Mango Pie

In a recent piece, a Nuyorican cnn commentator called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as American as mango pie. I can think of a few people who would be very offended by this statement. The belief that nothing is more American than apple pie and baseball is burned into many American's consciousness. But, here's a reality check: Puerto Ricans have been an integral part of New York and the United States as a whole (and not just through West Side Story, Jennifer Lopez and baseball) for almost two hundred years. Furthermore, Puerto Rican's are only one the thousands of nationalities, ethnic groups, and language groups that now call the United States their home.

Americans need to comprehend that culture is not static, it is no unchangeable, set in stone, or manifested in history. Instead culture is evolutionary and malleable. While mango pie might have been unheard of 100 years ago, I found a delicious recipe right here. I can think of many variations (without sounding horribly inappropriate): Fried plantane pie, sticky rice pie, blood sausage pie, pizza pie, palta pie, rice and bean pie etc etc etc.

My response to that is why not mango pie? It sounds pretty delicious to me.

What kind of pie are you?