Thu 10 Apr 2008 07:24
El Paso’s Mexicans will prepare food for Pope
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When El Pasoan Rosa A. Saenz was asked whether she and her family could prepare some of the food that will be served to Pope Benedict XVI when he visits the United States next week, she wept.
"I cried cause it is an honor that we would be chosen to do this," said Saenz, the owner of Los Bandidos de Carlos & Mickey’s restaurant. "Who are we?"
Benedict, who was elected pope in 2005, will visit Washington, D.C., and New York for five days next week. On April 19, the pope will attend a youth rally in Yonkers, N.Y., where he will be welcomed by 25,000 people and five food platters that represent the people and traditions of those living in the United States, Mexico, Latin America, and Central and South America.
One of the platters will be prepared and delivered by members of the Arrambide family, owners of the two Carlos and Mickey’s restaurants in El Paso. The El Paso platter will represent maize products.
"This is so important, delivering food for the pope, that we cannot ship it," said Carolina Arrambide, the family matriarch, who will travel to New York next week. "We have to go not only to represent the restaurant, but to represent the city of El Paso."
While El Paso’s food has been prepared for dignitaries before, and while El Pasoans are routinely selected to make Christmas ornaments and boots for presidents of the United States and other prominent people, this might be the first time for anyone in this city to cook for the pope.
Veronica Rayas, an El Pasoan who works for the Archdiocese of New York, is one of the organizers who selected Carlos & Mickey’s to make the maize platter for the pope. Rayas, who graduated from Loretto Academy and has a doctorate from Fordham University, said selecting the Arrambide family to cook for the pope was easy.
"When you have guests coming over, you always want to give them the best possible. That’s why we chose Carlos & Mickey’s," Rayas said.
As the co-director of the Catholic Youth Ministries for the Archdiocese of New York, she is helping prepare the festivities for the youth rally in New York that the pope will attend April 19.
When event organizers decided to follow the tradition of greeting guests with various foods indigenous to an area, Rayas said, she began thinking about El Paso and its good food.
At the youth rally, Benedict will be able to choose foods from five platters representing dark bread, light bread, unleavened bread, rice and maize. The maize platter will have tamales, tortillas, gorditas, tostadas and sopaipillas made at Carlos & Mickey’s.
"This way, a piece of El Paso will be here waiting for the pope," said Rayas, who lives in New York but has a cell phone with a 915 area code.
El Pasoan Art Peña, who on Wednesday was eating at the restaurant on Magruder Street near Bassett Center, said it was great that Carlos & Mickey’s was chosen to represent this area.
"This is good for them and for us," Peña said. "I don’t know the owners because I don’t come here a lot, but it’s a great honor for them."
Saenz said she didn’t think the four family members going to New York would get to meet the pope, but they remain excited.
"We have been blessed," she said.
Source The Mexican Times