Administrative/Biographical Note
Image of El Puerto Jarocho Restaurant", located in the Highlandtown Neighborhood, Baltimore, Maryland.
A walk down Highlandtown's Eastern and Highland Avenues reveals an array of immigrant-owned
food businesses. The "Sabor de Highlandtown" project uncovers the stories behind these
establishments, shedding light on how neighborhoods evolve over time. This collaboration
between UMBC American Studies students, the Southeast Community Development Corporation,
and Highlandtown restauranteurs explores a part of this history by featuring the narratives
that shape the neighborhood. "Sabor de Highlandtown" examines contemporary immigration
history in the area, moving beyond its rich European heritage. It highlights the stories
of Dominican, Salvadorean, Hondoran, Chinese, Yemeni, Mexican, and Peruvian communities,
creating a storytelling and archiving project. While European histories dominate scholarly
and archival records, there is limited information on more recent histories from the
1980s onward, which incluude a significant influx of Latin American immigrants. The
project originated in Professor Sarah Fouts's Public Humanities course in the fall
of 2021 and has since expanded across four courses in American Studies and Public
Humanities at UMBC. It is a collaboration with the Southeast Community Development
Corporation's team, including Amanda Smit-Peters, Andy Dahl, and Johanna Barrantes.
Oral histories have been collected by Sarah Fouts, Jes Godinez, Jackson Turner, Andy
Dahl, Inaki Zarate, and Kristin Kelly, with transcriptions and photographs complementing
historical materials from newspapers to construct a comprehensive history. "Sabor
de Highlandtown" was launched at the Creative Alliance on May 9. 2022. One story from
the project, featuring Jose Vargas, was included in the American Folklife Center's
"Homegrown Foodways Series" in November 2023. The short documentary film, "El Camino
del Pan a Baltimore," was showcased at the Maryland Film Festival in 2024. The film
was co-produced by Fernando Lopez, Sarah Fouts, and Andy Dahl, and edited by Nutria
Productions. The project's website is linked through UMBC's Baltimore Traces, with
funding provided by UMBC Public Humanities and Maryland Traditions. Featured Restaurants:
Pedro Silva of Tex-Mex, Jose Vargas of Vargas Bakery, Juan Nunez and Franchesca Nunez
of Franchesca's Empanadas, Carlos Nufio and Carla Licona of Los Primos Food taco trailer,
and Hiralda de la Cruz Puerto Jarocho, Su Zhang, Oriental Wok, Jassi Singh, Filipo's,
Carlos Cruz, Carlos O'Charlies, Ascar Mozeb, Queen of Sheeba, Maria Alvarado, Diner
Latino. Produced by: Johanna Barrantes, Amanda Smit-Peters, Andy Dahl, Sarah Fouts,
Kristin Kelly, Jes Godinez, David Fitzgerald, Jake Mooney, Larissa Kuonen, Martha
Berkheimer, Kyle Casamento, Andrea Quispe, Inaki Zarate, Marco Di Pietro, Karla Press-Porter,
Taylor Phelps, Gigi Fredrickson, Hailey Davio Suppoerted by: UMBC Public Humanities,
UMBC American Studies, Maryland Traditions, UMBC CIRCA, the Southeast CDC, AMST403/682
Food Ethnography in America courses.
Scope & Content
Arrangement
This collection is unprocessed.