Deep thoughts about Puerto Rican food

I like arroz con gandules.

I know that sounds strange coming from a white guy who grew up in South-west Alabama, especially since most people don’t even know what arroz con gandules is. Basically it is a rice-based dish from Puerto Rico made with pigeon peas. Every family function or special occasion includes this, the unofficial national dish of the island. And it is heavenly. Mmmm.

I also particularly like mofongo and lechon, both traditional Puerto Rican dishes. There is actually much about Puerto Rican food and culture that I love dearly.

I love the island and its slower pace of life. I love the people with their celebratory lifestyles. Absolutely everything is an opportunity to throw a party. And the music! I am firmly convinced that the true, complete and pleasing worship of the Triune God will never be fully realized until we begin writing more worship music with merengue and salsa rhythms. (said tongue planted only partially in cheek)

So how does a slightly red-neckish guy from LA (that would be lower Alabama) come to love the food, culture and rhythms of a small Caribbean island like Puerto Rico?


Well, in short, I fell in love with all of these things because I love a Puerto Rican. My wife was born in San Juan and much of her family still lives both in Rio Piedras and Caguas. Though she grew up much of her life in the States, when you stepped through the front door of her family’s home, you were in Puerto Rico. It is because of my love and intense affection for a particular person that I have become enamored with and have begun to develop at least an elementary understanding of the culture of a particular people.

And this concept got me thinking. If there are particular cultures or people groups towards whom I display a lack of understanding or even affection, could at least part of the reason be because I have not loved particular people well?

Rather than the fault being with “them”, and you can fill in your own blank with whoever this might be for you. It may be a particular racial group (Hispanics for example or maybe African-Americans), a certain segment of society, (maybe the mentally ill), a specific socio-economic group (perhaps the poor or maybe even the very rich), a particular affinity group (artistic types or free thinkers). Whoever our specific group may be, rather than finding fault with “them” for not conforming to our standards of whatever is “normative”, perhaps the weight of the matter rests upon the sad fact that we simply have not loved well.

I love Puerto Rico because I love a Puerto Rican. And it is because of my love for a Puerto Rican that a more fully orbed picture of the true Kingdom of God has been opened before me. A Kingdom that includes God-glorifying things like arroz con gandules and Merengue.

We are told in Scripture that there is coming A Day when we will all see this carried out to it’s fullest conclusion, when the King of Glory returns and people…

“from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages [stand] before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and [cry] out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And when I picture this scene from Revelation 7, with no intended irreverence at all, I can’t help but hear the multitudes sing with a slightly Latin-infused rhythm. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.