War, marriage, and opportunity are just some of the reasons we might uproot our entire lives from one homestead to another. And while there are incredible opportunities that come with leaving all that we know and love behind, there can also be immense violence and loss -- be it to culture, identity, or life. What is at stake for those who try to assimilate into a brand new world? 

 

In episode two of Lagralane Spirits, The Violence of Migration, we tell our own migration stories and explore what our roots mean to our past, present, and future. We dig into this joy and pain with guest Natividad Lagramada Huff, also affectionately known as “Mama Nattie.”

 

This week: 

• Enjoy a Sazerac and share this recipe’s origins 
• Yvonne asks, “What gets lost in migration?”
• Yvonne dives into the importance of language in her biracial household 
• Yvonne shares with Jason how war played a part in how her parents met 
• Jason poses a question, “Our complete identity cannot be wrapped up in our name, so does that make us other?”
• Jason shares his thoughts on the current racial climate in America and how we are going through a reconstruction era again where we’re finding out more information about the meaning of race in our country 
• Jason and Yvonne talk to Mama Nattie, Yvonne’s mother, about her migration story from the Philippines  to The United States 
• Mamma Nattie explains to  Yvonne that when she moved to America, she didn’t have many people to speak Tagalog with and how that affected her using the language at home, and why it wasn’t taught to her children.
• Mamma Nattie tells Yvonne and Jason, “Wherever you guys are I’ll be home."

 

Cocktail: Sazerac

Recipe

• 1.5 oz of Cognac or Rye Whiskey
• 1.4 oz Absinthe 
• 1 Sugar Cube
• 3 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters

 

History & Meaning

The Sazerac was invented in 1838 by Antoine Amedie Peychaud. Peychaud was a Creole apothecary who immigrated to New Orleans from the West Indies. This drink was invented in the same year the forced migration of the Trail of Tears took place. Peychaud was living in New Orleans during the Slave Trade, which forcibly migrated and sold millions of West African people to slave trading ports all over the New World, including a port in New Orleans.