My object is a recipe for kipe that my great grandmother passed on to her kids. It is an Arabic dish. The history behind it is that my great grandmother left her home in Lebanon and got on a boat with her husband and three kids and went to Dominican Republic. There she had nine more kids and to each girl she taught them how make Arabic dishes. She also taught her daughters in law how to make these dishes to pass on her culture. One of these women was my grandmother. My grandmother then taught my mother and her sister how to make the dishes, and when my grandmother decided to move to America, my mother. Soon we followed and my family has stayed ever since. Kipe is a dish that I have been eating since as far back as I can remember and even though some are sold here none of them are like the original recipe and can’t compare to my grandmother’s kipe, which reminds me of how brave my ancestors were when she gave everything up and moved to a new place just so her kids could have a better life. Similar to my mother who moved here so I could have a better education. The dish has always had more value than just being a tasty dish to me because it shows me how even though you don’t live in your home country you can always keep your traditions and culture wherever you are just with a simple dish. The recipe for kipe is a symbol of my culture and what they had to do make a better life for their kids no matter how scary or daring it might have been. 

– Yesmin Gonzalez

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant