Food, Hallacas and Christmas: what does it all mean to 5 Venezuelan entrepreneurs living in the UK
Traditional Venezuelan Christmas meal: Hallacas and “Pan de Jamon”/ Ham bread
If you’ve read our previous blog post on hallacas, “Venezuelan Christmas Food: Hallacas - A Delicious Tradition”, you’ll know that as Venezuelans we take hallacas very, very seriously. They’re the protagonist of every Christmas season; the centrepiece of the dinner table; the symbol of families’ pride and joy and the spotlight of every conversation for about two weeks straight, (“¿Has probado las hallacas de Mengansita? No les quedaron nada buenas”).
From the way they’re prepared, to the way they’re consumed, they’re the reason we laugh and cry, love and fight.
Now if you know anything about Liqui-Liqui, you’ll know we take hallacas about as seriously as you can take anything. Preparing for hallaca season is like preparing for the Olympics - it’s a full-scale military operation. We live and breathe hallacas and bollitos for months and months, have dreams of ponche crema and pan de jamón.
If you asked us what hallacas meant to us in the month of December, you would probably worry we had joined an hallaca cult or something.
So, to try and decentre hallacas from our own little Christmas narrative, and try to regain a bit of perspective on this whole season, we thought we’d ask 5 Venezuelan small business owners living in the UK what hallacas, food and Christmas meant to them.
On Hallacas
Solvy Hernandez - Life Coach
For Solvy, who, as a life coach and content creator helps women that struggle with self-esteem issues build positive habits, “Hallacas are what bring you back home, when you think of Christmas”.
She describes how, “for years my parents used to sell hallacas so as a family we would all have to work together to take it to the next level because we were making something like 500 or so. Fortunately, we're a big family and everyone had their own role. Unfortunately, because I have 3 sisters, I never got to perform the most important roles, I was always cleaning the leaves which is not fair but that's what I got!”
We hear you Solvy, no one likes cleaning the leaves.
But then Solvy went on to describe how what she enjoyed the most was the process of coming together, it was what got her excited about the holiday:
“I always connected preparing the food with celebrating these important events and spending quality time with family.”
Food for thought, some might say.
Solvy Hernandez, Venezuelan life coach based in London, UK, reflects.
On FooD
2.-Rafael Armas - Raga Gelatos, artisanal ice creams
Rafael’s business, Raga Gelatos, actually started because he wanted to bring Italian and Venezuelan culture to the UK through gelato. Now they supply everything from restaurants to coffee shops, producing everything with natural ingredients to make their product as healthy as possible.
Indeed, Solvy’s words echoed in our mind when Rafael said “Christmas food for us means to share, it's not just while you’re eating it but when you're making it and recreating our habits and culture since we've been away from home.”
For someone whose whole business revolves around food, it wasn’t surprising that he said “my Christmases wouldn't be the same if we didn't have this food because that's the way the Venezuelans are, we celebrate with food because that's what makes us happy.”
Christmases in the UK look quite different now for Rafael because he “used to be surrounded by a lot more family and friends” whereas “you have a reduced amount of people here”, meaning that if “you didn't share food with those you do have, Christmas probably wouldn't feel the same way”.
This idea that food at Christmas can help us feel connected with those that are far away is one that’s at the very heart of what we’re trying to do at Liqui-Liqui and one that motivates us to keep going even when we’re on our 204738th hallaca and the sun went down at 3pm.
Rafael Armas and his business partner Gabriel, both Venezuelans in the UK. Founders of Raga Gelatos.
Raga Gelato www.ragagelato.co.uk
3.-Militza Ortiz - Venezuelan jewellery designer in the uk
Militza Ortiz has been a jewellery designer for 20 years, combining age old techniques with modern and organic designs inspired by the natural world and its wonders.
Much like Rafael, in her eyes, the essence of Christmas is captured through the process of making and sharing, specifically, hallacas.
“Our traditions hinge on making food and sharing food. When you make a big batch of hallacas, you will share and interchange your hallacas with other people. Now that I’m in the UK, I also like to share my hallacas with British people and introduce them to my culture.”
Since moving to London, Militza has come to celebrate Christmas with a large mixed group of people that have come to represent her “adopted family in the UK”. Mixing old traditions with new, she gets to invent a new kind of Christmas, one that involves “making pan de jamon, drinking ponche crema, baking biscuits, basting a turkey. Food is everything at Christmas – it’s family, it’s sharing, it’s caring, it's feeding, it's nurturing. Everything comes through the food.”
We couldn’t have said it any better.
Venezuelan jewellery designer, Militza Ortiz in her South West London studio.
Militza Ortiz Jewellery : www.militzaortiz.com
4.- Karim Lemke, Personalised gifts business owner
As well as running Just Gift Me, a small business centred around helping customers give unique and personal gifts to their friends and family through the customization of everyday products, Karim is also a mother to two children.
For her, “food is very important because it’s a way for us to keep up our traditions from back home and pass them onto our kids here in the UK…It helps them understand who we are and where we come from”.
Christmas then, for Karim, consists of “hallacas, of course as well as ensalada de gallina” but also since her husband’s grandfather was from Cuba, they always have “a special rice (Congri) that his family used to have”, so that they can create an experience for their kids based off of “something like we used to have back home”.
Food can be such a powerful vehicle for creating and maintaining identity and although Karim’s “kids are still not convinced on eating hallacas”, we’re sure that these memories will stay in their mind for years to come.
Small business owner, Karim Lemke, from Venezuela with one of her creations.
Just Gift Me, personalised Gifts.
On Christmas…
5.- Luis Trevino, AWARD WINNING ARCHITECT
Luis, who started his own practice as a registered architect in 2009 focusing on residential architecture in the domestic market, has somewhat struggled with the British-Venezuelan Christmas culture clash.
“I get in trouble a lot at Christmas because generally on the 24th December, which is when Venezuelans actually celebrate Christmas, I have a huge party with food, drinks and music. However, my neighbours DO NOT like this so by 11:30pm they always come down and tell me to turn the volume down because I’m spoiling Christmas for their kids.”
Luis spoke nostalgically about Christmases in Venezuela, and how having to adapt to a more low-key celebration has reminded him that “the most important thing is the family gathering”.
Adapting to a culture where Christmas is celebrated completely differently can be difficult, especially when friends and family are so far away, but something that Luis said that resonated with us was, “even though Christmas is a season that invites a little bit of nostalgia, it’s also a time of reflection, to remember how lucky I am and to remind me to spread that love to others.”
London based Venezuelan architect, Luis Treviño.
Luis Trevino Architects: www.luistrevino.co.uk
On Reflection
Speaking with 5 Venezuelan small business owners in the UK has helped us realise that Christmas is not just about hallacas but also the true meaning of hallacas goes way beyond Christmas.
Equally food is not just an excuse to get together, it’s the means through which we spend time with each other, recreate habits, build families, pass down our identities and dwell in our nostalgia.
We’d like to thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed for their time and for reminding us of this. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, we can’t wait to hear what you make of it this year!
Lots of love,
The Liqui-Liqui team xxx