El Día de Acción de Gracias, or Thanksgiving, is not widely celebrated in Peru. Since there is a large group of Peace Corps Volunteers in my region, all of whom are from the United States, we had the opportunity to share our culture with our communities. Most of the volunteers in my region got together with many members of our host families to eat a Peruvian-American fusion Thanksgiving meal. There were about 25 of us altogether at this celebration, and what a privilege it was to spend the time together, enjoying good food, music, and conversation.
I learned how to celebrate and share Thanksgiving in a culturally appropriate way. For example, we enjoyed some mashed potatoes, leveraging the widely available papa grown in this part of Peru. Did you know they originated here, and there are more than 4,000 varieties of potatoes in the country? What surprised me was that our guests had never heard of making mashed potatoes before! They’re usually eaten fried or boiled here. Although my community did not have the tradition to celebrate Thanksgiving, I was told during the party that some aspects of the holiday were similar to how my community celebrates Christmas.
