CARL MARIO NUDI PHOTOS
Yoshira Castro, Palmetto Library branch supervisor, gives a presentation about her home island of Puerto Rico during a Hispanic Heritage Month event Oct. 21 at the library.
Even though Hurricane Irma forced the postponement of the Hispanic Heritage Month event at the Palmetto Library from early September to Oct. 21, with Hurricane Maria devastating Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, the evening of food and fun had more significance.
“We try to cater to the various Hispanic cultures each Hispanic Heritage Month,” said Yoshira Castro, the Palmetto Library branch supervisor for the last eight years. “We planned on featuring Puerto Rico even before Hurricane Irma.
“Now that Hurricane Maria has hit the island, it’s become more important,” said Castro, who moved to Manatee County from Puerto Rico more than 15 years ago.
The effects of Hurricane Maria were added to the free two-hour program of a culture and history presentation of the island and a demonstration of vegetarian Puerto Rican cooking.
About 35 people attended the event.
Castro started the program with a slide show of travelogue-type photos of the beautiful island where she grew up, providing a narrative on its people, history and topography.
The 3.4 million Puerto Rican islanders are an ethnic mix of indigenous Taino, Spanish colonists and African slaves.
It became a territory of the United States after the Spanish-American War in the late 1800s, and the residents became U.S. citizens in 1917.
The island is 110 miles east to west, and 40 miles wide, with the northern part tropical, mountains covering the central area and a dryer climate in the south.
“You can even find cactus growing in the south,” Castro said.
Her love for the island of her birth was evident in her voice and joyful demeanor.
When explaining that the tiny tree frog, called the Coqui, was the unofficial mascot of Puerto Rico, Castro gleefully mimicked the loud, high-pitched “Ko-Kee” the animal makes and where it gets its name.
Several people in the audience, who also are from Puerto Rico, joined Castro in demonstrating the call.
The librarian also talked about the colloquial music and instruments of the island.
She demonstrated the panderio, a hand-held drum, and the guiro, a dried, hollow gourd with grooves carved into the side. When a stick is dragged across the grooves, it makes a scratching sound to help keep rhythm.
In no time, Castro had audience members drumming and strumming a Latin beat.
With all the good vibrations traveling through the room, it was not easy for her to transition into the effects the category 4 Hurricane Maria had on Puerto Rico.
But Castro said it was important for people to know how much the islanders are suffering.
“It was like a 50-mile-wide tornado making a direct hit on the island,” she said. “Everything collapsed, the electrical grid, water supply, banking system, roads and bridges, cellphone towers.”
For Castro, the devastation was personal.
“I haven’t talked to my family in Lauris (her home town) since the hurricane,” she said.
She projected photos from Puerto Rico showing empty supermarket shelves, people drinking water from springs, and the 350-foot statue of Christopher Columbus in the port city of Arecibo lying on its side.
“But we are strong in Puerto Rico, and will we will rise again,” Castro said.
A plate of some of the food Evelissa Capò, owner of The Food Pharmacy, prepared during a Hispanic Heritage Month event at the Palmetto Library. The more than 35 attendees to the event Oct. 21 had a chance to sample the delicious recipes.
Before moving on to the next part of the program she broke into a Puerto Rico folk song wearing a traditional Baba hat made of palm leaves.
“I can talk about Puerto Rico for a long time because I love my island,” Castro said, knowing she had to introduce the next guest, Evelisse Capò.
Capò, also born and raised in Puerto Rico, is a health and nutrition educator and demonstrated several traditional island dishes made without meat.
As she went about preparing recipes such as Arroz con Gandules (Rice and Pigeon Peas), Sancocho (Root Vegetable Stew), and Eve’s Pasta Salad, Capò explained how a plant-based diet can be healthy and taste good.
“This is not a diet, but a lifestyle,” she said. “I’m a firm believer you can change the world one bite at a time.”
Capò started most of the dishes off with a sofrito, a combination of onions, sweet peppers, garlic, oregano, red pepper and culantro [sic], sending an inviting aroma throughout the library lobby.
Visitors to the library gathered at the door of the community room to see what was cooking.
As each dish was finished, volunteers helped pass out plates of food for the audience to taste.
Capò moved to the mainland to attend college and received a bachelor’s degree at Purdue University and earned a doctorate in pharmacy at the Philadelphia College of Science.
She lives in Sarasota with her husband Sig, and three daughters and a son.
Capò said that after practicing pharmacy and seeing the effects of drugs on some patients she decided to switch careers.
“I wanted to use wholesome foods for medicine,” she said.
During her research for an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, she learned about the “Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,’’ an organization that, according to its website, promotes “bringing nutrition into medical education and practice” and “conducting clinical research on healthful diets.”
This led Capò to start her own consulting practice, The Food Pharmacy, where she conducts cooking demonstrations and seminars, speaks to groups and organizations, runs employee wellness programs, and provides one-on-one health and lifestyle coaching.
“I’ve been eating this way for 15 years,” she said, “and teaching the community about food for 11 years.
“For me, with all the work we go through, if we can change a life it makes it all worth it,” Capò said.
For more information on Capò’s organization and recipes of the meatless dishes she prepared, visit the website www.TheFoodPharmacy.com.
To learn more about the Palmetto Library, go to www.MyManatee.org/Library.
Castro also suggested several organizations where donations can be made to help the people of Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria:
• You Caring, www.youcaring.com
• Somos una Voz, www.somosunavoz.com
• United for Puerto Rico, www.unidosporpuertorico.com
• UNICEF Puerto Rico Relief, www.unicefusa.org/Hurricane/Donations
• Puerto Rico and Caribbean Hurricane Relief Fund, www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-maria-caribbean-relief-fund
