Making Callaloo in Detroit

by Lolita Hernandez

Stories of hope and quirky survival in the city of Detroit colored by Caribbean culture and memory.

The daughter of parents from Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent, Lolita Hernandez gained a unique perspective on growing up in Detroit. In Making Callaloo in Detroit she weaves her memories of food, language, music, and family into twelve stories of outsiders looking at a strange world, wondering how to fit in, and making it through in their own way. The linguistic rhythms and phrases of her childhood bring distinctive characters to life: mothers, sons, daughters, friends, and neighbors who crave sun and saltwater and would rather dance on a bare wood floor than give in to despair. In their kitchens, they make callaloo, bakes, buljol, sanchocho, and pelau-foods not usually associated with Detroit.

Hernandez's characters sing and dance, curse and love, and cook and eat. A niece races to make a favorite family dish correctly for an uncle in the hospital, three friends watch an unfamiliar and official-looking man in the neighborhood, lovers and daughters cope with sudden deaths of the men in their lives, a man who can no longer speak escapes his life in imagination, and families gather to celebrate the new year with joyful dancing against a backdrop of calypso music. Hernandez's stories reflect the diversity of characters to be found at the intersection between cultures while also offering a window into a very particular and rich Caribbean culture that survives in the deepest recesses of Detroit.

In addition to being a compelling and colorful read, Making Callaloo in Detroit explores questions of how we assimilate and retain identity, how families evolve as generations pass, how memory guides the present, and how the spirit world stays close to the living. All readers of fiction will enjoy this lush collection.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detroit: “the air covered the terrain like a heavy blanket of despair...a peculiar funk covered everything, even the river.” And yet Hernandez infuses this post-industrial setting with exotic charm by recalling the food culture and mythology of her native West Indies. The Trinidad dialect stories, especially “Making Buljol,” “Making Bakes” and the title story, are among the best, displaying not only the importance of familiar foods from home but also the enduring links between bicultural life and language.

I relished the occasional touches of magic realism, such as characters smelling a bad odor just before they die and three old women thinking they see Death in church. “Sometimes You Leap; Sometimes You Fall” reminded me of Jonathan Lee’s novel, Joy. My favorite story was “Old Year’s Night,” narrated by a nine-year-old girl and full of all the celebratory feasting and dancing of a New Year’s Eve party.

Related reads, also from Wayne State University’s “Made in Michigan” series:
• Strings Attached by Diane DeCillis (poems – again with culinary and intercultural themes)
• Quality Snacks by Andy Mozina (short stories)

[Syrdarya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short story anthology themed around Detroit and the small Caribbean community there. Often food and dance play large parts of the stories, and ghosts frequently appear.

The stories take place in various settings in Detroit -- at home, at a factory, on the street of a close-knit neighborhood, in a nursing home -- and at different times. It reflects the variety of experiences of Detroit and the people there and often had a sense of familiarity for me as a fellow native Detroiter, but it was still eye-opening, as I have never worked at a car plant and I was unaware of a Caribbean community in my hometown until this book.

Sometimes the dialect became too thick for me to read. There were some sentences I never was able to figure out. I think a glossary at the end might have helped. However, other stories use less of the dialect or are easier to understand because the context explains what the words mean.

The frequent themes of death and regret fit Detroit perfectly. The anthology started out with stories that seemed lighter and peaceful, but gradually the stories were filled with more and more misfortune. Still, there was a sense of vibrant existence and renewal of life, which also matches the slow revival of Detroit.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because a lot of the stories were set in the SW Detroit neighborhood that I knew as a child. I didn't relate well to the ethnic background though and had trouble understanding parts of it. The book centers on food and I was flu-ish as I was reading it so I was skipping over a lot of the food descriptions. The writing was decent but I never felt drawn into the stories. Probably my fault more than the author's.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book for so many reasons -- not least of which was a look into the Islands community in Detroit. Here's a little thing I published on this a few years back:

https://annarborobserver.com/articles...