Puerto Rican Pasteles with Keigh Crespo

You’ve heard of tamales.  But have you had the pleasure of trying pasteles?  Keigh Crespo of Dos Abuelas can’t get enough of this delicious Puerto Rican staple

In Puerto Rico, you can find pasteles year round.  However, in New York, Puerto Rican communities have made this a holiday season tradition due to the fact that making pasteles is a long and involved task.  Pasteles are generally plantain or yucca based, though Keigh prefers plantains herself. To make them, first you boil and mash green plantains to get a soft texture.  Plantain leaves are spread out on a table, and the plantain is spread on the leaves and filled with protein. Typical proteins used include pork, chicken, garbanzo beans, or raisins.  Then, the pasteles are wrapped, tied, and boiled for 40 minutes.  

Keigh is a former pastel skeptic and laughs about the first time she tried pasteles as a preteen.  A self-proclaimed picky eater as a kid, she watched her mom and aunts make them for years before her mom finally convinced her to try half of one.  She was hooked right away, and had to try them with ketchup and hot sauce on top like her aunts were doing. Her consensus? She was a fan of the pastel and hot sauce combo, but could pass on the ketchup.  

“What I loved to see was the process of it.  You have your whole family working together. They’re talking and gossiping and one is mashing, one is getting the palm leaves ready,  the other is getting the pork ready. You create something together and it tastes so good,” Keigh reflects. There is an essence of community and family that one finds in eating pasteles, and Keigh is excited to share this with the Denver community.  

Food is powerful- it connects us to our heritage, our families, and places we hold dear.  Puerto Ricans can be anywhere in the world, yet when they taste pasteles they are transported home.  When Keigh cooks, she invokes the presence of her two Puerto Rican grandmothers, whom she named her food truck after and who taught her to cook.  Keigh hopes to share this spirit with those that come to her class: taking people to Puerto Rico without a flight and continuing to educate Denver about Caribbean cuisine.  

Sign up here for Keigh’s pastel-making class on December 14th at 10am at RISE Westwood as a part of Re:Vision’s holiday kitchen series.  And don’t worry- she’ll bring ketchup and hot sauce so that you can come to your own conclusions!

Light and Art: An exploration of Guadalupe with Cal Duran

Cal Duran remembers the first time he saw the Virgin of Guadalupe in a church in North Denver as a child.  He was captured by her motherly spirit and the glowing light surrounding her. When he was sixteen, he painted a mural of Guadalupe on his bedroom wall.  “On my journey of making art, she has always been present,” he says, gesturing to the plethora of Guadalupe pieces in his Denver art studio.  

In 2017, Cal was invited to paint a large mural of La Virgen in Westwood, and the piece has become a staple in the neighborhood.  She glitters in the sunlight, a visual representation of the light and energy she carries with her. Cal had never done a mural of this size before, but he felt Guadalupe calling to him as a protector of the Westwood neighborhood because of her universality and the way she resonates with so many.  

You don’t have to be religious to connect to Guadalupe.  Cal connects to the energy and power she carries, and her presence as an earth mother.  We all have a light inside of us, he states, and she is the gateway to that. She is surrounded by stars and sitting on the moon in an ethereal glow.  He hopes that those who see his art are captured by her magical feel and her universal elements. 

For Cal, art has been a way to discover his own cultural identity, teach others, and to listen to the call of his ancestors.  Those who came before him guide him in his practice, which includes clay, painting, paper mache, and a variety of mixed media.

“Art has the ability to take you to a different realm and support you in the healing process,” Cal shares as he adds clay to a life-size Guadalupe sculpture he is creating.  This particular piece is a mix of clay and paper mache and will be used for an altar and processional at Re:Vision’s upcoming art gallery, Symbols and Miracles of The Lady of the Stars: A Tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  He hopes that visitors will look this sculpture in the eye and feel her light and draw.

Visit the show and gallery November 29th through January 3rd to see Cal Duran’s work, including the life size sculpture, paintings, prints, ceramics, and more!

Cal Duran works on a sculpture of Guadalupe for Re:Vision’s upcoming show

Daniel Luna talks about oranges and quantum entanglement

Westwood Food Cooperative / Re:Vision’s Office space transformed by Daniel Luna’s vibrant pieces

One image is burned in Daniel Luna’s mind after hanging his latest show at the Westwood Food Cooperative. While he was on a ladder hanging a piece, he looked down and noticed Yuridia Bahena, our Re:Own Program Manager, pouring oranges from a box into the cart that holds our produce. Of our 30 minute conversation, at least 20 minutes were about how he dissected that scene over and over again. 

Daniel Luna hanging his show with Crystal O’Brien from BuCu West & Westwood Creative District

He noticed the beautiful color of the oranges. Their exaggerated shape and roundness because of his perspective. The contrast between Yuridia’s dark hair and brightness of the oranges. How the bright oranges rolled, nay, flowed out of the box into the teal cart. 

Daniel said bought at least twenty oranges after hanging the show. 

Luna’s signature hand painted pots

Luna believes we are all cosmically entangled. Take the orange for example; he ate an orange that morning before our chat, he said he was reading a book about Quantum Entanglement, and the act of telling me about the orange now connects us. And yes, I had to buy a couple oranges myself at the Westwood Food Co-Op, and perhaps it was because of our conversation, but they were delicious. 

Daniel Luna was born in Pueblo and moved to Denver in 1972. His father, Daniel Luna Sr. was a 2x state champion tennis player and in fact, the first Chicano to be put in the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame. His mother, Jessica Luna, was an artist and teacher. Daniel talks about growing up in a strict household, with equal emphasis placed on academics, sports and art. Eventually, art prevailed. He found college boring and unchallenging and dropped out and traveled the country, paying his way by painting portraits and scenery and selling them. Eventually, Daniel found himself deeply embedded in the San Francisco scene, and drugs and alcohol. It wasn’t until his doctor told him he either had to stop, or die, that Daniel decided to stop and come back home. He’s been sober for 30 years now. 

He says his paintings are all about paying attention. Had he not been present in the moment, he would have missed the oranges being poured in the crate. Had he not been so observant of the colors and textures of the walls at the Food Co-Op, his show would have looked different. 

When I asked about how he felt about essentially hanging an art show in a grocery store, he lit up. Again, it’s all about paying attention. He came to our space twice, and silently observed as I nervously chatted about the renovations and plans for the space. I had no idea his brain was processing and processing. There are approximately 37 art pieces and 54 of his signature painted pots in this show, and I was shocked to learn most had been painted just for our space and this particular occasion. 

“When I was there, I saw everyone buying food and the space coming together as you moved. So, a lot of the paintings were painted to show what I felt about these experiences. It was inspiring to see so many groups of people meeting and gathering in your space - and all the other nuts and bolts of people coming together.” 

Daniel says that his mother spoke a lot about balance and harmony in the interest of letting people become the best possible version of themselves. She was integral in the beginning of the Children’s Museum and Mi Casa Resource Center. Because of her influence, he notes that, “You can balance the scales with the integrity of doing the harmonious work, and that is what you are doing at Re:Vision and with the Westwood Food Co-Op.” 

We are thrilled to feature this special showcase for our Mother’s Day Garden Bazaar May 10, 11, & 12 in conjunction with BuCu West and the Westwood Creative District at the Westwood Food Cooperative from 9am - 3pm. Pots start as low as $8, and art pieces start as low as $40. 

NY Times writer David Brooks writes about the neighborhood as a unit of change

By Emily Ureste

New York Times journalist David Brooks recently published an article exploring the role of neighborhoods in larger systematic change.  He poses that individual change may be worthwhile, but that focusing on communities has the power to radiate out into society at a faster and more impactful rate.

“It could be that the neighborhood, not the individual, is the essential unit of social change. If you’re trying to improve lives, maybe you have to think about changing many elements of a single neighborhood, in a systematic way, at a steady pace”

During his research for this article, Brooks visited Re:Vision with Yo-Yo Ma on the latter’s two-year, 36-city tour that has a special emphasis on learning from community organizations.  On this day, Brooks was able to observe Re:Vision’s mission at work via the harvesting of vegetables, farm-to-table lunch, and robust community involvement.

Read the full article here and stay tuned to our blog for our thoughts on the subject!