Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories – Coming Soon!

Opening in September 2025!

Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories features 10 indigenous, mestiza, Mexican-American, and Afro-Mexican grandmothers who have cooked, preserved, and passed on Mexican food culture while creating communities and cultures that are unique to Southern California.

Through photographs, kitchen artifacts, documentary film, and family recipes, this exhibit reveals each abuela’s unique relationship to Mexican cuisine, their birthplaces in Mexico, and their current homes in California.

The stories of Mexican and Mexican-American women have too often been absent from the walls of museum collections. Documenting the histories and family recipes of women who are immigrants, undocumented, and non-English-speaking, enriches our understanding of the valuable contributions of Mexican and Mexican-American women to the culture of California.

Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories was developed by USC professor Sarah Portnoy (sarah portnoy.org) with support from California Humanities and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. The exhibition tours through Exhibit Envoy, a nonprofit.