"Every year on Thanksgiving, I can count on my mother to tell the story of her first year living in Tijuana, when my dad, who was born in Mexico City, said to her: "Mami, I want you to make a traditional American Thanksgiving feast so we can show our friends here how your people celebrate." My Southern California-raised mom was six months pregnant with me and had to watch over my sister, then just 1 year old, when my dad requested his Turkey Day feast."
""They didn't have turkeys in Mexico," she said each time she repeated the story. For years, I believed her. In the not-so-distant past, Mexico didn't so readily embrace American Thanksgiving. For my dad, it was just plain exotic. And as his youngest daughter, my half-sister Iridia, once explained, "In Mexico we do not consider the European conquest of Indigenous people a cause for celebration.""
A mother living in Tijuana once sent her husband to San Diego to fetch a turkey because turkeys were uncommon in Mexico at that time. The husband requested a traditional American Thanksgiving feast to share with friends. Years later, Thanksgiving spread across Mexican border communities, where families combine turkey with Mexican staples like tamales, roasted chiles, pineapple, and stews. Restaurants near the border offer Thanksgiving meals to Mexican, American, and Mexican American customers. Some Mexicans view the holiday critically because it can evoke the European conquest of Indigenous peoples, producing mixed feelings about celebration.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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