The recipe for these real tortillas has a few steps, but it is magical in its simplicity. You take the dried corn and boil it in water with cal, let it sit overnight, and that is it - you have nixtamal!

Nixtamal is the softened, calcium rich corn you end up with the next day. Thousands of years ago people in Mesoamerica, including the Aztecs and the Mayans, figured out the health benefits of nixtamalization, such as how the interaction of natural limestone with corn produced a food that made them feel better. Nixtamal is rich in nutrients, like calcium and niacin.

The nixtamal is then ground into masa, which you form and flatten to make your tortillas.

My whole family was salivating over the comforting delicious smell of the corn cooking. It smells like fresh masa immediately. And the next day when we tasted our first real made-from-scratch tortillas, we were in heaven. This is definitely a fun family project, and it makes us appreciate our culture more, and how our pre-columbian ancestors left us a process and a food not only full of nutrients, but also culture and flavor.

 RECIPE:
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• 2 cups whole dried corn
• 6 cups water
• 2 Tbs cal

Bring the ingredients to a boiling simmer for 30 minutes. Then let the corn soak overnight (at least 8 hours) at room temperature. The next morning, rinse the corn thoroughly and remove as many husks as possible with your hands. Place the washed nixtamal (softened corn) in the grinder and grind. The masa might be coarse and grainy, depending on your grinder setting (I set it at finest possible setting) but you can add water with your hands until you can knead and form the masa. Pinch small pieces of masa off and form small balls. Place the small balls of masa in the tortilla press that has been lined with a gallon-sized plastic bag and press down to form the flat tortilla. Cook the tortillas on a comal or griddle, and your tortillas are done! Makes about 15 tortillas.

 My happiest memories are from Saturday mornings when my mother would go clean houses. To wait for her, my father and I would go pick up cans around the industrial backstreets of Dallas. We’d kick our foot sideways into the can to bend it, flatten it out, and throw it in the bag. If we found an already flat can, it was a real treat, like life was too easy. “Aplastadito,” we called it (a flattened out one.)

When we had enough cans to “afford” breakfast, we’d go sell the cans, gather our money and head straight to Waffle House. “Coffee,” I’d order. The waitress would look at me, a little kid on a stool whose feet did not touch the ground and ask my father “coffee?”

“Coffee,” he’d say, and we would enjoy our burgers and waffles with the satisfaction of a hard day’s work.

I also remember painting homes with him, cleaning offices and too many other jobs a child should not have been doing. But we needed the money, and what I remember is a father who worked hard, who seemed to do everything well, and who loved me and taught me things. He also gave many people jobs to help them – some people did good work and others did terrible work but he helped them all.

He came to the U.S. to do hard labor after leaving an office job doing bookkeeping and accounting in Mexico. When he came home after work, he was always reading. So I love to read.

He also taught me how to cook. Mexican rice and flour tortillas were first. The rice had to be sautéed until it was opaque before adding the liquid … “keep stirring,” he’d say. The tortillas I never mastered, always producing map-shaped things we ate anyway. Like everything, we’d share one, passing it back and forth and taking smaller and smaller bites until we were passing around crumbs.

And each summer, we’d escape the many jobs of Dallas and go be free in Mexico. He’d spread out a map on the kitchen table, and we’d point to where we were going that year. Always traveling within Mexico, we’d pack in the car and head toward the border. We’d go visit family in Monterrey or a whole new part of Mexico as if we were world travelers. Once there, my already jovial father would turn even louder – cracking jokes with strangers on the street and driving like a madman, just like every other Mexican.

After college, when I told my father I wanted to move away, leaving Dallas for Los Angeles to pursue my journalism dreams, he simply said, “Do you think I can rope down a cloud?”

I went on to live in several cities but did not return to Dallas, juggling a career, marriage and two daughters. He eventually owned his own small businesses with my mother and they built a dream retirement home in Mexico. Each time I visited their house there, my father would give me the royal tour, showing off fig trees, lemons, pears, cactus, lavender, grapes, strawberries, flowers and even bananas. They navigated Mexican rules to build a well, and made new friend with their small town neighbors. In my mind, my father would retire there one day to garden and relax.

Instead, my parents visited the house and would go back to the U.S. to tend to their small business. His retirement day never came, and I was devastated he never got to enjoy his dream.

Then I remembered he chose love. He didn’t want my mother to retire before she was ready so they compromised – Mexico to relax, Dallas to keep building. They kept chugging along together.

As an adult I thought he would live forever. We grew somewhat distant because we lived in different cities and only saw each other a few times each year. We were supposed to spend this Christmas together. But we talked often and knew we loved each other and that he was always on my side. I was always on his side, too.

He died a week ago of a massive stroke, one day after his 77th birthday. It was completely unexpected. He was in his home country of Mexico, surrounded by my mother and his family.

In the end, he had love, a lifetime of hard work and helping others, family and granddaughters who loved him and a place to call home. Still, I am devastated at how fleeting life is and that I will never see him again. My brain cannot comprehend that he was just here the other day, and now he is not, as if something went terribly wrong in the universe. And it did. I was not ready for him to go and a piece of me is missing.
​
The happy memories hurt the most, but the memories of me in trouble make me laugh, so maybe one day I will be OK enough to smile at the happy moments, too. For now, I cry.

When Paola Moya first came to DC from Bogota, Colombia with her family as a teenager, they did not come with a specific plan. Fast forward two decades, and today her vision is clear: to continue designing a DC that is open to all.

Moya is one of the District’s top building designers, helping to shape the nation’s capital with a school here, a housing complex there, or a theater over here, not to mention being part of the design team who brought the District’s new soccer stadium, Audi Field, to the middle of it all.

How did a young woman from Colombia who started off working odd jobs in kennels and day cares become owner of Moya Design Partners—whose clients include, city and private partners all helping to shape today’s capital?

“We didn’t come here to fail,” Moya says in an even-keeled voice that seems to roll with the ups and downs that inevitably come with high-stress development in a town like DC, where she says there is always a fire to put out. “There is no other way out but to succeed.”

One way she does it is by facing her fears, she said. The only job she could get when she first came to the U.S. was taking care of dogs in a kennel. Even though she had a phobia of dogs, she gulped and said “sure.”

“It helped me overcome the fear,” Moya says, to the point that she even owned a labrador-golden retriever at one point.

She also delivered pizzas, worked at daycare centers, and usually held two or three jobs at a time to help her parents and siblings make it and go to school. Eventually, she was able to attend Montgomery College at night and started working as an assistant at a design-build firm. She continued working at an architecture firm as she earned her bachelor’s and then master’s degrees in architecture from Catholic University.

After graduating she partnered with architect Michael Marshall to open Marshall Moya Design, a firm that lasted from 2010 to last year. Last September she opened her own firm and officially launched in January of this year, Moya Design Partners, which employs between 15 to 20 people from different parts of the world.

Moya’s clients have included MGM Resorts, D.C. Public Schools, the Howard Theater, the University of the District of Columbia, and the new Entertainment Sport Arena, ESA, which it is the practice facility for the Wizards and the home for the Mystics, coming to Anacostia. In addition, she was part of the team who helped deliver the new Audi Field to D.C. United. Her firm  produced the first Plan Unit Development (PUD) application for the stadium and designed interior portions of it, including the team store.

“I’ve always loved all-things design, architecture, and visual communications,” said Moya, who describes her aesthetics as open, sleek and contemporary, adding that the welcoming and open nature of the new soccer stadium is her favorite feature, highlighted by the way you can see inside the bowl and its shape from the outside. “Before you enter you can see the landscape, the soccer fans and their energy; it’s all part of the process of walking up to it and the building revealing before you.”

She said her new firm is focusing more narrowly on projects that promote women and affordable living. One of her company's next developments is designing a 42-unit apartment building in the District to help women and their families who have lived through domestic violence, Moya said.

Key to Moya’s success has been building relationships, she said, and being creative in solving her clients’ problems.

“You have to listen, take into account their means, and understand what a client really wants or needs, and it takes time to get to that place of understanding,” Moya said. There are always fires, she said, but she loves it because that is life. She also balances work and personal life by being fully cloud-based so she and her team can work from anywhere in the world, including when being away with family or when training for a marathon.

“I used to wonder, is there going to be a week or month when nothing pops?” Moya said. “And the answer is no, and I am fully embracing the journey”

Moya has also been able to integrate herself into deals and creatively find new work. For example, she created a marketing and visual design firm inside her architecture firm to help clients market their projects.

Together with other young contemporaries, she is helping to design the new DC.
​
“In our own way we’re shaping what DC is now,” Moya said. “Not in a million years did I imagine how my career has shaped. But it’s part of our survival, as immigrants, to make it. We become very resilient people. It’s part of who we are, and however you measure success, you work double, triple hard to get there.

Stacey Khoury-Diaz, 29, spent an early career in international development in Washington, D.C., before returning to her roots in wine. Born to a Mexican-American family in Sonoma County, she grew up around friends and family cultivating grapes and making wine.

After six years in DC, “I decided I was finished and I wanted to do something different,” she said.

So last September she opened Dio – named for Dionysus, the Greek god of wine – a natural wine bar on H Street. The wine bar follows Khoury-Diaz’s own philosophy of natural is best, and specializes in wine made with organically grown grapes, free of biochemical and herbicides, and with little added or removed in the process of making the wine.

Her philosophy stems from her studies and travels related to poverty, health, and education, as well as watching farm workers in her California community growing up.

“It makes you think about how you can improve things, make things more transparent,” Khoury-Diaz said. “So from a social and environmental perspective, it made a lot of sense.”

The differences between natural wines and traditional ones can be subtle, or vary. Some of the wines can be earthier than traditional wines. And while a cabernet sauvignon might usually be described as bolder, and bigger, a natural cabernet sauvignon might be light and bright, she said.

One of her favorite wines is a pét-nat or Pétillant-naturel, a type of sparkling wine where the grape ferments in the bottle and the bottle is capped off (like beer,) leading to a cloudier wine often with some residual sediment.

“It’s something fun and whimsical intended to be drunk soon,” Khoury-Diaz said.

She’s been doing little drinking lately, expecting her first child who was due this month, but not slowing down since she still tastes and spits to put together the wine list at Dio.

The list includes natural wines from California to Africa and South America, though the most prevalent labels are European. Like the wines, the customers are also international. Natural wine bars are popular all over the world, including Paris, New York, California. For DC, it’s still new, she said, but the city has a lot of adventurous drinkers and eaters, and lots of travelers who seek out natural wines.

Together with her general manager Janine Copeland, Khoury-Diaz likes to promote other women of color in the business, and she highlights the little noticed labor of those who work in the fields. Lining the bar are simple photos of farm workers, a nod to her home and culture.
​
“It’s a message to say this is still a part of me, my space,” Khoury-Diaz said. Helping introduce natural wines to the District feels right, she said. And often, people find her, walking into the bar and feeling right at home with the wine they prefer. “You’re the only place that has it.”

​
​THREE WINES FOR SUMMER:

Khourey-Diaz offers some natural wine recommendations to enjoy this simmer, or anytime:
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Pink Bubbles - Channing Daughters 2016 Rosato Pétillant Naturel. This is a natural style of sparkling - pet nat for short - from Long Island, New York. It is farmed sustainably with no additives. It's bubbly, bright, and tastes like jolly ranchers without all of the sugar. 
 
Rosé (kind of) - Kelley Fox 2017 Pinot Gris. This is technically an orange wine because white grapes (pinot gris) have been fermented on the skins to give the wine a bit more color and texture. However, Pinot Gris can sometimes have a very pink hue, and this wine drinks just like a dry, refreshing, but still interesting, rosé.

Chilled Red -  Mariam Iosebidze’s 2016 Tavkveri. This is an obscure red grape varietal from the country of Georgia. This wine is woman-made and is both refreshing and complex with a fusion of smokiness, bruised strawberries, and acid. 
 
About Dio Wine Bar:

Address:
904 H Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 506-3103
 
Opening Hours:
Tues-Fri:          5 p.m.
Sat:                  4 p.m.
Sun:                 3 p.m.
 
Online: diowinebar.com

After a career spanning six decades, dozens of albums, worldwide hits in English and Spanish and performances in front of five U.S. presidents, Grammy winner Vikki Carr can now be found singing in the choir on any given weekend at her church, St. Matthew Catholic Church in San Antonio.

By doing something she loves, using her talents to connect to others and honoring her faith, she is taking care of herself, she said - something she didn’t always do. But today she says practicing self-care is something she does consciously and tries to advocates for with her audiences, especially in the Latino community.

“You have to move, be physical, laugh, be happy,” said Carr, who turns 78 this month. “There’s so much life to live, you have to.”

Carr will be speaking at the UnidosUS annual conference in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, July 7th, during UnitedHealthcare’s “Hay Más Adelante” workshop geared for seniors. Among the program’s offerings is support for caregivers, she said, adding it has lightened the load for her.

“The most important person to take care of is yourself,” said Carr, who is caring for her husband of 25 years. He is dealing with a long term illness.

During most of her career Carr – born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona – was looking out for her public and her shows, she says. She was told to save her voice for performances and asked in so many ways, by so many industry folks, to be quiet, to shut up.

But after finding love with her husband and settling into life in San Antonio, Carr also found deeper connections to her Catholic faith and to God, she said. Secure in her beliefs, she no longer stays quiet.

“Now I reached a point that I have found my voice,” Carr said. “I’m opening my mouth more because I feel things need to be said.”

She still tells families education is critical. She has a scholarship fund that has sent some 300 Latino youth often from migrant families to universities like Harvard, Yale and UCLA to become an astronaut, doctors and judges.

Born in El Paso, she says the separation of families at the border is tragic, but adds everyone needs to work together if anything is going to get fixed: “This country needs us all to work together, not against each other.”

And raised in an era when your father, mother, husband or manager took care of your business, Carr said she’s become savvy in handling her own affairs, and tells other women to also count on themselves first.

But most of all Carr talks about loving and taking care of yourself no matter your age – sleep, eat well, keep moving, count on your faith.

And talk about what matters to you with no apologies. In her case, how her faith has always been there for her – guiding her to make her own decisions that got her hits when no one else believed in her choices, and with her from her performance days in lonely hotel rooms to caring for the love of her life now.
​
“My father told me you are an American of Mexican descent. Be the best human being you can be. I’ve tried to be the best that I can,” Carr said. “And if I talked too much about God, well, I’m not sorry.”

​

SATURDAY, JULY 7 EVENT DETAILS:

What:
UnitedHealthcare’s “Hay Más Adelante” event where Latino seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries will learn about Medicare and celebrate their culture, supported by the AARP Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans. 

When:
Saturday, July 7
2:00 p.m. and a meet-and-greet scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Where:
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Room 207B; (Booth at Exhibit Hall D & E,) as part of the UnidosUS Conference
801 Mt Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC 20001

Who:
Vikki Carr, UnitedHealthcare speakers. Supported by the AARP® Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans, insured by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company

​Cost:
The event is open to the public, and there is no cost to attend. For more information or to confirm attendance, call 1-800-983-6998 or visit http://www.haymasadelante.com.

​When Felipe Benitez founded Corazón Latino last year, he had more than a decade of experience working in Washington, DC on campaigns and projects to engage Latino families with nature, conservation and well being. But it was the transformation he saw with his own 6-year-old son that brought it all home. Dealing with some childhood health and developmental challenges, his son significantly improved physically, mentally and emotionally after regular father-son outdoor activities like nature walks, and using fun apps to discover new trees, plants and inspect species.

“If I have that luxury to offer my son the outdoors in a consistent way because of knowledge and access, everyone should have that luxury,” Benitez said. “It’s one of Corazón Latino’s biggest passions – access to public lands for everyone. We all have the right to enjoy them, and we all have the responsibility to care for them.”

Solid research shows just a few minutes outside in green spaces reduces stress, helps people stay focused, and has tremendous benefits to your health, but many families of color don’t get this message, he said. We often live in cities, dealing with asthma and other health conditions that would improve by getting outside. And the picture we as Americans most often see of the outdoors is a solitary person contemplating life somewhere in nature, by themselves, and maybe not a Latino.

Corazón Latino, a nonprofit organization, is joining efforts to change that image by making Latino families feel welcome outside, to the point that they become stewards of nature for future generations.

That is why their outdoor events may include camping with dancing, and nature hikes followed by pupusas. Benitez says Latinos like to enjoy nature as a community.

“It’s a celebration for families. Let’s talk, let’s dance, let’s feast together and let’s bring the outdoors experience into your heart.”

Through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, including projects like Descubre el Bosque, Benitez and his nonprofit will continue hosting outdoor events in the Washington, DC area for families.

The next event is Sunday, June 10, at Kenilworth Gardens – a bilingual family event where attendees can explore the forest and waters, dance, eat, and act as Civic Scientists when they look out for the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive species of beetle killing Ash trees across the country (the tree is used to make baseball bats.) Attendees can even plant a tree to highlight what we can all do to restore the land and protect the waters.

Through the ongoing local events, the group is also informing national research on how to get Latinos outside, and to fall in love with the land that is theirs, too.

Eight years ago when I had my first daughter, my boss at the time told me I would be a great mom some days, and a great person at work some days, but rarely would I be a great mom and a great career women on the same day. That thought has kept me going on the days when I feel like a shitty mom. Actually, a lot of my friends tell me often they feel like shitty moms. They are also trying to balance work and family, and I know they are great moms, but the pull of wanting to be a perfect mom is alluring.

Do perfect moms exist? No. Only on TV. And my daughter doesn’t help by telling me one day that her friends’ parents don’t say mean things to them and are always there and are always on their side. This happened after a particularly bad morning when we were fighting and she was complaining about everything and being very extra and I asked her to please go away before I lost it. (A very shitty mom move.)

I actually stood up for shitty moms everywhere by telling her it’s not true that any parents are perfect all the time, and that we all make mistakes and that I love her very much.

It made me think of my mother, who I continue gaining appreciation for more and more every day, even though we fight a lot. When I was little my parents cleaned offices and all I knew was that I wanted to not clean offices when I grew up. I wanted to make offices dirty, I declared, by working in an office.

One day I brought home a ton of papers from one of the offices we cleaned. I was playing office, and laid them out in neat piles on the front lawn. I am amazed now my mother let me do that. Was she just too tired or busy to notice, or was she wise and letting me dream, play and be a kid? I would never let my kids lay out dozens of piles of paper in the front lawn now.
​
While I was merrily playing, a big wind came and the neat piles exploded into a tornado of papers. They littered the entire lawn and the neighborhood, and I ran around trying to get them but it was no use. I didn’t get in trouble for that, but I still remember how I felt losing control of the whole situation.

For years now, after college, I have worked in an office. First as a reporter, and then in communications. I recently left a perfectly fine government job I’d had for years to feel like I was making more of a difference. I lasted three months at this high profile nonprofit working on immigration issues, a dream job in many ways and an invigorating one. But I had to leave to be able to truly hang out with my kids and husband, and especially with my older daughter who has been getting into trouble. I wasn’t able to balance work and family at this job, and I feel like I am once again grabbing into the air but losing control of my career.

On the last day of my short stint, feeling like a failure, I was packing up my office when I found a colorful pad of sticky notes. I brought them home so my daughter could play office. When she saw them her eyes lit up and she asked if she could have them. Yes, I said.

For the past few days I have been spending entire days with her and my younger daughter. She has carried those sticky notes around every day, taking notes and dutifully highlighting her notes with stickies. If she forgets the pad somewhere she goes back to get it. I know this because I have been with her, watching, playing, talking, feeling like not so much of a failure anymore.

I don’t know what comes next career-wise.

But maybe shitty momming should not be measured in days, but seasons. And instead of shitty we should call ourselves real, brave, tired, loving, awesome, #1 Mom in the whole wide world - just like our kids see us most days. 

There are few things more sacred than remembering and connecting with your ancestors, or loved ones who have passed. American culture has embraced Mexico’s Day of the Dead – or Día de los Muertos – with typical American commercialism and a party attitude. I don’t really mind because the day is so colorful and beautiful, that it’s big enough to embrace the hype and still stay true to itself. That is why at home I can put pictures up of my grandparents that I never met and talk to them, with a simple altar that honors the spirit of the day. And then with my family or friends we can go and celebrate the day in a community setting. The number of events in DC is still small, but there is a little something for everyone, from foodies to party people, and culture enthusiasts.
 
Mezcal Tasting:
Union Market hosts a Dia de los Mezcales liquor tasting on Thursday, October 27th from 6 to 8 pm. Mezcal novice? Mezcal obsessed? You can learn more about Mexico's spirit while tasting through a selection of different styles and agave varietals. Artisanal producers will be featured and paired with smoky barbeque from The BBQ Joint. Tickets are $40. Visit here for details.

Celebration and Altar:
The Mexican Cultural Institute hosts a breathtaking altar installation each year. This time the kickoff is Saturday, Oct 29th from Noon to 4 pm. They will honor our beloved Juan Gabriel, as well as others, and papel picado will take center stage.  The altar will be on display until November 21. FREE. Visit Institute of Mexico DC for details.
 
Cooking class:
Del Campo and Chef Victor Albisu will demonstrate how to prepare traditional Mexican dishes for your Day of the Dead celebrations on Saturday, Oct 29th. The afternoon is from Noon to 3pm and begins with 30 minutes for hors d’oeurves and a signature cocktail, followed by one hour of instruction. At the end, lunch will be served to enjoy the items demonstrated. Tickets are $98. Visit here for details.
 
Two-day festival:
The National Museum of the American Indian has been hosting one of the first and largest celebrations for some years now. They have arts projects for the kids, food tastings, music, dances and art exhibits. This year the event is Saturday, Oct. 29th-Sunday, Oct. 30th. FREE. Visit NMAI for details.
 
Black Tie Gala:
Things to do DC hosts a Day of the Dead Fiesta on November 4, 2016, 8:30 p.m. to midnight, at the Mexican Cultural Center, Embassy of Mexico, 2829 16th Street, NW Washington DC. The black tie gala includes a Mexican buffet, mariachi, DJ, dancing, open bar with tequila and other drinks, and a tour of the center. Tickets are $124. Visit here for details.
 
Restaurants:
Local restaurants are offering special drinks, menus and events to celebrate. Oyamel is offering specials now through November 6th, including dishes such as Carne Apache and Calabaza en Tache, and even a late night with Anthony Bourdain on Thursday, Oct. 27th. Visit Oyamel for details. Rosa Mexicano will also have specials including Enchiladas de Mole Poblano and Enchiladas de Mole Blanco. Visit Rosa Mexicano for details and reservations.

When Prince died the whole country mourned, and I that is when I started listening to his music. I intellectually got his genius, and admired his talent, but even though I was born in Texas, I basically grew up Mexican, so my soundtrack was in Spanish.
 
Now Juan Gabriel has died and I am sobbing with every song. His love songs are part of the sounds of my childhood. My dad used to listen to “Siempre en Mi mente,” surely remembering an old flame. My mom used to listen to all his Acapulsco songs, her hometown where she spent her days of youth.
 
My sister and I would clean the house to all his love ballads. As a young adult, I would sing his songs in the car in college and in all the cities I moved to for work when I was homesick.
 
Now, as a mother and wife in DC, I have left my Mexican-American soundtrack fade on many days because you get caught up in the present, which I am lucky is a beautiful life. But Juan Gabriel is not often on the radio, and I have to look for him on Spotify when I need to reconnect. I was excited to go to his concert with my husband this October in NYC to celebrate our anniversary. I was sure my husband would fall asleep at some point because he doesn’t know his music, but I wanted to share my Juan Gabriel with him, as he shared his Prince with me.
 
Now, as I  listen to all the songs playing in tribute, I am reminded of my happy and sad childhood days, my young parents in love, my sister who is far way, and a little Mexican-American girl who grew up Mexican. The Mexican part is deep inside me, at my core, and Juan Gabriel has reminded me of her.
 
Gracias Juan Gabriel, por existir, por tus palabras, valor, tu amor …. Descansa en paz, o baila toda la noche.