Thank you for a great Copa and a Love Letter from MamaSita.

80% of this was organic, locally hustled from the East LA farmer’s market, selected & transported by Joaquin to his dad’s house (because we had no other space) picked up & dropped off by Victor, transported to 5 houses, back to papa flores’, lovingly washed by Haile (under adult supervision), chopped by more people than I could count (lets face it mostly by chronically on-time TC/Fubtolista/LW folks (jane, kate, sanje, saby, gris, jay, jeff, divina, julayne & not to mention the spectacular futbolista SWOOP down on cleaning after each event even at 5:30am).

I don’t know what motivates other folks, but I have my own wackadoodle reasons. Cooking is a form of non verbal communication and it’s sometimes the only way I can speak to my family – both literally and figuratively. If it weren’t for food I wouldn’t be able to spend time around my aunts, start conversations with perfect strangers, talk to my students. I cook because I am hugely socially anxious and can’t be without something to do. I cook instead of being on the field because I am terrified of sports and it’s a miracle that I am even around a soccer ball let alone have one in my house and I hope that because of LW my kids don’t grow up with the same anxiety. It is not a failure of LW that I’m not on a field, it’s a success that all kinds of people can find a space here whether it’s yoga on the sidelines or watching babies. I cook because I want people to understand that lemons and rosemary are both delicious and not indigenous to california–and that the people that make up this state are not just lemon and rosemary people. We are nopal people, soy sauce people, za’atar people. I cook like it’s a sport because I want to pummel myself into an emotionally vulnerable state and here it’s safe to do that — and then there are tears and tacos and kids and sunshine and dogs and ice cream cones and all you can think is that this is perhaps the most spectacular Monday that has ever Mondayed.

It is true, driving to another city after coming off a 5-day 50,000 person event and a full time job to cook for 4 days with no advance prep other than a stack of google spreadsheets is a little crazy – or to have a baby girl, a job that requires you to be up at 5am DURING the copa, and not be moved into your house yet and still show up to feed people is also a little crazy. All sorts of people pulled all sorts of things to make this happen. Lauren, Victor & crew for making calculations for reimbursements, long processy futbolista conversations about money, jessica, laurantonio, eastside & jalex for providing the world’s most perfect spaces for us to gather and talk and share and grub.