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Julia Roncoroni, an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Denver, and her husband Delio Figueroa, a music teacher in the Adams County School District, have both worked with immigrants frequently throughout their careers. And having moved from Argentina and Puerto Rico, respectively, they know firsthand the importance of food to personal histories of immigration—and the importance of telling those stories.
“We have heard so many stories that we felt had to be shared,” Roncoroni says. “There’s such restorative power to testimonials. And our communities heal through food. We show love through cooking. We often make a living through selling food. Intuitively, it is what made the most sense.”
That is, when the couple was figuring out how to document the stories they heard from local immigrants and refugees, it made sense for them to pick food as the driving force. Thus, they began to write Cocina Libre: Immigrant Resistance Recipes, a passion project that, despite being developed with and funded by the University of Denver, transcends the halls of academia. The cookbook combines first-person stories and recipes from immigrants and refugees from ten different countries (Peru, Ukraine, Mexico, Venezuela, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Colombia) who all currently reside in Colorado.
The results are hard-hitting, delving into struggles in the homeland, political tensions, migrating through the jungle on foot, rebuilding life in a new place, and mistreatment by the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At the same time, Cocina Libre contains in-depth tips and tricks for preparing anything from borscht to shrimp ceviche, Afghan kachaloo (a fried potato dish) to Bangladeshi beef stew. Whether sweet or savory, meat-based or vegetable-forward, the recipes are explained with love, patience, and great care.
Through word-of-mouth and helpful contacts, Roncoroni and Figueroa assembled a group of around 30 participants to contribute to the cookbook. DU funding, provided through its Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship & Learning, was used to purchase ingredients, compensate participants and faculty, and produce physical copies of the book.
To produce Cocina Libre, DU enlisted the help of eight students across its master’s, doctorate, and pre-med programs. Once recipes were selected by the participants, the team conducted conversational cooking sessions with participants. Roncoroni adapted to participants’ needs and comfort level, cooking at participants’ homes, DU’s campus, and even her and Figueroa’s own home.
“These are profound trauma stories,” Roncoroni says. “Cooking and eating with someone can be a really powerful way to build a relationship, but at the same time, they don’t know us, so we wanted to be really careful of respecting their privacy, respecting their healing process, so they didn’t have to share anything that they didn’t feel like sharing.”
In Cocina Libre, participants explore the identity crisis often experienced by migrants who seek a better life for themselves and their families. “One of the participants captured this really well, saying that it doesn’t matter whether you move, documented or undocumented, the challenge of not knowing if you’re ever going to be back to your space is just so massive,” Roncoroni says.
In addition to the psychological stress of immigration, Cocina Libre participants are also keenly aware of external tensions in response to their presence. “We got 40,000 Venezuelans in the last year. That’s a lot of people in a very short time period, for the size of Denver,” Roncoroni says. With such an influx of migrants comes economic strain, which exposes a flawed immigration system with no simple solutions as newcomers seek housing, employment, and a sense of community in a completely foreign culture.
Regardless, Roncoroni is inspired by the amount of enthusiasm for local advocacy in the Denver community. “A lot of support that our Venezuelan newcomers got last year came straight from the community, from people connecting directly with someone that they were wanting to support, and then trying to find them jobs and trying to connect them with lawyers or other resources.” She attributes much of that growth to the Black Lives Matter movement, saying “I think there’s a lot of community movement and activism now that wasn’t necessarily here before 2020.”
Roncoroni and Figueroa hosted two book launches for this May, where they debuted the “Cocina Libre: Immigrant Stories” companion documentary, which they produced in tandem to document the making of the cookbook. “We thought we should do something more with stories. The documentary narrates the stories of five Venezuelans—two of them cooked together—who came here [to Denver] last year,” Roncoroni says. The film delves deeper into their lives in Venezuela prior to immigrating, their decision to leave, the journey here, their experiences thus far in Colorado, and aspirations for the future.
In fostering this activism through academia, Roncoroni expresses gratitude for the opportunity to break down barriers and open the hearts and minds of students. “There’s a relational power and a growth that comes from thinking of yourself as a part of a community and not thinking of community as something that’s happening out there and you’re the academic and the expert.” She also believes that education and political activism go hand-in-hand. “I don’t think you can educate without being political. Period.”
Roncoroni has assured that Cocina Libre’s impact extends beyond the book launch. The initiative has hosted three benefit dinners, including the most recent event in June at Ruby’s Market featuring chef Edwin Sandoval from Xatrucho, to fundraise for ViVe Wellness, a nonprofit working to house Venezuelan immigrants among other efforts.
Roncoroni emphasizes that immigrants and refugees are complex human beings, and Cocina Libre, in depicting its subjects with nuance rather than just pity or praise, calls on its readers to reflect upon that. “I don’t necessarily think we’ll change the world with a cookbook,” she says. “But I am hoping that we can reach enough people who hadn’t thought about some of these things this way and that they can start thinking, What is my role here? What can I do?”
Cocina Libre, with a special foreword by chef Byron Gomez of Brutø, can be purchased online in English and in Spanish; you can also find copies at Ruby’s Market in Platt Park. All proceeds go to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which advocates for immigrants and refugees in Colorado and the United States, regardless of legal status.
