in 2018, and WAM Theatre and Multicultural Bridge are partnering to bring it to the Berkshires.
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Nick Cave’s ‘Until’ opens in glimmering light at Mass MoCA
International singer songwriter Benjamin Clementine Performs at the opening of Nick Cave’s vast glittering installation Until at Mass MoCA in North Adams in fall 2016.
Read articlePeace and Passion in holy week — La Semana Santa gathers communities
In La Semana Santa, the week leading to Easter Sunday, communities across Central and South America will re-create Jesus’ vigil in the garden and the night and day when he died.
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