oregano
date: label: date made
content: ca. 1977
notes: label: Description
content: Olive green spice container. Appears to be handmade.
label: Description
content: The base of this spice container has the label "OREGANO" hand painted on the center in brown. A green and blue leaf pattern stretches around the remainder of the base. Above and below the label and leaf pattern are two thin bands hand painted in brown. Bottom unmarked. Interior green.
label: Description
content: The olive green lid of the spice container has three tiers with a round handle atop last tier. Thin blue or brown hand painted bands encircle the edge and inside tier. Underside of lid has a concave center.
label: Description
content: This ceramic spice container was part of a set of containers that sat on the windowsill of Sandra Gutierrez’s home in North Carolina. Gutierrez acquired them in Guatemala. Each container was labeled with an ingredient commonly used or important in Guatemalan cuisine. This one is painted with the word Oregano.
label: Description
content: Cook and author Sandra Gutierrez is at heart a culinary educator. Gutierrez was born in the U.S. in Philadelphia, but raised in Guatemala, where she attended an American school that brought Guatemalan and U.S. cultural practices together.
label: Description
content: Gutierrez’ life was not defined by two distinct cultures, but by a single culture that shared the traditions of Guatemala and the U.S. “Food at home was also a reflection of my fused reality: we ate tamales for special occasions. . . . and Carolina hot dogs every chance we got,” she explains in her cookbook, “The New Southern Latino Table.”
label: Description
content: As an adult, Gutierrez and her husband, Louis Gutierrez, moved to the U.S., eventually settling in Durham, North Carolina. There in the American South, Gutierrez learned about Southern food traditions from her neighbors and in turn taught them about diverse Latin cuisines. It was while living in the South that she began to take note of the culinary movement that combines regional Southern and Latin American foodways and which now lies at the center of her culinary career. She notes in her cookbook that the regional cuisines of Latin America and the Southern United States share many ingredients and cooking techniques in common: ingredients like tomatoes, corn, pork, beans, sugar, potatoes and key techniques like barbecuing, braising, roasting and deep frying.
label: Description
content: Culinary writing is one of the many ways Gutierrez builds interpersonal relationships. Inviting people into her family’s inner sanctum, she also hosts cooking classes in her home. In her kitchen, where ceramics from Guatemala share counter space with antique Jell-O molds found in Southern antique shops, Gutierrez shares her migration story and passion for food cultures.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Guatemala
label: Associated Place
content: Guatemala
topic: label: Subject
content: Food Culture
label: Subject
content: Food Processing
label: Subject
content: Latino
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Sandra Gutierrez
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0039.05
label: accession number
content: 2018.0039
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0039.05
objectType: label: Object Name
content: container
label: Object Name
content: container, spice
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: lid: 1 7/16 in x 3 5/8 in; 3.65125 cm x 9.2075 cm
label: Measurements
content: container: 3 3/4 in x 3 1/16 in; 9.525 cm x 7.77875 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, container with lid on: 4 13/16 in x 3 5/8 in; 12.22375 cm x 9.2075 cm