I was skeptical when I got the assignment to put together a piece on an a cappella group about their popular video. I've never been one for a cappella and I didn't think a Beyonce cover was going to convert me. And it didn't. But what struck me was how much these women believe in the social good of music. They really want to change the world with their songs.
Here's a link to their music video:
This piece has been a long time coming. Buck is one of the first people I interviewed and he patiently sat down with me three times after that once I had a better microphone and was more comfortable interviewing.
I didn’t have time to include a bit of Buck’s family history that mirrors his own struggles and successes. In christening the salon with his name, he was also calling forth the wanderlust and enterprise of his ancestor Antonio Giannini who, like buck, took a leap of faith at the age of 27. Antonio Giannini was one of several Italian laborers recruited by the merchant, Filipo Mazzei who had grand designs for establishing wine, silk, and olive oil business in Virginia.
Mazzei met Thomas Jefferson and with their shared interest in agricultural experimentation, Jefferson convinced Mazzei to try growing vineyards on land adjoining Monticello. Antonio Giannini went with him, arriving in Charlottesville in 1773.
An advertisement for Buck's salon from the early 1990s.
At the end of his contracted 5 years of indentured service, Antonio was ready to enjoy some independence. When Mazzei left America for Europe to drum up support for the revolutionary cause in 1778, Antonio began working for Jefferson. Antonio then bought land in Albemarle county but when he was denied rights to build a mill on that land, he yearned to return to his home in Italy. His contract with Mazzei included a return passage at the end of his service. But with Mazzei back in Europe, Antonio sued Jefferson for indemnification for this promised return. He lost the suit. In his 50s Antonio became an ordained Baptist minister. Among his duties were officiating marriages in Albemarle, Louisa and Nelson counties. He was trapped in Charlottesville, just as Buck would be 200 years later. Both adapted to the situation—building the community they so yearned to be part of.
The lake in July 2015.
At first we thought the story was why Mountain Lake has been rising and falling to such extremes but that's actually just the nature of the lake. And you can actually learn a lot about the way the earth works from this cycle of emptying and refilling. I produced this story (with a lot of help from Kelley Libby!) for With Good Reason.
Mountain Lake at a low point in 2008.
via UACC's Facebook
I seem to be on an urban garden kick lately. But I find myself drawn to the communities that crop up around them.
The Urban Agriculture Collective of Charlottesville has so many facets and is forging community on so many levels that I decided to do a two part series on their work. Here's part one, which focuses on their unique economic model.
Charlottesville is a town that prides itself on welcoming people from around the world–-among them many refugees. Some of those refugees are working on a farm that’s actually giving them the opportunity to enrich our community and help us rediscover our roots. I am so grateful to New Roots Coordinator Brooke Ray and farmer Samyan Raouf for showing me around.
via IRC Charlottesville's Facebook
Go to the Saturday market on Michie Drive 2-5pm!
For the first time in a few years Ramadan seemed to pass me by without much thought, so with the end of month of fasting drawing near, I headed for Grand Market. This grocery store on Charlottesville's Main Street is run by an Afghan family and has been my source for the best tahini and dates since moving back to town. There I met the owner Abdul Rahim who warmly pressed me to try all the cookies on display for Eid, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. I felt torn between the disrespect of eating in front of someone in the midst of a 17-hour fast and not wanting to reject his generosity. I decided I couldn't say no. He was happy, I was happy. Food just tastes better during Ramadan.
I also met Fawzia and Shirin (not their real names) who so exuberantly shared memories of their favorite Eid foods.
Firni, the rice pudding that Fawzia and Shirin love to eat at Eid.
I first became interested in this topic when I read about a court case forcing JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America to update borrowers’ credit reports to reflect that the debts were extinguished through bankruptcy. The Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville has a Zombie Debt Defense initiative. I spoke to one of their attorney's, Brenda Castaneda, and her client Lisa who has struggled with recurring debt sold and bought by different debt collectors also known as "zombie debt."
If anything, I hope to inspire activism against this insidious business. Let this This American Life segment be your inspiration!
A few weeks ago I attended a traveling exhibition of quilts made by residents of the Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative. The more I talked to participants in the program and their instructor Roy Mitchell, the more I could see why these young men, separated from their friends and families, would be drawn to quilting. It's not just an antiquated craft popular among women of a certain age. No, the practice of making quilts offers the opportunity to renew social bonds. They're strengthening ancestral bonds with their grandmothers and great aunts who first exposed them to the craft and reconnecting with their families to whom they regularly send their creations. They have become so well-versed in the art and technique that they're even donating quilts to homeless shelters. It's no wonder then that they spend 9 hours a day working on their quilts. They're sewing themselves a connection to the world they've been separated from.
Apologies for the crummy sound quality--it was my first proper field recording. But oh what a fun way to start!
via C-Ville
There are so many points at which these photos might never have been. It's remarkable that Gundars Osvalds rediscovered them at a time when there was a venue and woman in Charlottesville interested in to displaying the images. Indeed the fact that he took them at all is surprising. What inspired him to explore a neighborhood he had never before stepped in just before its demolition? He didn't know he was capturing history so he doesn't really remember his motivations and impressions more than 50 years later. But he's been reflecting on what the photos mean now and shared some thoughts with me for WTJU's Soundboard.
The news coverage of the Nepalese earthquake has left much to be desired.* The trouble with the dry conveyance of facts is not only that its boring but also that it doesn't inspire curiosity or empathy for people who appear to be different from you. More and more I'm convinced that the way to get people to care about people over there and learn from big news stories is to deliver the news as stories, mini ethnographies of sorts.
So, as I was trying to capture a personal angle to the catastrophe, I came across several local connections to Nepal. Bobong Gurung is a native Nepali who now lives in Charlottesville and works as an interpreter for Nepali-speaking refugees. Kiri Van Lengen-Welty has spent time in Nepal volunteering for an organization called Empower Nepali Girls.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25th has wreaked havoc on the country. But even as the death toll continues to rise, these two Charlottesville residents suggested that there’s reason to have hope for the country’s future.
Bobong began by describing Dharahara, a lighthouse-like watchtower built in 1832, which was destroyed by the earthquake.
Dharahara
*For more on the problems of covering natural disasters see this On the Media piece.
In his new book, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, historian Bart Elmore complicates the narrative that Coca-Cola’s rise to global empire is one of inimitable marketing alone. His research shows how the company’s success has depended on an ever-expanding exploitation of natural resources and taking advantage of public works and government interventions. It's a very revealing look at how the environmental costs shed by Coke have fallen on the public at large.
He also stressed the importance of giving historical figures depth. If we are to learn from the past, we can’t simply explain it away as mistakes made by evil people.
Coke’s model is not unique as Bart reminded me with his comparison to Wall Street commodity trading. And both models have ecological consequences that we have to reckon as we think about designing sustainable businesses for the future.
More than a decade ago David Lebovitz, a former pastry chef at Chez Panisse, moved to Paris and started writing about his life there on his blog and in many cookbooks. When I found out that he was coming to Charlottesville, I knew I had to find a way to talk to him. I have long read his blog as a voyeur on his life in Paris and for his excellent recipes (this orange-glazed polenta cake is killer). His latest book, My Paris Kitchen, is a nominee for a 2015 James Beard International Book Award. We spoke about why defining "authentic" cuisines is tricky business and why he embraces a more casual approach to cooking.
In our conversation, I mentioned how differently American-born chefs and immigrant chefs are portrayed on the scale of authenticity. Much of my thinking on this issue stems from a great exploration of the topic by Francis Lam and Eddie Huang. They hit on how standards of authenticity are related to power, class, media, and ultimately, why the representation of immigrant food matters so deeply.
Sweet Briar College's imminent closing has been particularly interesting to me as it opens up conversations about single-sex education the school's complicated past. I talked to Sweet Briar anthropology professor Lynne Rainville and alumna Spencer Beall about their thoughts on what will be lost with the College's closure this summer.
Based on historic wrangling over the intent of Indiana Fletcher Williams' will and what that means for Sweet Briar's mandate, Lynn Rainville predicts the current battle will be resolved in court.
For more than 20 years one local chef has been proving that food can be the means to connect us and foster community. Last week Angelo Vangelopoulos, chef and owner of the Ivy Inn, was recognized for his excellence when he was named a James Beard Award semifinalist in the best chef category.
via Our Local Commons
In addition to his enthusiasm for cooking, Angelo shared his passion for changing the American plate. Yes, Americans need to eat less meat but Angelo’s message is not just one of deprivation. Indeed, he finds himself more and more drawn to the complexity and rewards of cooking vegetables these days.
His hope for a more sustainable future stems from seeing a man revel in his market haul. He suggested that one day we might find a joy and entertainment in food rivaling that which our phones now provide.
Underlying the debates over how to resolve Greece's debt crisis is the assumption that the country’s debt poses a risk to the credibility and strength of Europe. On that premise, the looming insolvency of Greece’s banks seems to beckon the unraveling of European integration.
From the corner booth of his perpetually crowded restaurant, Tip Top, Terry Vassalos too is worried about Europe. But debt? Not so much. Debt is what keeps his restaurant full. “Four or five years ago one of our customers, an older guy read in the newspaper that Carmax was opening in the area. He must have assumed that they were taking over our location. He walked in the door and in the middle of a full house he started cussing me out ‘I cannot believe you sold the restaurant.’ He didn’t give me time to explain. ‘I come here every day and you sold the restaurant. No respect.’ Finally I said to him, ‘no I didn’t. It’s next door.’ It was at that moment that he realized the deep network of obligation he had fostered over the fifteen years he has owned Tip Top. Yes, he’s running a business where you give money in exchange for a meal but the contract of hospitality doesn’t end with check when you’re building a community. The warmth of that community, however, doesn’t blind him to the woes of Europe and his home country of Greece.
via Tip Top
At the end of January the SYRIZA party came to power promising the end to austerity measures (including higher taxes and cuts to public spending) imposed as a condition of the country’s bailout in the wake of the European debt crisis in 2010. This reversal on the country’s commitments to international creditors came just as the country’s latest bailout agreement was set to expire on Feb 28. The pressure to come to an agreement on the terms for disbursement of the last bailout tranche before the end of the month was bearing down on both parties as Greece’s banks would quickly become insolvent without new credit (debt).
When I met with Terry last week there was still uncertainty over whether Greece would reach consensus with its European creditors, who were calling for a renewal of the lending program. On the other hand Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who attributes the country’s “humanitarian crisis” to the austerity measures was resistant to the idea of taking out another loan with the imposed reforms. He was fighting for a renegotiation ofthe whole bailout: “Would you advise them that they should continue to take these tranches of loans from the credit card in order to deal with what is essentially an insolvency problem?” As the auditors responsible for ensuring the Greek government meets the reform demands of the bailout, the troika—the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF—has become the focus of the country’s ire.
Terry is sensitive to the consequences of the austerity measures on his family still living in Greece and the country as a whole. He notes that his sister and brother are seeing their retirement benefits cut. They avoid using their cars as much as they can with oil prices skyrocketing. “This country deserves much more than where it is now.” But Terry locates the origins of Greece’s current trouble to a period way before the last five years of supervision by the troika. He points to years of corruption at the government level that has trickled down to make bribery and payoffs a constant part of his family’s business life.
But he is hopeful that SYRIZA’s election will herald a new beginning in politics. “One thing for sure is the new government is not corrupt. They’re never been in power. They have enthusiasm.”
That enthusiasm has been worrying Greece’s European creditors who have been stressing that the country is bound to repay the loans by the rules of the market. Whatever freewheeling leftist ideas SYRIZA may have a democratic mandate for, finance ministers from Eurozone countries (which own 60% of Greece’s debt) insist that the many rounds of bailout loans are a contract established in the free marketplace. A market where you cannot trust the other actors to pay their debts is one without credibility, or so the mantra goes. And who’s going to invest in a market without credibility? This is where the language around the economy reveals that it is a fragile construction based on confidence. Among other things, markets only work if investors have confidence that debts will be repaid. If Greece defaulted on its loan payments, it would break that underlying premise and “Grexit” would have been the only option.
When I asked Terry for his predictions on an outcome to the negotiations he told me about his last visit to Greece two months ago. “The oil price was $7/gallon. Heating oil was $5/gallon. They’re not buying it. They’re not going to buy if they don’t have the money. Everyone knows Greece cannot repay loans. You can’t beat a dead horse. You have to give them a break.” The suggestion that Greece default on its loans seems pretty radical (until you realize ajubilee isn’t just a feature of the bible).
After all the idea that one must pay one’s debt is ingrained into our conception of market exchange. But it carries such weight because, as anthropologist David Graeber points out, “it’s not actually an economic statement: it’s a moral statement.” In other words it’s not a given that borrowers must pay back their debts incurred on the market. It requires heavy reinforcement by our moral code. Debt becomes inherently bad when leaders draw on regional stereotypes to explain the crisis as a struggle between irresponsible borrowers and prudent lenders. In this line of thinking austerity measures must be painful. They are penance for accumulating debt.
Of course as many have pointed out, an irresponsible borrower is only possible with an irresponsible lender. It is only through taking the risk inherent in investment that production and growth is possible. Credit or debt relationships enable investment and production. So what is the productivity of Greek debt? According to Terry, bailing out Greece represents an investment in the European project: the conceit that shared prosperity builds peace and democracy. It’s a risky investment but one that Terry believes in.
Terry points out that the strategy behind European loans to Greece is multifarious. “What they have done so that the European banks do not go bankrupt is to loan them [the Greek government] more money so they can pay the interest back.” This echoes arguments made since 2012 that loans to Greece represent a bailout of its creditor countries. Ultimately, the benefits of these loans are intended to bolster Europe as a whole not just the immediate recipient.
When Terry brings up Germany’s occupation of Greece during World War II, he isn’t calling for reparations. Many have pointed out the futility of blaming others for the current state of Greece. He’s well aware of the damage that generations of government corruption have wreaked on his country. No, he harkens back to the history of loans and debts made between European countries to give context to the current discussions. “I mean that’s in the past but it’s not so far in the past.”
There are debts at the heart of the European project and accounts don’t balance out when people are involved. Debts create enduring social bonds.
Currently Greece’s debt crisis is testing the strength of those bonds. Terry understands the argument that reducing Greece's debt might damage Europe's credibility by undercutting the truism that debts will be paid. But by acting as Germany's debt collector, he feels the Eurogroup is compromising the interests of the Greek people. “How can you say you’re bringing growth across Europe when there are so many poor people? Isn’t that the point of the Eurozone, that we’re stronger together?”*
A moralized understanding of debt makes shared prosperity seem impossible. It reduces the debate to two options: European growth against Greek growth. The two should be intertwined, at least according to the principals of the European project. In this ambiguous statement German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to agree: “but one must add that Europe’s credibility depends on sticking to the rules and that we are reliable for each other.”
So how do you bring about shared prosperity? Terry freely admits that he doesn’t have the answer. Instead he offers a reminder of the risk inherent in investing. “I think they have to be more flexible. You invest your money and then it’s going to take time to get it back. Maybe it’s going to take a bit longer.” The European community took a risk on Germany; it took a risk on Ireland etc. These credit debt relations have been productive and they have the potential to bring about further prosperity that is fundamentally shared.
Back at Tip Top, Terry Vassalos is pointing to a corner table where residents from a retirement home in the area eat twice, if not three times a day, every day of the week. “I don’t understand why because I love this place too but I cannot go to one place everyday. But it’s ok they know people. They meet people.” Together they are swapping cold weather horror stories, bemoaning the latest road construction mayhem, and imagining the new and improved downtown cinema. Seems like the perfect incubator for negotiating a shared prosperity. Wishful thinking? Well, have you tasted their buckwheat pancakes?
*This gets to the question of whether individuals should be held responsible for repaying government debt through austerity measures in order to, so the argument goes, keep the markets, banks and economy going.
I just started producing a weekly public affairs show on WTJU called Soundboard. I’ll be posting some of the segments I produce on this blog along with thoughts that didn’t make it on air.
The first interview I recorded for Soundboard was with two historians who are looking at the particular forms that capitalism has taken throughout our history, analyzing it as a representation of particular policies and intellectual ideas rather than a timeless feature in our lives. JULIA OTT, associate professor of history at the New School, and LOUIS HYMAN, assistant professor of history at Cornell University are among those scholars showing that when it comes to our economic system, history can be instructive for giving us a sense of where we are.
They’re essentially questioning things we take for granted about the way our economy functions by showing that it’s not something that exists outside of us. It has evolved throughout history and we have shaped it. By exploring how capitalism looked at different moments, they give us the tools to reconsider how it works now. Very anthropological, if I do say so myself.
Arranged in a circle, artists occasionally peered out from behind easels, abandoning their frenetic drawing to observe a seated model and assess the progress of their neighbors. Their gaze was concentrated on one older black man, the model, who warmly accepted the the room’s attention. Some sketched his crossed arms and confident smile, while others ambitiously attempted to capture his figure in its entirety.
A short woman wearing a long structural sweater, which demanded attention, broke the concentration with the announcement that the allotted 30 minutes with this model were up. She ushered in the next model and then withdrew to the corner, resuming her position as quiet observer of the unfolding draw-a-thon. This is the second draw-a-thon that Andrea Douglas has overseen as director of Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, which opened under her leadership in 2013. “Thirty minutes is long enough for a considered gaze but not long enough for a complete drawing. You don’t get to finish in some ways. It’s a decision-making process. What are the marks you’re going to make? That’s what’s interesting to me.”
When the Charlottesville City School Board handed over the since abandoned Jefferson School to the city, a task force recommended that it be a mixed-use building including an exhibition space. Andrea is in the process of building that exhibition space into something much more dynamic. Recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, Jefferson was founded as a school for African Americans in 1867. In the late 1920s Jefferson High School was built and soon after accredited as one of the few southern high schools for African Americans that were offering a classical education at a time when most were trade schools. According to Andrea this accreditation meant “standardization and the democratization of education. We’re in a space quite different from most of the south.”
In planning the draw-a-thon Andrea and her staff considered how they could offer a critical lens on the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. “We ended up with this notion of profiling and the idea that black men are considered to be threatening.” For 10 consecutive hours last Saturday 20 African American men posed for 30 minutes each for any interested artists. The result was an inquiry on the condition of black men in America through the exercise of drawing. “That’s how we create the critical lens, not because we want to solve the condition of black men in America. We can’t but we can comment on it.” Andrea is motivated by art as the critical lens of our society.
Andrea draws this distinction between the objective of social justice and that of social commentary when she talks about her vision for Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (JSAAHC). “I’m not trying to solve bullying. I’m not trying to solve teen pregnancy. I’m not trying to create a space that solves homelessness or mental illness. Those are not any of my issues. I am not personally interested in using the arts and culture to do anything of those things. “ In this way she sets JSAAHC apart from the tradition of institutions using art as a means to an end, whether that be social justice or otherwise. In our country where the inherent value of cultural patrimony is not ingrained, art has to be commodified.
via The Daily Progress
The reduction of art to an instrument is pervasive. Less than a mile from JSAAHC development plans threaten to displace a largely African American neighborhood in a manner reminiscent of the Vinegar Hill demolition in the 1960s. Two local arts organizations (the Bridge Progressive Arts Center and Piedmont Council for the Arts) won a National Endowment for the Arts grant grounded in the, "power of the arts as a vehicle for outreach and empowerment in underserved communities.” These two organizations were able to convince the NEA, the largest single funder of the arts in the country, that art can be the antidote to the destruction this development may bring.
This is the very argument that Andrea is unwilling to make with JSAAHC programs. The premise of so many cultural organizations is that, “the arts serve a social process, which I hate. I don’t believe in it. I believe that it is the selling of the soul. It should not be sold to commerce. It should not be the conduit through which people get from point a to point b but that’s what America does…I’m kind of a purist in that sense.” In spite of the fact that this impinges on her ability to get public funding she’s not interested in making JSAAHC a place of service. It’s experiences she’s after.
One experience is an affirmation of individuality in contrast to social service programs that she sees as geared toward the production of individuals who conform to society. “Trying to teach people to not beat up on each other tells people that they are not completely who they are. It says that there is something wrong with you. Over here we’re not interested in knowing what’s wrong with you, we’re interested in knowing about what you produce that says who you are.” You could argue that in her deliberate rejection of programs intended to produce social change, JSAAHC is indirectly catalyzing the processes for such change.
In practical terms this means the draw-a-thon was largely unmediated in order to allow the purity of cultural practice to flourish. The day began with little explanation. There was no facilitated conversation or organized discussion. Once she had orchestrated the circumstances of “causing people to look at black people,” Andrea put her trust in the artistic process to carry this project to fruition. The models were not told how to pose. There will be no exhibit of the drawings. While Andrea and her staff are talking to the models about being looked at and filming those conversations, that again is about recording the intellectual process rather than measuring the outcomes of the event. She is planning to project the film across the façade of the Jefferson School on April 9, the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
Beyond offering a place to experience art that comments on and challenges the condition of African Americans in Charlottesville, she is adamant that production be the heart of JSAAHC activities. Her desire to focus on production sets her apart from museums that rest on the greatness of their collections uninterested in being part of the world they inhabit.
She’s not directing that demonstration towards a solely black audience “I would argue that our successes should be defined by how many people who didn’t know anything about black culture now know something. And in Charlottesville that’s a whole lot of white people.”
As such a young institution that is still establishing itself and planting its roots how does it document and demonstrate cultural practice? Her aim is that JSAAHC be a space that is “creating contemporary life” and thoroughly engaged with the world around it. Next month Andrea is holding an artists’ summit asking “brown and black artists” for collaboration ideas. “We’re not going to sit around and talk about the problems of our makers. We’re going to sit around and say what’s your idea?” She is not professing to speak for the black community but rather actively working to establish a symbiotic relationship where representation is dynamic and ever-evolving.
This all serves to highlight the historical and contemporary contributions of African Americans in Charlottesville. One figure of interest to Andrea is Isabella Gibbons, the founder of Jefferson School.
Although Andrea says she stopped painting because she could never arrive at what she wanted, she’s on her way to seeing JSAAHC express something that she herself could not.
Initially I became interested in Kinh and Lan’s story when he alluded to the 13 years of separation they had endured at the beginning of their romance. So, when I arrived to conduct the interview I was surprised that Lan didn’t join us. She continued working throughout our conversation. I regretted not including her in my post but I figured she just wasn’t interested. After talking to her yesterday I realize she probably wanted to join us but the pressures of supporting her family make taking a break impossible. “We work in shifts. I work until 1 in the morning and then I sleep while my husband works. I only get maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep each night.” But she’s quick to add that she makes this sacrifice for her daughter, who holds both her hopes and expectations.
“Jennifer is always saying you should improve your English, learn this and study that but I tell her, ‘everything we do is for you.’” Although Lan would love to go back to school, it’s hard for her to imagine when she would have the time. When she’s not working, she is taking care of her 80-year-old mother and supporting her sister whose husband is ill. But while her own education is on hold, Lan places the utmost importance on Jennifer’s schooling. “We send her to a private school. People say ‘why are you spending money on her education—it’s so expensive.’ But no, we hope for everything for Jennifer.”
I could tell she was anxious to get back to work but before I left I asked her how she makes her pho. “Make pho?!” she laughed incredulously. “That is a very long process, maybe 10 hours. No, I don't have time for that now."
In spite of the fact that Martin’s Tailoring is officially closed, the doorbell rings frequently. A constant stream of people comes through the door shivering and shaking off the cold of the rainy Saturday evening ready to don their fancy duds for the night’s festivities. One young girl sheepishly steps out of the dressing room in her cotillion dress. Meanwhile a professional dancer throws off her coat and changes into a floor length sequined dress. From their respective platforms both smile approvingly in the mirror, twirling around and imagining the evening to come.
Once the two women have indulged in their moment of vanity, the reality of their current surroundings sets it. The low ceilings of the workshop can barely hold the warmth emanating from the yellow walls covered with posters of the UVA golf team who have also taken their turn on these platforms. Vietnamese travel posters hint at the origins of the shop’s owners who quietly look on from the corner.
Kinh and Lan are standing, pin cushions at the ready, prepared to make any last adjustments. But the two tailors have already surpassed expectations. The women’s showers of praise are as glowing as if the pair had performed a miracle. And indeed the power of a well-fitting dress should not be underestimated.
Kinh does not suffer from any illusions of grandeur:
It’s a selfless sort of pleasure that is characteristic of this 50-something man. His life has been deferred in so many ways that he can very clearly identify the pleasures and joys in his life.
When I ask Kinh about pho, a soup that is as iconically Vietnamese as the hamburger is American, he recalls the recipe as a memory and a continuing source of comfort. “Pho and its aroma is my family.” Noodles and thinly sliced beef float in a spicy beef broth to which you add garnishes like jalapeno chile, mung bean sprouts, lime juice, fried shallots, and herbs as you slurp your way through the bowl.
Kinh met Lan when they were both students at the University of Agriculture in Saigon studying to be veterinarians from 1979 to 1982. They fell in love and decided to marry. But Lan’s mother did not approve of the relationship and did not trust Kinh’s devotion to her daughter. First there was the 4-year age difference. “She said to me, ‘you cannot love someone older than you’.” Then there was the issue of faith: “I was Catholic and she was Buddhist and her mom didn’t want us to marry.” At that time in Vietnam she wouldn’t have been alone in seeing faith as a defining feature.
At independence in 1954, the country was ruled by two different governments one communist in the north and another dictatorship in the south. These governments inscribed faith with new meaning. Kinh is from a family of landowners originally from the north of the country. After the communist government killed his grandfather and appropriated his land, his grandmother migrated southward, like many other Catholics.
The roots of pho mirror the migrations of this period. Originating in the north of the country it became popular in the south in the 1950s when those people fleeing communist rule brought the dish with them. In the south people added ingredients like green beans and different herbs, rau thom (literally translated as “fragrant leaves”).
After 20 years of rule by a regime in South Vietnam that favored Catholics, the communist takeover of Saigon in 1975 signaled a reversal of fortune for the country’s religious groups. One day on his way to school Kinh remembers seeing four coffins pass him and the next day four priests were executed in a square not far from his school.
“The communists used the stomach to rule you.” In the late 70s Kinh remembers eating sweet potatoes at nearly every meal. The government distributed food and with the exception of three days throughout the year, those rations did not include meat. On National Day, Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, and April 30 (the fall of Saigon to the communists) each family was given horsemeat, which was imported from Russia.
At this moment when religion had political and economic ramifications, Kinh and Lan defied convention. Their relationship was a radical subversion of the doctrine espoused by both South and North Vietnamese governments that your faith defines you. In part the young couple was spurred on by the support of his father who was a teacher at the Catholic school in Saigon. “He always said that it’s your heart not your faith that matters. You may go to church or temple but the faith doesn’t affect your way totally. You are more than your faith. Even now my wife and I have different faiths.”
According to Kinh the quality of the pho hinges on the deeply flavored broth, which tastes better when it’s made for a crowd. The particular balance of this elixir cannot be achieved on a small scale. Indeed that may be why Pho is Kinh’s favorite meal. It’s fundamentally communal nature muddles any arbitrary divisions.
Under early communist rule pho and comfort were in short supply. Not only were ingredients hard to come by but state-owned kitchens took the place of most restaurants. According to Kinh this all changed in the late 80s when the Vietnamese government accepted US foreign aid. This brought greater access to a wider variety of food. Kinh was desperate for some pho. “You can eat pho every day at any time but I like to eat it for dinner because at that time the air is a little bit cooler and you can smell and taste it better.” It was the perfect excuse for Kinh and Lan’s forbidden rendezvous.
Given the fondness with which Kinh describes this nourishing soup, you might think that it was pho that weakened Lan’s mother’s resistance to marriage. But in the end she had in mind more practical concerns. In 1991 she and Lan went to the United States, joining her other daughter in the Charlottesville, Virginia. After a year and half in the United States Lan’s mother began to be concerned by her daughter’s prospects for marriage in their new home. At long last she conceded that Lan could return to Vietnam to marry Kinh. With the assurance that they would finally be together, Kinh found that waiting another five years for a visa was easy.
However, when Kinh arrived in Charlottesville in 1997, he found that his mother-in-law was still suspect of the marriage. “My wife’s mother lived with me and my wife. We took care of her. One day after 11 years she said to me, ‘you are a very good man.’ It was out of nowhere!” he laughs, still shocked to this day, before adding with smile, “but it was too late to get those 13 years back.”
Keeping the history of Vietnam alive is a priority for Kinh as he raises his daughter in the United States. He tells her stories of his youth and describes Saigon before it became Ho Chi Minh City but the most tangible aspect of his past is pho, which he continues to prepare in small batches for his wife and their thirteen-year-old daughter, Jennifer.