Cafe Ohlone was started by Vincent Medina, a member of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, and raised in San Lorenzo CA. Berkleyside writes the following on his new Cafe..
“As a kid, Medina didn’t know anything about traditional Ohlone foods. What he grew up eating and what he associated as native fare — like mole, tortillas and chiles — were ingredients that had been imposed on his ancestors during colonization, from the earliest days on Spanish missions and later, at the turn of the century, living in Indian villages on rancherias. Medina didn’t make the connection until years later when he taught himself to speak Chochenyo, the oldest language of the East Bay.”
The article goes on to talk about how Medina reconstructed the Ohlone language from recordings found on wax cylinders at UC Berkley, and is now conversationally fluent in the language. He noticed that a lot of the language revolved around food, and that eventually inspired him to open the Cake Ohlone.
Read more here..
Last Updated on August 6, 2018 by PowWow Articles
