Decolonize Your Thanksgiving Dinner

As we wrap up semi-finals and transition to break, most students seem excited to go home and celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s been a long and fast-paced semester without many breaks, and being able to relax will come as a relief. For many Cornellians, this holiday is an opportunity to catch up with loved ones and express what we’re grateful for. However, it’s important to recognize the origins of our traditions and critically examine the history that we teach. 

Many American students are still taught the story of Thanksgiving as a peaceful event that celebrated the unity between pilgrims and Native Americans. However, this is far from the truth.

An Immigrant Thanksgiving

A Salvadoran-American Perspective

For the first time in almost four years, many Americans feel tentatively proud of their country. Tireless encouragement to vote has helped prove that community support can unite a country divided and reestablish American values of truth, integrity and respect. As such, it seemed appropriate to take a look at the new meanings Thanksgiving may hold this year; Samai Navas, a recent Salvadoran-American immigrant and close family friend, shares what her All (Salvadoran) American Thanksgiving has come to represent over the years. 

It’s worth noting that the typical modern Thanksgiving symbolizes and commemorates an ideal that only existed for a very short time. While there is some truth behind the story of a peaceful feast between European settlers and the Wampanoag people in 1621, this calm did not last. Between the years of 1630 and 1642, plague tore through Native communities, resulting in the death of more than half of all Native Americans living at the time.

Thanksgiving, I Only Have “Pies” For You

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, what better way to celebrate the holidays than with a delicious, mouth-watering apple pie? To prepare for this feast, instead of wrapping your head around how to carve a turkey, follow these basic steps to create an apple pie that will certainly not disappoint. This recipe was adapted from my dear family friend, Maggie, who is a modern Betty Crocker. Each year when my family and I visit her beautiful summer house in Long Beach Island, I always look forward to making this pie with her.

Recipes for a Mindful, Plant-Based and Delicious Thanksgiving

Does “vegan Thanksgiving” sound like an oxymoron? To many in America, it might be a completely novel idea. But for me, a vegan Thanksgiving is normal, as I have eaten a plant-based diet (a term for a diet consisting of foods derived from plants, with no animal products whatsoever) for the past 10 years.

What is Thanksgiving Without Turkey?

While food is often what brings us all together, it’s the company and people you surround yourself with that leads to extended trips, family yoga classes, snuggling up on the couch to watch a movie or sticking around for breakfast the day after.

DUGGAL | The Struggle of Giving Thanks

This year was the first year I headed home for Thanksgiving. Most of campus tends to clear out the week of Thanksgiving Break, and usually, I am just another immigrant millennial headed to one of their American friends’ homes to gobble down some turkey and stuffing (and chocolate covered strawberries if I get lucky). This year, however, the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services decided to come in clutch and schedule my citizenship test the week after Thanksgiving. I was headed home to the aggressively Southern state of Texas to take my citizenship test, and spend some quality time giving thanks with my parents in the process. The idea of family bonding is not lost on my family.