in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed west
from Europe searching for a better way
to get to the spices of the Far East
particularly black pepper in January the
following year things were not going
well for the Genoese navigator two of
his ships were taking on water one of
them a direct his interactions with the
indigenous people and the islands he
bumped into had turned violent and he
hadn’t found any of the spices he’d come
looking for on the day before Columbus
was set to turn around and head back to
Europe he did find something that would
transform the world more than black
pepper ever could chiles Columbus
thought he had found some kind of super
potent form of black pepper and he
brought it back to Spain where he
introduced it as such which is why we
sometimes called Chile’s peppers today
although the plants are totally distinct
only chilies contain the chemical
capsaicin that makes things spicy in the
sense that they burn and chilies are
native only to the Americas which is to
say that in 1492 when Columbus sailed
west for India Indian food was not truly
spicy neither was Thai food Malay food
Indonesian food Ethiopian food any
cuisine outside of the Americas in time
chilies spread to Europe Africa and Asia
and today hot sauce in its many forms is
the most widely consumed condiment on
earth but for all the people around the
world love chilies and hot sauce today
the process of spreading them globally
was not a peaceful one getting from
Indian cuisine without chilies too spicy
vindaloo was not a happy process in fact
the word vindaloo comes from a
Portuguese phrase Vina Vina da lo what
we’re really talking about when we talk
about chilies spreading around the world
is European colonialism
with all of its attendant horrors and
tragedies an Amsterdam today you can get
great Indonesian food throughout the
city which is awesome but there’s a lot
of misery contained in that fact as well
in the history of Dutch colonialism and
this way chilies and hot sauce have
always been intimately intertwined with
the best of humanity like vindaloo and
the worst in the United States today the
hot sauce scene is booming there’s a
tremendous amount of innovation
happening in artisanal hot sauces hot
sauce shops and hot sauce festivals
popping up all over the country hot
sauce is going viral under its own power
did you know for example we found foods
the makers of that sriracha sauce you
love so much
has never had an advertising budget the
hot sauce movement has been growing for
years and in some places it’s nothing
new like New Mexico southern Louisiana
but nationally a major cause of the hot
sauce boom is the Immigration Act of
1965 and the ensuing wave of immigrants
from places like Latin America Africa
and Asia places where people eat spicier
but it’s not just the result of the
sheer number of immigrants buying more
hot sauce rather it reflects the way
those immigrants have transformed the
fabric of American society see
Millennials grew up in a more diverse
country than our parents did with a more
diverse array of cuisines than our
parents did many of them spicier which
is why we eat spicier food that our
parents do which is why we buy more hot
sauce than our parents do whether you
are descended from immigrants or the
child of immigrants we are not just a
different people because of the presence
of post 1965 immigrants we are different
people I’m a white guy from eastern
Oklahoma
not exactly a traditional hot sauce
hotspot but when I’m sick I don’t want
chicken noodle soup
I won’t be enemies I am Who I am
because of the way immigrants
transformed and enriched the culture I
grew up in and so are you if you like
hot sauce you don’t just like
multiculturalism you are
multiculturalism now history is filled
with tragedy but it’s also our shared
human story and even in some of the
darkest corners like the reality of what
Columbus arrival meant for the people of
the Americas for the misery wrought by
European colonialism we can find spots
of light foundations upon which to build
empathy hot sauce is one of those
slivers of life in the darkness a
condiment from the Americas introduced
by Europeans to Africa and Asia from
where it came back to Europe in the
Americas with new twists and new
delicious recipes the story of hot sauce
is the story of how multiculturalism and
intercultural exchange enrich our lives
and transform our world for the better
no holiday is more fraught on these
issues of multiculturalism identity
intercultural exchange than Columbus Day
for some Columbus Day marks the
beginning of people from the old world
getting a fresh start in the new but for
many others Columbus Day represents the
beginning of centuries of racism slavery
and genocide
now look Christopher Columbus would be
mystified by this holiday he never even
acknowledged that he bumped into a
landmass unknown to Europeans and he
wasn’t even the first European to do
that Vikings beat him to it that’s right
Christopher Columbus didn’t even
Columbus the Americas
but he did introduce Chili’s to the
world beyond the Americas chilies and
hot sauce are a sliver of light in the
Columbian Exchange that unparalleled
supernovae of cultural intermingling
that came from the meeting of two long
disconnected worlds all of us today for
better and for worse are products of
that exchange and what better way to
celebrate our world than with hot sauce
the condiment from the Americas that
traveled to the far reaches of the earth
and back I say we ditch Columbus Day and
let’s celebrate our shared human story
by celebrating indigenous peoples day
with hot sauce by eating really spicy
food thanks
[Applause]
from Europe searching for a better way
to get to the spices of the Far East
particularly black pepper in January the
following year things were not going
well for the Genoese navigator two of
his ships were taking on water one of
them a direct his interactions with the
indigenous people and the islands he
bumped into had turned violent and he
hadn’t found any of the spices he’d come
looking for on the day before Columbus
was set to turn around and head back to
Europe he did find something that would
transform the world more than black
pepper ever could chiles Columbus
thought he had found some kind of super
potent form of black pepper and he
brought it back to Spain where he
introduced it as such which is why we
sometimes called Chile’s peppers today
although the plants are totally distinct
only chilies contain the chemical
capsaicin that makes things spicy in the
sense that they burn and chilies are
native only to the Americas which is to
say that in 1492 when Columbus sailed
west for India Indian food was not truly
spicy neither was Thai food Malay food
Indonesian food Ethiopian food any
cuisine outside of the Americas in time
chilies spread to Europe Africa and Asia
and today hot sauce in its many forms is
the most widely consumed condiment on
earth but for all the people around the
world love chilies and hot sauce today
the process of spreading them globally
was not a peaceful one getting from
Indian cuisine without chilies too spicy
vindaloo was not a happy process in fact
the word vindaloo comes from a
Portuguese phrase Vina Vina da lo what
we’re really talking about when we talk
about chilies spreading around the world
is European colonialism
with all of its attendant horrors and
tragedies an Amsterdam today you can get
great Indonesian food throughout the
city which is awesome but there’s a lot
of misery contained in that fact as well
in the history of Dutch colonialism and
this way chilies and hot sauce have
always been intimately intertwined with
the best of humanity like vindaloo and
the worst in the United States today the
hot sauce scene is booming there’s a
tremendous amount of innovation
happening in artisanal hot sauces hot
sauce shops and hot sauce festivals
popping up all over the country hot
sauce is going viral under its own power
did you know for example we found foods
the makers of that sriracha sauce you
love so much
has never had an advertising budget the
hot sauce movement has been growing for
years and in some places it’s nothing
new like New Mexico southern Louisiana
but nationally a major cause of the hot
sauce boom is the Immigration Act of
1965 and the ensuing wave of immigrants
from places like Latin America Africa
and Asia places where people eat spicier
but it’s not just the result of the
sheer number of immigrants buying more
hot sauce rather it reflects the way
those immigrants have transformed the
fabric of American society see
Millennials grew up in a more diverse
country than our parents did with a more
diverse array of cuisines than our
parents did many of them spicier which
is why we eat spicier food that our
parents do which is why we buy more hot
sauce than our parents do whether you
are descended from immigrants or the
child of immigrants we are not just a
different people because of the presence
of post 1965 immigrants we are different
people I’m a white guy from eastern
Oklahoma
not exactly a traditional hot sauce
hotspot but when I’m sick I don’t want
chicken noodle soup
I won’t be enemies I am Who I am
because of the way immigrants
transformed and enriched the culture I
grew up in and so are you if you like
hot sauce you don’t just like
multiculturalism you are
multiculturalism now history is filled
with tragedy but it’s also our shared
human story and even in some of the
darkest corners like the reality of what
Columbus arrival meant for the people of
the Americas for the misery wrought by
European colonialism we can find spots
of light foundations upon which to build
empathy hot sauce is one of those
slivers of life in the darkness a
condiment from the Americas introduced
by Europeans to Africa and Asia from
where it came back to Europe in the
Americas with new twists and new
delicious recipes the story of hot sauce
is the story of how multiculturalism and
intercultural exchange enrich our lives
and transform our world for the better
no holiday is more fraught on these
issues of multiculturalism identity
intercultural exchange than Columbus Day
for some Columbus Day marks the
beginning of people from the old world
getting a fresh start in the new but for
many others Columbus Day represents the
beginning of centuries of racism slavery
and genocide
now look Christopher Columbus would be
mystified by this holiday he never even
acknowledged that he bumped into a
landmass unknown to Europeans and he
wasn’t even the first European to do
that Vikings beat him to it that’s right
Christopher Columbus didn’t even
Columbus the Americas
but he did introduce Chili’s to the
world beyond the Americas chilies and
hot sauce are a sliver of light in the
Columbian Exchange that unparalleled
supernovae of cultural intermingling
that came from the meeting of two long
disconnected worlds all of us today for
better and for worse are products of
that exchange and what better way to
celebrate our world than with hot sauce
the condiment from the Americas that
traveled to the far reaches of the earth
and back I say we ditch Columbus Day and
let’s celebrate our shared human story
by celebrating indigenous peoples day
with hot sauce by eating really spicy
food thanks
[Applause]
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