Table for All

Today on Table for All, this one's for the Boricuas, our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters.

We start off by reaching new heights, becoming superheroes with a graphic novelist and activist.

Jump in the kitchen with a Puerto Rican chef teaching the history and flavors of the culture.

Find the centuries-old rhythm of the people with a Bomba and Plena master.

And get ready to party as we take you inside the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

(upbeat music) Every superhero has an origin story.

In 1493, Columbus discovered another new world.

This would be Puerto Rico, but not so fast, Columbus.

This land was already taken.

The original settlers were the Taino Indians.

They called this land Borinquen, and they called themselves Boricuas.

When Columbus settled on Borinquen, he set off an over 400-year chain of events that included developing the land for production, slavery, and renaming the land Puerto Rico, which means rich port.

For many superheroes, it takes tragedy, grit, and hope for their powers to develop.

And Puerto Ricans have experienced all three.

It's no wonder why so many have gone on to do extraordinary things in entertainment, politics, sports, and beyond.

I heard of one man using his superpowers to uplift Puerto Rico.

Edgardo Miranda Rodriguez by day is a graphic artist with his wife, Kiang, but by night is a social justice warrior and the creator of La Borinquea, the first Afro-Puerto Rican comic book superhero.

His graphic novels have gone mainstream, being taught in lecture halls, classrooms, and galleries all over the world as a way to preserve Puerto Rican heritage.

I journeyed to Edgardo's Fortress of Solitude, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to see how art imitates life.

Edgardo Miranda Rodriguez.

How you doing?

- What's up, Buki?

Welcome.

- The pride of Williamsburg.

Edgardo's origin story began in abject poverty that caused his family to move over 22 different times, but he says comics were his way out.

He would collect bottles and cans from the neighborhood to buy comics and escape into a world of truth and justice.

Those humble beginnings inspired Edgardo to speak up for the disenfranchised.

- So we are in Los Sures, the South Side.

I did not know it was such a hustling and bustling, vibrant Puerto Rican community.

How's it changed?

- In the '90s, a lot of developers saw this as prime real estate because of its proximity to lower Manhattan.

I know many families, they'll be living with their grandma, they'll be living with their parents, and they're like, "Well, I'm older now."

And they'll move to Florida, they'll move to New Jersey, 'cause they can't afford to live in a neighborhood they called home.

- Your Los Sures was really the backdrop to creating La Borinquea.

- I wrote her character's background to be one of the many Puerto Rican families that is from this community.

- La Borinquea, better known as Marisol Rios de la Luz, is a Williamsburg native and Columbia University student.

On a trip to Puerto Rico, she finds ancient Taino crystals that give Marisol superhuman strength, the ability to fly, and control over storms.

Now La Borinquea's mission is to fight for Puerto Rico, both on and off the page.

- Her story connects the concepts and the struggles of gentrification, not only to what's happening locally, but what's happening in Puerto Rico and beyond.

- In 2018, Edgardo was approached by DC Comics to collaborate on a special edition book featuring La Borinquea, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the DC universe.

To date, it's their most profitable comic, and has gone on to create a grant program to help Puerto Ricans all across the island.

- When I developed this character, I was very well aware that the way to do that was through pop culture.

To bring this discourse into a mainstream space.

- And Edgardo was recognized with the Eisner Humanitarian Award for his philanthropic efforts to bring awareness to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the land, killed thousands, and steeped the island in darkness, the second longest blackout in history.

On our journey through the South Side, Edgardo wanted me to meet Joseph Diaz, the owner of the AM/PM Gallery and defender of the neighborhood.

- We're trying to bring our people together to build community around art and use our voices and use our art to make change, bridging the gap between Puerto Ricans in New York and Puerto Ricans on the island.

- And Edgardo knows the way to bridge that gap is through a dialogue.

- I'm trying to bring this conversation that engages people to understand that as a US territory, Puerto Rico continues to be the oldest colony on the planet.

- It all started back in 1898 when Puerto Rico became a US territory.

Fast forward to the Jones Act of 1917 that gave Puerto Ricans US citizenship, but restricted many of their rights, like the right to vote.

- Puerto Ricanos should be given an audience so that we can hear them and they can tell us what they want.

- To make sure the next generation has a chance to use their voices for change, Edgardo invited me to his son Enio's fourth grade class.

Enio is a budding graphic artist himself and the youngest member of the Mighty Mirandas.

Class was in session at PS84, Jose de Diego, to learn about embracing culture and finding your inner superhero.

- Buenos dias, everybody.

My name is Edgardo.

- Buenos dias.

- Today, I'm gonna talk to you about our superhero.

Her name is La Borinquea.

Everyone gets to create a superhero inspired by their heritage, their values and social change.

Who's excited about that?

Who already has ideas?

With colored pencils as their wondrous wands and super swords, the fourth graders and I got to work.

Is that a cheetah print high heel boot?

You've got some style.

Clearly I need to work on my art skills.

And before I could say, "Kapow!"

It was time to present our superheroes.

- Superhero name is Sushi Guy and he has chopsticks to fight with.

- What do the colors represent on her costume for you?

- The Japanese flag.

- Give it up for Kana's superhero.

These kids are definitely the guardians of this galaxy.

After class, Principal Rodriguez told me how they mold such brilliant students.

- We're very excited to host workshops like these.

We're so very lucky to have someone like Edgardo, who's born and raised here also, and that can be that role model for our children to come in and engage all of our students.

I want to make sure that all of our children grow to be adults that have empathy and that know that culture is important and have an open mind.

- He may not be faster than a speeding bullet or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but Edgardo Miranda Rodriguez is a superhero who uses his powers of storytelling and activism to make sure Puerto Rico has a voice.

All while helping future Cape Crusaders tap into their cultures and inner strength.

- Thank you, Table for All with Buki.

- Yay!

- Now that's super.

Some say Puerto Rico was the first melting pot, a centuries-old recipe of indigenous, European, and African peoples who brought their own ideas and customs.

Mix them together to get the vibrant Puerto Rican culture we know today.

And when it comes to Puerto Rican food, Maria Bido is the authority and founder of Mia's Cocina.

She has been cooking authentic Puerto Rican foods for decades, and she was just recognized by the city of New York for her contributions to preserving Puerto Rican heritage.

I heard about her wildly popular and social media famous cooking classes and had to try.

So we met in Harrison, New Jersey at the Urby Communal Kitchen to talk food, culture, and shared histories.

Maria I just met a girl named Maria - Hey, Maria.

- Hey, Buki.

- We threw on our aprons and toasted to a great day.

But the one drink no Puerto Rican over the age of 21 can resist, the coquito.

- My secret ingredient is I put a little bit of brandy.

- Wow.

- Okay, ready?

- So you're gonna have me on the floor today.

Maria put me to work as her sous chef, and we prepped for one of her cooking classes.

And she shared with me how she made lemonade out of life's lemons.

- 2020 happened.

- And it just hit like a bomb.

I lost my job like half of America did, unfortunately.

And I ended up at the Loisaida Community Center.

The executive director there is Puerto Rican and so am I.

And what did we start talking about?

- Food.

- I took out my phone, I started showing him pictures.

And he said, "Maria, let's make a video for the holidays."

So I said, "Okay, let's do it."

- Almost five years after that first video, and Maria is having the time of her life, catering massive events and teaching over a hundred cooking classes at the Essex Market in Lower Manhattan.

Does it feel like you're in line with what you always were meant to do?

- This is what I should have been doing my whole life.

I always enjoyed cooking and even more feeding people.

And then-- - Started with Grandma Jovita.

- Grandma Jovita.

- Maria may be an only child, but she grew up with 17 cousins.

While the parents worked, the kids stayed with Grandma Jovita.

But that's abuela to you.

Maria learned the love of the kitchen from her abuela and soon became her sous chef, peeling bowls of garlic.

abuela Jovita taught Maria how to cook, but Maria credits her abuela Panchita with teaching her the art of the hustle and is now the keeper of her abuela's recipes and legacies.

- What dish reminds you most of your abuela?

- It has to be the arroz con gandules, the rice with the pigeon peas.

That was her signature dish and I nailed it.

- Did you ever think it would get this big though?

- Never in my wildest dreams (both laughing) did I ever think that it would get this crazy.

And I'm very grateful that I'm able to share my grandmother's recipes with so many people.

- Once we're all prepped, it was time for class.

- Please welcome to Mia's Cocina, special edition table for all.

Let's get cooking.

- My name is Maria and I'm going to be showing you how to make traditional Puerto Rican recipes.

- What's on the menu?

The national dish, arroz con gandules, pulled pork, yuca.

- And it won't be a party without dessert.

So you know, we're gonna have some flan de queso.

- We started with the flan by melting granulated sugar in a pan.

- So while you're doing this, you want to always stand here.

- After it boiled to molten consistency, it was time to coat our dish.

- How do you go in the bowl, like halfway?

- So if you could go all the way up, you go all the way up, but you don't really need to.

- Is that a challenge?

(both laughing) - We set the sugar aside and made Maria's special flan mixture using her secret ingredient, cream cheese.

Pour the delectable concoction in our sugar coated dish, put it in the oven and set the timer.

Up next, the yuca, an appealing lesson for the class.

Maria just doesn't host a cooking class, but a cultural experience.

- Puerto Rican kitchen is a combination of three cultures that collided together.

We have our Taino influence, our indigenous ancestors, and their diet included a lot of root vegetables.

Along came our European ancestors because they brought over the pig, the cow, and the chicken.

We could not have our national dish, our arroz con gandules, without our African ancestors' contribution.

They were also the first ones to harvest and cultivate rice.

- Don't forget to tell them that we are Nigerian cousins.

- We definitely are.

- She did her ancestry DNA, she's what?

- My God.

- 2%?

- 2% Nigerian in me, that's all baby.

- Next on the class menu, the pork, which we scored and slathered in abuela's traditional Puerto Rican spices.

No home is complete without the holy trinity of sofrito, garlic paste, and adobo, made with salt, garlic, and Dominican oregano.

- Who we putting to work?

- We're putting Natalie to work.

- The class got their hands dirty making their own adobo, while Maria and I tackle the arroz con gandules, a love letter to Maria's abuela and the three cultures that made Puerto Rico what it is today.

With a little Boricua magic, the rice was ready, pork was fork tender, and the yuca mashed with a garlicky adobo sauce.

We were ready to eat.

- Oh, good Lord.

(laughing) - This is love on a plate.

- Yes.

- Right here.

- Love on a plate, I couldn't say it any better myself.

- Wait a minute, what about the flan?

- We all get excited about this delicious dessert.

So we all say, Buki's gonna flip the flan - We're at plate.

- Yeah!

- We cut the flan into perfect pieces and tasted the fruits of our labor.

- Yes.

Yes, okay.

- Wow.

- The cream cheese definitely gives it like a really nice like texture.

- I was like, who's show is this?

(laughing) That's my line.

(laughing) - Take a cooking class with Maria and you'll learn much more than how to chop an onion.

You'll discover the history behind some of your favorite Puerto Rican flavors, the value of family and the role food plays in shaping who we are.

If you had a chance to say something to your grandmother right now, what would you say to her?

- I'm at a loss for words.

I would just thank her for teaching me everything.

If food is the soul of Puerto Rican culture, then music has to be the heart.

And one of the oldest forms of music from the island is Bomba and Plena.

Way before salsa, there was Bomba .

Dating back over 400 years, Bomba came to the island from enslaved Africans brought over by European settlers.

They played the fiery barrel-shaped drums as a source of expression, resistance, and a form of celebration.

Plena came into the picture in the early 20th century and reflected the news and feelings of everyday life.

Both unique, both distinct, and both a representation of where Puerto Rico started and where it's going.

Nestled in Jersey City is a married couple who is ensuring the heart of Puerto Rico beats stronger than ever.

Juan Cartagena and Nanette Hernndez are the founders of Segunda Quimbamba.

They have been playing Bomba and Plena for decades and teach the folk art as a way to carry on the tradition.

So much so that in 2023, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts recognized Juan and Nanette with its highest honor, the Heritage Fellowship Award.

I sat down with Juan in his home, a shrine to the art of Bomba and Plena, and I quickly found out when it comes to music, he does not mess around.

Bomba is serious stuff.

It reminds you of your ancestors because you feel it from the ground up.

It's interesting that after 400 years, it's still the same.

You guys play for celebrations, for weddings, for protests, for all of it.

All the time.

It's a rejuvenation of the genre.

Because you always have to remember, this is marginalized music.

It was not considered valuable music.

Why?

Because it was black music.

And now when people on the island and people who live in the United States from the island embrace Bomba , they're doing it with multiple intentions.

One is blackness.

Two is celebration and ancestry and our ancestors.

And three is release.

You can't have Bomba or Plena without dancing.

The dancers who surround the instruments are the conductors of this ensemble.

When they move, the drums move.

Every note is informed by the dancers.

What is it like to teach this heritage to the next generation?

It's an incredible place of honor and privilege for me to share this information.

Because I'm not just teaching, I'm learning.

I'm learning new techniques about how to teach different people who come to drumming with some experience, come to drumming with no experience.

And that culminates in Segunda Quimbamba's annual recital with students from every age giving it their all for the culture.

When you finally get somebody drumming into a rhythm that never drummed before and they're feeling the connection between that rhythm and it stays steady and then you add the singing and then you add the instruments and then they see it with the dancing and they're just playing that steady rhythm and it gets locked in.

After all these years with Thank You Bad Bonnie, has the negative connotation of Bomba and Plena changed?

I want to think that yes.

More people know it and that means more people can appreciate it.

So in that sense it's definitely changed.

Now are there still elements of the Puerto Rican community who think that music is a little bit too, you know, down to earth, too much, a little bit too much?

A little too earthy.

A little too earthy.

So of course.

Juan spent many years as a civil rights attorney and says the practice of law and the practice of Bomba and Plena are not so far apart.

I see the two as linked.

I'm doing something on my cultural musical side that is synonymous and synced with my professional side of stopping outrageous unfair practices based on people's perception of who are valuable, who are all valuable.

And none of us are disposable.

Who do you play for?

I first play for the people behind me.

The people no longer with us.

Then I play for us.

Juan wanted me to experience the value of Bomba and Plena.

So he invited me to the Nimbus Arts Center and we were joined by Nanette and two of Juan's charges for a very special Bomba lesson.

You're holding it with your ankles and your thighs.

Now your right hand, if your right hand is with me, is a tone.

This is more or less the position you're going to be most of the time.

Ready?

Left hand.

Bass tones are a flashy entire hand.

Bass, tone, bass, bass.

Now we're going to add the...

Wait.

That's it.

You hear that?

We're in Puerto Rico.

Give me a drum roll.

We're doing this.

This is our basic step, right?

So we're going to take you into a short routine that we do a lot.

I wasn't going anywhere without Nanette, the principal dancer of Segunda Kim Bomba , teaching me the ones and twos of the dance.

I lost myself in the count, but found the center, found the spirit, and found the beat thanks to Juan and Nanette, who are securing Bomba , Plena, and Puerto Rico's place in the tapestry of history.

You are truly keeping the heartbeat of the ancestors alive.

What do you think they'll say to this right now?

Some of them will say, "Hey, you're doing it wrong."

They'll say, "Yeah, keep it up."

But just remember where it came from.

Bomba and Plena are the siren call for Puerto Rico.

And every year, Puerto Ricans from all over the world answer that call and journey to New York City for the biggest celebration of Boricua excellence, the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

It all started in 1958 when the first parade took place in Spanish Harlem as a way to celebrate the culture and bring awareness to their achievements.

Because it was just one year before that the gag law, which made owning or flying a Puerto Rican flag illegal on the island for almost a decade.

Today, Fifth Avenue is a sea of red, white, and blue.

And the parade has only gotten bigger with an estimated one million attendees.

The head Boricua in charge is board chair Lillian Rodriguez Lopez.

We walked the bustling streets just moments before the parade began.

What does it take to get this done?

We're always working year round, but we start six months of planning to make sure that everyone has a wonderful time and knows that this parade is about representation.

You've been a part of this for quite a while.

Yes, I have.

Seven years.

And how has it changed?

I like to tell people, Buki, that it's not perfect, but it's fun.

Every time something gets bigger, it requires a different level of execution.

We're troubleshooting up until the minute that first float goes off.

It's really important for us that our community is able to showcase the contributions we make in all walks of life.

Yes, we're joyous, and yes, we love our music, and yes, we love our food.

All of that makes being Puerto Rican.

But we are people that are grounded in community and grounded in service and grounded in celebration.

So after all of this, when do you get to let your hair down?

When do you get to do a little something?

Well, a little something.

A little something?

A little something.

It's a labor of love, but it's so important.

We're talking about the 68th year of celebration for this parade.

That's how important this is.

So what does that say about the culture?

Stickiness.

Stubbornness.

Stubborn?

Resiliency.

We just, Puerto Ricans get the job done.

Small but mighty.

Small but mighty.

I love that.

Small but mighty.

We are small but mighty.

I love it.

Well, a job well done.

Thank you.

And I can't wait.

And you're just seeing the beginning.

And just the beginning.

I can't wait to see and hear all of it.

Yeah, and you will.

And I will.

You will.

Although Lillian may be a New Yorker, she lives in Georgia.

And when it comes to Puerto Rican representation, Atlanta is having a moment.

The Puerto Rican population is booming at 45,000 and counting.

The city of Atlanta invited me on their float to meet some of these exceptional figures.

From artists like Lisette Correa, whose designs, a nod to both the Taino and Real Housewives culture adorn the float today.

I love how the culture is growing in Atlanta.

I love embracing the old and the new.

The roots with who we are today.

So that's what I think this whole thing encompasses.

To the creators like Lisandra Vasquez.

She learned English from watching American television shows and is now making sure the humor of the culture shines through.

I'm always very proud to be able to teach people about like barrandas and all of our cultures.

And that's one of the things that I like to do on stage.

It's just like let people in on our culture.

Because there's also not a lot of Puerto Rican comedians, period.

To the dreamers like Angel Fabian Rivera, who came directly from Puerto Rico to make Atlanta his home.

People come from different places.

It's like a pool of different communities.

And I love that because that's what Puerto Rico gave me.

Puerto Rico gave me community and I was looking for that and I found that in Atlanta.

And look who I ran into.

Bomba and Plena masters Nanette and Juan, who were also invited by the state of Georgia to perform Plena.

All for Puerto Rico.

Only Plena?

Yeah.

No, I was ready for my one, two, one, two.

He hopped on the float and the party began.

Puerto Ricans of all shapes, sizes and colors, as far as the eye could see, were here.

Basking in their cultures and communities with pride.

The laughter, the joy.

You had to be there.

And if you thought there wasn't going to be dancing, you came to the wrong parade.

The walk from 44th Street to 79th was indescribable because it's a journey that represents everything Puerto Ricans have overcome and how much more there is to achieve.

The word Boricua carries the weight of a legendary people.

And I can't think of better carriers of that weight than Edgardo, Maria, Juan, Nanette, Lillian and my ATL Boricuas, who showcased the excellence of Puerto Rico.

From their remarkable talents and creativity to the robust flavors of the food.

They bring the heart, resilience and determination of the men and women who came before them and who fought and earned their seat at the table.

And to the next generation of Boricuas and citizens of the world in pursuit of excellence.

If you ever lose your way, look to the skies and La Borinquea will show you the way.

[ Music ]