My Mom being from Guyana has provided me with a ton of opportunities to explore and learn about Guyanese culture. However, I only started capitalizing on these opportunities about 2-3 years ago. Aside from my mom occasionally cooking Guyanese dishes, I wasn't really exposed to the culture in any other ways until we started visiting my aunt who lived just outside of Little Guyana, which is a small neighborhood in Queens, New York.
Little Guyana has all types of small shops that carry authentic Indo-Guyanese goods, and most of the people who live in the area are also Indo-Guyanese. When my Mom and Aunt's relationship was getting closer, we often visited her every 2 months and stayed for a couple days. During these visits, my Aunt would show us around Little Guyana, where there was loud Caribbean music, street performers, and the smell of Guyanese food, which often take influence from African and Caribbean dishes. With how lively and fun the atmosphere was, I was instantly pulled into the culture and began learning more and more about it. I learned a lot about the food and traditions through my Aunt, as she always cooked authentic Guyanese meals when we were there. These visits to my aunt's house are also what got me into cooking, and now that's a part of my daily life, as I've learned to make many traditional Guyanese dishes such as metemgee, pepperpot, and Guyanese mithai.
My visits to Little Guyana also helped me incorporate religion into my life. With my aunt being a very faithful Christian, and my constant research about Guyanese culture, I ended up learning about a lot of religions, such as Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, which are also the most commonly practiced religions in Guyana. Although I haven't associated myself with any religions yet, learning about the religions has taught me a lot about the history and culture surrounding them, which I find pretty interesting.
Overall, visiting Little Guyana over the years has been a life-changing experience.
It has provided me with new perspectives about the world and has exposed me to many new experiences. I plan to keep on learning about not only the Guyanese culture but many other cultures for the rest of my life. I think other people should too, as It will create a much more open and accepting world.
I never knew there was a Little Guyana in New York! I really relate with learning about your own culture through visiting family (especially in New York) because that's basically what my family has done for years now: we visit my grandparents who live in Manhattan a few times during the year and we also stop by Chinatown to pick up Chinese bread and other delicious food. I think it's really important to love and know your own culture because it makes up a really big part of your identity and influences your entire life. I also really like what you said about getting to know different cultures. Every culture has a beautiful side to it, and if people just try to be a bit more open minded to these things, maybe the world wouldn't have as many diversity related issues!
ReplyDeleteI have always heard about Little Italy but have never heard about Little Guyana. Its really cool that there is a whole area of a city where you can learn about your own culture. After doing some research I noticed that my uncle lives close to that area. I might have to check it out sometime.
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting because I have a really close friend in a very similar situation. My friend is adopted and was adopted into a Guyanese family. I'm pretty sure he was too young to even remember but it was still cool to see him learn many cultures growing up.
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