In seeking out ways to improve my
Spanish and find interesting things to do with my time, I happily came across
Escuela Tecnica Los Angeles. Run
by Lina Perez in her home located near El Salvador’s University, the school offers
various pastry classes. Of all the
offerings, Panadería Salvadoreña, or Salvadoran Pastries, got me most excited. For three hours once a week, I’ve been
attending Lina’s classes, listening to her clear instructions, checking with my
Salvadoran classmates to make sure I got the details, and watching the
transformation of a few recipes move from flour, sugar, eggs, and margarine to
delightful goodies we get to take home to share with our families.
There are stressful moments for me. If I don’t happen to know what it is we’re making and I’m
supposed to create it, I feel uncertain how to proceed. How can I create something if I don’t
even know what it looks like? Usually
once the ingredients have been divided up and laid before me I feel better. Lina is also there to help and answer
questions. There are conversations about our personal lives, general themes,
and sometimes incredibly obscure topics.
I do my best to follow and can’t say I always understand. I do understand that my other
classmates have their own moments of stress in the class and that they’re
learning too. We fear making
mistakes. We worry we won’t do it
the right way. We struggle with
having some previous experience in baking, doing things differently than the
teacher, and none of us are experts.
But we all have the desire to learn.
I am enjoying the process of learning through doing. I know I will leave each class with a
new Spanish word or phrase, inspiration to bake more at home, and a little better appreciation of El Salvador’s culture and its people.
Scenes from last week’s class where we made
Pan Menudo, Masa de
Pichardin, and Masa Chibola:
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