The Matheson History Museum became a bustling, vibrant tapestry of smells, flavors and stories as attendees served and savored a mix of Latin American dishes.
Gainesville’s Matheson History Museum hosted Taste of the World, one of the festival events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Gainesville Latino Film Festival, Sept. 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Organized by the Latina Women’s League, the event brought together cuisines from around the world, pushing to highlight how food can be a bridge between cultures.
Ericka Ghersi, raised in Peru and president of the Latina Women’s League, saw the event as a way to reveal the unique philosophies of cooking from different countries.
“I think that through the food you can understand a culture, and that's very important,” Ghersi said. “As you saw here, all the organizations use the same ingredients, but they all taste different, and that's because each culture has a philosophy of cooking or making their food, and that's what changes all the flavors you can have in each of them.”
Ghersi tasted a nostalgic bean soup taking her back to childhood in Peru.
“My mother used to make [it] on Sundays,” she said.
She noted how dishes like potatoes, also present at the festival, reflect different flavors and cooking traditions when prepared with ingredients from other cultures like Indian spices.
“Each of them had to use the same ingredients, but in different ways,” Ghersi said.
The sense of togetherness was something Cielo Ortiz, another event organizer and a Colombian native, also expressed.
“It is very important because it is very good for one to know from others both the flavors and cultures of other countries,” Ortiz said. “The whole atmosphere has always been very, very familiar ... We are among friends, among acquaintances.”
Ortiz noted Taste of the World grows each year, offering both traditional and new experiences that unite the community and allow people to taste the flavors of cultures they might not otherwise encounter.
Adding to the diversity of dishes, Manisha Ranade and members from the India Cultural and Education Center partnered with the Latina Women’s League to present a mix of rice, beans and potatoes seasoned with Indian flavors.
“It would be very interesting to have different countries using the same ingredients ... but they put in different spices,” Ranade said. “The beans, especially the kidney beans and black beans, are very similar to the bean dishes from South America.”
Ranade emphasized how sharing food at such events connects communities and provides an opportunity for collaboration and understanding.
“And some of the spices are also [similar]... we use onions and garlic, ginger, cumin, chili,” she said. “Almost all our get-togethers with friends and family revolve around food and eating these together is a very common tradition.”
For Mirian Hay-Roe, a Peruvian biologist who teaches at both Santa Fe College and UF, the event allowed for a unique exploration of shared traditions.
Hay-Roe spoke of how the festival featured dishes from various cultures, allowing people to taste flavors they might not typically experience.
“I think it's a way to be able to join the community,” Hay-Roe said. “It’s a way to unify the community because eating something different and something special is a good way to unite the community.”
For Hay-Roe, discovering the cultural nuances of ingredients like asafoetida — a spice in Indian cuisine used as a substitute for garlic — was a learning experience in itself.
“The only way you [expand] your diet is by understanding the foods that are served in other cultures,” Hay-Roe said.
As part of the 20th year of the Gainesville Latino Film Festival, participants said the event was a poignant reminder that a shared meal is more than just a feast — it's a way to hold onto traditions, to bring people closer during both joyous and challenging times and to find comfort and connection through cultural differences.
Contact Eneida Escobar at eescobar@alligator.org. Follow her on X @EneidaMariaEsc.
Eneida Escobar is a junior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration and a writer and translator for El Caimán. She was born in Cuba and raised in Miami and since childhood, she's had a love for learning languages, and currently knows English, Spanish, Italian, and a bit of French. She also likes learning various programming languages.
