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Inside a small restaurant in southern Delaware, a group of students steps through the doors for the first time. The air smells like home — warm masa, cilantro, fried plantains — and bachata music hums through the speakers. Some pause, recognizing their country’s flag hanging among others near the register. Others beam as they hear the familiar sound of Spanish spoken by the owner near the counter.
Students from summer programs walked the streets of Milford and Georgetown, stopping in at Latino-owned businesses. They explored restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries and more — not only to learn how these entrepreneurs started their businesses, but to see how culture, food and identity intersect.
“When they would walk in and hear their music, see their flag, smell the smells of their food and see people who spoke to them in Spanish from their countries or from other countries nearby, their faces were just like, ‘Wow,’” said Neyda Albarrán, founder of The Culture Club PR. “But not only businesses that were Latino, but like a pizza place that was owned by Latinos, they were like, “Wait, stop. That’s not a food that’s normally traditional.’ There are law firms, there are barber shops, there’s all kinds of things.”
For Albarrán, what began in Puerto Rico as a small passion project in a spare room of her parents’ home has grown into a traveling cultural classroom — one that has moved with her from Puerto Rico to Florida and now Delaware.
“The Culture Club PR exists to promote a culture of peace through multicultural learning, experience and celebration,” she said, noting that she created the club to expose her young son to the richness of world cultures when she couldn’t find any local programs that did so.
At the club’s beginning, children gathered in community centers and libraries.
“Every month, we had a workshop focusing on a different country, region of the world, culture or traditional celebration. The kids had a passport that we would stamp with the country’s seal and so they would be traveling around the world at all of our activities,” she said.
When she moved to Florida, Albarrán noticed how local youth were losing touch with their Puerto Rican heritage and language. She adapted the club’s mission to meet that need, hosting pop-up activities in malls and at radio station events and community festivals.
Three years ago, she brought The Culture Club PR to Delaware, where it continues to root children in their cultural pride, while expanding its reach and age group.