Lupita moved to los Estados Unidos soon after marrying her husband. Despite her new home, San Benito, Tejas, only being an hour from Mexico– she felt very far. But as her casita became filled with kids and love, San Benito began to feel like some version of home. She loved to cook, and her casita would often be filled with the delicious smell of whatever sat on the stovetop, but it was hard to recreate the food from home in such a different place. 
Lupita discovered Sazon Goya after moving to Tejas. In Mexico, she didn’t need a convenient packet of spices that blended all the key components needed for the majority of the dishes she made. But here, in los Estados Unidos, there were too many spices to acquire that she’d always just had in the past, and they were too expensive to get all at once. She saw Sazon Goya “con culantro y achiote” in the spice section at HEB, her now local grocery store, and decided to try it. 
It was a box filled with little spice packets, that became the key ingredients in many of her dishes from home. Carne Guisada, Arroz con Pollo, Calabaza Con Puerco– they all contained that little packet of Sazon.

The knowledge of Sazon would be passed down from generation to generation. Usually living in spice cabinets, but currently living in the food bin in my dorm room, across the country from where my bisabuela once lived. But I share the power of Sazon through cooking Mexican meals for my new friends in this new place.   

– Ali Fowler

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more