Nihari, a slow cooked meat stew served with chiles, cilantro, ginger, and lemon slices, is the first recipe I learned in preparation of becoming the mother of a biracial child. I was living in South Korea, 6 months pregnant with my son and freaking out about how to raise a child with so many facets to his racial and cultural identity. As a chicana I already knew the feeling of the tug between two countries and cultures but my son would feel this tug three ways (Mexico, America, Pakistan) and I was feeling completely incompetent to help him navigate it. The only thing I could think to do to make up for this was to throw myself into learning how to cook Pakistani food so that he could at least feel a connection to Pakistani through food like I do to mexico through mexican food. The only problem was that I don't know how to cook Pakistani food, my then partner did not know how to either, and I lived in South Korea where Pakistani ingredients were hard to come by and expensive. So I researched recipes that were simple and had pretty universal ingredients and came across nihari, which sounded like and had ingredients found in so many Mexican dishes I ate growing up. So I went to the halal market in the next city, got my ingredients, and tried it out. It didn't taste like real nihari or like real Mexican food but it was delicious. I hope that when I make it for my son he will feel at ease with not being traditional but something new. And that he feels like I'm raising him like I'm cooking for him, not perfect but trying to give him the best of all of his worlds.

– Araceli Hernandez

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