Join us Wednesday, October 19 for the third installment of the “Hudson County & Immigration: The Story of America” panel series. The panel will be moderated by HHM’s Executive Director Bob Foster, and  includes immigrants from Italy, the Philippines and siblings whose heritage includes El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. Food representing the cultures and traditions of the speakers will be available to participants at no cost, including handmade pupusas made by panelists Peter and Eve Gutierrez. Food will be served prior to the symposium which starts at 7:00. The event is free, and is sponsored by Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs. Please click here to pre-register to attend. The panel will also be live-streamed on YouTube ad Facebook at “hobokenmuseum.” Meet our panelists!

Carmine Percontino, a first generation American, was born in Monte San Giacomo, in the Province of Salerno, in the Campania region of Italy. He and his family moved to Hoboken in 1965. The Percontinos joined a large community of relocated San Giacomese who re-created the cultural and religious anchors of their homeland. Carmine learned how to build a presepio or Christmas creche from a member of his large, extended family, and also sustained his roots in San Giacomo as a member (and, for many years, president) of Hoboken’s Monte San Giacomo Club.

Patricia “Trixie” Ballesteros, a first generation American, arrived in the U.S. from Manila, Philippines, on a H-2B visa, to work for a Florida hotel. When she and other legal immigrants from the Philippines were cheated out of their wages, they filed a successful labor class action suit against the hotel and their agents, which became known as the Florida 15 Human Trafficking case. Patricia now works as a nanny in Hudson County.

Siblings Peter and Eve Gutierrez, were born in Hoboken, the grandchildren of El Salvadoran and Dominican immigrants. To share their family’s food traditions with symposium participants, they are preparing homemade pupusas,, a cornmeal flatbread stuffed with cheese or meat and grilled on a comal,. They will talk about pupusas meaning in Salvadoran culture. Peter is currently a student at New Jersey City University and Eve attends Stevens Institute of Technology.