Pesach in Santiago

The weekend before last, I hosted a Passover seder at my apartment in Santiago. Passover is one of my favorite holidays, and I was sad to miss out on it, so I decided to do it myself.

I'd never hosted a seder before but I had a great time putting everything together. I created my one liberation haggadah by combining elements of the original Civil Rights Seder, the Women's Seder and the Labor Seder (if anyone wants a copy, just let me know and I'll send it to you.) I really enjoyed the process of going through the different haggadahs and thinking about what Passover means to me.

The weekend felt just like Thanksgiving at home. It was chilly but clear and the city felt quieter than usual. Udai got into Santiago in the morning and he and Zach helped me do the grocery shopping. I spent all day chopping vegetables and marinating the chicken and making charoset --it was a lot of fun. Having grown up in a family of great cooks (who love to be in the kitchen), I never got to do much of that stuff when I was a kid. In fact, I only really started cooking last year when I lived on my own in San Francisco and it turns out that I really love to cook. I'd never cooked for so many people before (there were ten of us) but it all turned out great.

Zach and James and Lauren came a bit early to help out and James made homemade matzoh, which was very impressive. Then Genaro and Eduardo and Marcelo and Javiera got there. With the exception of Marcelo, Lauren (and Udai, of course) we all live within a few blocks from eachother. Only Zach and James had been to a seder before, so it was new to everyone else. And we were quite a cosmpolitan crew: Chilean atheists and Catholics, a Venezuelan, an American Catholic, American Jews, and an Indian Hindu. Pretty cool. Not so different from doing a seder in Berkeley, I guess.

As always, there were lots of jokes about the length of the haggadah, the amount of wine we're obligated to drink and whether we'd ever get to eat! But we made it through the haggadah, sang Solidarity Forever, Study War No More, and We Shall Not Be Moved, talked about when liberation meant to each of us, talked about the war and the day after pill and class and racism, drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of food and laughed and laughed. In other words, it was exactly what I hoped it would be.

Enjoy the photos and (though Passover is over), Chag Sameach!


The crew


Zach and James


Me and Marcelo


Udai and Javiera


Eduardo and Genaro


Lauren


Vero


The chicken (at last!)


Dinner


Yum, yum


L'chaim! The second cup of wine (or is it the first?)

And if you want to read more, my friend Lauren wrote an article on the seder for her internship at the Santiago Times: