Eclectic community celebrates Thanksgiving

photo by Christian A. Lopez

by Amber McLaughlin
Staff Writer

Many University of La Verne students celebrate a holiday they do not understand, or care to know the history of. But what is the story behind Thanksgiving Day?

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of Thanksgiving, which originated in 1621 when Pilgrims shared a day of thanks with Native Americans to make peace after a hard and devastating first year in the New World. The fall harvest consisted of corn and other vegetables, fruits, fish that was packed in salt and meat that was smoke cured over a fire.

Zoila Garcia, secretary for the history and political science department, believes Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. She said when she lived in Cuba, missionaries brought the holiday tradition there to celebrate.

When she moved to America in 1972, she always set aside this day to spend with family and try to emphasize the meaning of it.

"My husband and I always made it a point to teach our children about giving thanks to God, and not to believe that Thanksgiving is just about eating," Garcia said.

In Cuba as well as America, Garcia said the traditional meal consists of turkey, roasted pork, sweet potatoes, white rice, black beans and Cuban desserts.

"We try to have the best of both worlds when it comes to food," she said.

Another important tradition in her family is putting different colored, dry beans in a jar for each blessing that is shared.

"This is meaningful to me because when I first moved to La Verne from Cuba, it was a blessing to get a job at the University of La Verne. At Thanksgiving this year, I will say a blessing since I'll be retiring after having worked at ULV for 30 years this upcoming year," Garcia said.

Gitty Amini, the new assistant professor of political science, said she used to go to Joshua Tree with her husband and friends for Thanksgiving.

"It was fun and a challenge to cook a turkey," she said.

Lately they have gone back to traditional roots and celebrated the holiday with her husband's family since they are nearby. Each year the location changes, although they are generally in the Los Angeles area.

Amini said usually the holiday's focus is not the food since everyone is spiritual in one way or another. The host gets to decide if there will be a turkey or not. Sometimes they choose ham, as well as sides and desserts.

"This Thanksgiving will be special because I am expecting my first child in December. Everyone will be talking about the soon-to-be first grandchild," she said.

Senior Neal Houska usually goes to his grandmother's house in Rancho Cucamonga. He said they usually watch football games, say a prayer, then have a traditional turkey and ham dinner followed by an assortment of desserts.

"It's a good way to see relatives before Christmas, because sometimes it's hard to get together," he said. "We are celebrating a day when the Indians took the Americans in and helped us out when we were coming from a new country."

Lynn Nguyen, sophomore, said her family is Catholic and goes to mass Thanksgiving Day before dinner.

"The most important thing to me is getting together with family, who I love most and giving thanks for what I have," Nguyen said.

All of her family come from New York, San Jose and Los Angeles and usually meet at her parent's house for a traditional dinner with fruit for dessert.

"Another meaningful thing about the holiday is donating canned foods and clothes to my church for poor people," she said. "How Thanksgiving originated isn't important to me, but how I celebrate it today to make the best of it is."