Greeley is a community that is rich in traditions and home to diverse cultures that represent over 24 different languages. While we may know of some of the different cultures Greeley so proudly fosters, there is much more to discover. The holidays bring opportunity to share and indulge in new experiences and traditions and to celebrate the differences that bring us together.
Four Generations of Food, Family and Faith
When the Archibeque-Montoya family gathers, music and laughter fill the room. Laura and Charles Archibeque were the first of the family to settle in Greeley, where they raised their seven children- six daughters and one son. Though Laura and Charles have since passed, their family continues to honor them through their holiday traditions. Karen Esquibel, one of Laura and Charles’ daughters says they are a close-knit family that gathers often, and this particular occasion has a more sentimental purpose- preparing tamales for Christmas Eve!
To prepare for the holiday season, the family gathers around the table to assemble tamales while they reminisce and share fond memories. They all work together by following a recipe that has been passed down for many generations. “My grandmother’s husband taught my mom how to make tamales,” Carla Esquibel, the oldest daughter, shares. “It all started with the green chiles that my dad grew in the garden,” she says. “I remember way back when I was little and doing this,” she laughed. It is bittersweet around the holidays because there are family members missing, but it brings new opportunities to pass the traditions to the next generation. She says when it is tamale time everybody is excited to learn and help.
Together, they make more than 900 tamales to feed their family of 40. “It’s a process, but this is something that we look forward to doing because we’re keeping the tradition going from our parents,” Karen says. Little Nayeli, the youngest of the great grandchildren dipped the corn husks and then passed them to her cousin Mathew who is two years her senior and started helping when he was six. “We have an assembly line like this. Lori’s husband, Jerry, makes the red chile, Lori is in charge of making the masa, and then us girls start doing the ojas, cleaning them and getting them ready,” she says. Lori Trujillo, another one of the daughters, grows the Mirasol chiles that are used to make the tamales. “Mirasol means the chile that grows up, because it grows up looking at the sun,” Karen says. “We save the green chile and dry it for the red chile, then we save the seed for the following year to replant it.”
The Archibeque-Montoya family is originally from New Mexico and southern Colorado. A lot of their family traditions are rooted from the Mexican and Chicano cultures. “Much of the Mexican and Chicano people and culture are a mix of worlds- Native, European and African because of colonization. We are a mixed people,” says Brittni, granddaughter to Laura and Charles. Brittni says Chicano refers to people in the southwest who are not from present-day Mexico.
The tradition to celebrate Christmas is also deeply-rooted within their heritage, which she says is a Catholic tradition to celebrate on Christmas Eve. “Christmas Eve is the night Joseph and Mary were going door-to-door looking for shelter, I think partially It comes from that tradition,” she says. “But also, many say it is because our indigenous ancestors celebrated the winter solstice as well.”
Another Archibeque- Montoya family tradition is decorating. “Decorating the house with Christmas decorations was my mom’s favorite thing to do during this time of the year, so that was a big tradition within itself. We would all go to their house and place the ornaments on the tree,” Nickie Archibeque, daughter of Laura and Charles recalls.
Laura also enjoyed baking for the holidays. Lori recalls another one of her mom’s favorite traditions, biscochitos, which are a Mexican sugar cookie, a tradition that originates from New Mexico. “My mom’s favorite was her sugar cookie. We’re not huge on that tradition, but we love them, so we try to make them every year too,” Lori says. The sisters also make empanadas for the holidays. “It’s also a tradition and it goes back as far as my grandmother who taught my mother how to make those,” Lori says. “My dad and my mom that was their favorite thing that was a big tradition and so we learned how to do them,” she says. “It’s a huge process and so we probably make them every other year.”
The great-grandchildren are the fourth generation from Laura and Charles. The matriarch passed away in 2021, but the family traditions continue to live on year-after-year through the generations. “When we wrote our grandma’s obituary the three themes that emerged were family, food and faith and that’s really what we feel centers our family’s traditions,” Brittni says.
Made in Somalia
Fardowsa Barkadle has fond memories of celebrating cultural traditions and holidays. Her parents are originally from Somalia but moved to Ethiopia before having children to escape the conflict and war. “I always say I am originally from Somalia, I’ve never been to Somalia, but my mom and dad are from there,” she laughed. Fardowsa was born in Ethiopia, and her family moved to the United States when she was 12 years old. They still practice traditions from their African roots and celebrate Islamic holidays
Fardowsa lights incense at the bottom of a hand-made clay pot and clouds of frankincense fill the air. Frankincense is a common incense that is lit when the weather is cold outside. She says this is a cultural practice, and every Somali household has incense burners. Each morning, she makes black tea mixed with cardamom and cinnamon and sweetened with sugar. Some people will add ginger for spice and milk for a creamy finish. “It’s a cultural tradition,” Farowsa says. “It’s something you will have first thing in the morning with injera which is flatbread and honey, it is something we consume every morning,” Fardowsa said.
A holiday in her culture to share appreciation for having food to eat is Ramadan. “Ramadan is 30 days of fasting from sunrise to sunset,” she says. “For you not consuming food from sunrise to sunset is being more grateful for what you have.” She added that people can eat anything they want after sunset and a common dish prepared during Ramadan is sambusa- vegetables and meat folded inside a triangular- shaped dough and fried. “Every time we break the fast we eat 3 date fruits and drink a cup of water before consuming any food,” she adds.
The day Ramadan ends is a holiday called Eid al-Fitr to celebrate the long month of fasting. Fardowsa says the origin of Eid al-Fitr is to honor the completion of Ramadan which is part of the 5 pillars of Islam. “The four you have to do,” she says. “But the fifth one, not everybody can do it, it’s extra if you can afford to do it.” Every year, over a million people pilgrimage to Mecca to visit the Kaba which was built by the prophet Abraham and his son.
“There’s a pilgrimage to Mecca, where if you are Muslim you can do it one time in your life if you can afford to,” she says. She recalls the cost of the pilgrimage is $14,000 per person. The cost depends partly on where people travel from. “If you’re coming from Somalia or somewhere else, it’s cheaper. The most expensive is Canada and the United States,” she says. Her father has done a pilgrimage, which at the time she says cost $7,000. “I want to do it someday,” she says.
Eid al-Adha begins the last day of the pilgrimage. “Our holidays don’t fall onto specific months, we follow the Islamic calendar and we are in the year 1445, ”she says. “Every year it’s different.” To celebrate Eid al-Adha, sheep are slaughtered and given to the needy or shared with neighbors. She explains the reason sheep are slaughtered is a feast of sacrifice. Fardowsa says kids do not participate in Ramadan and compared Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to birthday celebrations. “You’d be so spoiled,” she laughed. “You’d get new clothes, toys, money, so I have good memories of those holidays.” Once people reach puberty, they begin fasting for Ramadan.
Fardowsa’s mother wanted to share their culture’s food, so she opened an African restaurant in Greeley called Tawakal. Fardowsa works at the restaurant as a cook and one of her sisters as a host. “My mom wanted to introduce East African dishes to the community because we didn’t have any East African restaurants here,” she says. “We also serve Ethiopian dishes because we lived in Ethiopia.”
"Maeva Tahiti" - Welcome to Tahiti
Greeley resident Hinano Williams is a native of Tahiti and met her husband while working as the executive housekeeper of the Intercontinental Hotel. She moved to the United States in 1976 and welcomed children shortly after. To pay homage to her Tahitian roots, Hinano named her youngest daughter Maeva which means “welcome” in Tahitian.
Maeva has taken trips to Tahiti to learn more about her cultural roots. “Food is a huge tradition, and eating as a family,” Maeva Williams shares. When Hinano and her family visit Tahiti, they celebrate with a luau. The meal which typically consists of a pig and other foods is cooked in an earth oven, known as the imu. “The food is covered with leaves, so dirt does not get into the food and keeps the food hot,” Hinano says. “The cooking will begin at 3 a.m. and will take all day.”
Hinano and Maeva like to honor their cultural traditions by cooking poisson cru, the national dish of Tahiti. “It’s a raw fish dish. My mom’s made it for my birthdays, and she likes to make it for holidays,” Maeva says. While Tahiti does not celebrate many holidays, the biggest holiday in Tahiti is a French holiday, La Bastille, and is nearly a month-long celebration beginning on July 14. “The native don’t really have their own celebration, we celebrate the French because we are French nationality,” Hinano says. “I was very shocked when I came here and learned about all the holidays. We don’t have any of those things.”
During the celebration of La Bastille, there are different events to honor the Tahitian culture. “There is a lot of dancing in Tahiti. The tamure, is like the hula but faster with your hips,” Maeva shares. Each year, a group of dancers and a single dancer either male or female from each island will come to Tahiti and compete for prizes. There is also a competition to crown Miss and Mister Tahiti and during La Bastille, natives like to enjoy pirogue, which is canoe racing.
Hinano says that when visitors arrive in Tahiti, they are greeted by natives with leis and sent off with shell necklaces. Tahiti is also known for jewelry made from black pearls, which both Hinano and Maeva don proudly to display their culture. “I’ve always appreciated my mom being able to intertwine the two cultures and tell me stories about Tahiti growing up and even bringing me there,” Maeva says.