World-Class Latin Culture & Global Roots ~ “Buda Boya”
Gabriela Montero “Iberia” Shows the Spanish Influence on Piano Repertoire
Montero is famous for improvising live on themes provided by her audience.
Don’t miss her Albéniz, Granados, De Larrocha, and more at 92NY. More…
New York Latin Culture Brings the World Together
DanceAfrica at BAM ~ Brooklyn Celebrates Uganda
Tribute to the Ancestors, Community Day, Ndere Troupe, Bazaar, Dance Classes, Late Night Dance Party, FilmAfrica, Voices of Peace tapestry
Met Opera's El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego is a Day of the Dead Love Story
Isabel Leonard, Carlos Álvarez, Gabriella Reyes; Gabriela Lena Frank, Nilo Cruz, Deborah Colker
In Shakespeare in the Park, Romeo & Juliet's Love Language is Spanish
An iconic love story with a message for us all
New York African Film Festival is "As the Stars Sow the Earth"
“Promised Sky,” “The Eyes of Ghana, “Dust to Dreams”
UEFA Champions League Final ~ PSG vs Arsenal
World’s most prestigious soccer tournament
Ninth Avenue International Food Festival Has Mouth-Watering Latin Flavors
Brazilian, Caribbean, Colombian, Mexican, Portuguese, Spanish food and more
Bronx Week Parade, Festival, and Concert Finale
Walk of Fame, Bronx Ball, Parade, Food Festival, Finale Concert
Ascension Celebrates Jesus' Traditional Entry into Heaven
A heavenly birthday
Global Roots
Latin culture and American culture are far more African than most of us have been taught. We are Asian too.
European NYC
West African NYC
Central African NYC
East African NYC
Southern African NYC
Asian NYC
Iroko “Kíko” Keith Widyolar
Founder, Editor, Cacique, Mayimbe, Oba, Bobo, Whateveryouare
¿KLK? I’m an American, a 20-year New Yorker who lives, loves, and works in the Latin world with my Afro-Indigenous Dominican Taíno family.
My mentors are American, Brazilian, Argentine, French, Colombian, an African Queen, Cuban, and Puerto Rican. I live in Spanish full time.
I build brands and businesses, but my life’s purpose is to bring people together through culture. Maferefún Eleguá.
I’ve been looking for the roots of Latin culture since 2006. They reach around the world, but the literal root has been right in front of me the entire time. It’s the yuca.
Raw yuca root is poisonous. Indigenous Amazonians developed the technology to make it safe to eat. There are no primitive humans, only people highly adapted to regional ecosystems.
Taíno brought yuca to the Caribbean because it’s nutritious and didn’t spoil on long sea voyages.
On the islands, Taíno developed advanced farming techniques and mass-produced casabe flatbread. Yuca was so important, they named the great father Yúcahu.
In the Caribbean, we still eat boiled yuca with garlic and oil, bitter orange sauce, and sauteed onions for any meal. It’s inexpensive, filling, and delicious.
The colonizers recognized yuca’s power and took it to Africa and Asia.
In Mother Afrika, it’s called “cassava,” “manioc” (French for the Brazilian Tupi-Guarani word “mandioca”) or “muhogo.” In West Africa it can be used to make fufu.
In the Pacific, yuca is called some version of “tapioca” or “manioka” and has become the main starch of the islands.
In Asia, yuca is often called “tapioca,” or “cassava.” It is used to make sweets, including the tapioca balls in your favorite Taiwanese Boba Tea.
My father’s Thailand is now one of the world’s major yuca producers. That’s where I first tasted it as a child.
I just figured out that those tapioca balls and the boiled yuca I now love are the same Amazonian Caribbean super food.
So come with me and Yúcahu. Let’s explore the Latin side of New York, la Ciudad del Encanto. Mwen sèvi Ginen. Adál was here. ¡Ay bendito!
¡WEPA! “E-le-le, le-le-le…” ¡Aché!