Vincent Medina

Vincent Medina (born October 6, 1986) is an American Indigenous rights, Indigenous language, and food activist from California. He co-founded Cafe Ohlone, an Ohlone restaurant in Berkeley, California which serves Indigenous cuisine made with Native ingredients sourced from the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas.^[1][2] As of 2019 he was serving on the Muwekma council, and he is Capitán, or cultural leader, of the ‘Itmay Cultural Association.^[3]

Vincent Medina
Vincent Medina at Cafe Ohlone in Berkeley
Born	(1986-10-06) October 6, 1986 (age 37) Bay Area, California, US
Culinary career
Cooking style	Ohlone cuisine
Current restaurant(s) Cafe Ohlone
Website	makamham.com

He is a Chochenyo Ohlone member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe,^[2][4] an Indigenous Californian non-profit organization who are not federally recognized or state recognized.

Medina is also a board member of Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival.^[5] Medina speaks English, Spanish, and Chochenyo.^[6]

Family and early life

Born on October 6, 1986,^{[citation needed]} Medina is the great-grandson of María Archuleta,^{[7][8]: 202} nephew of Dolores Lameira Galvan,^[9] and cousin of Andrew Galvan. He attended Muwekma Ohlone tribal classes and campouts as a child.^[8]: 202 He also attended public school.^[8]: 213 He has a younger brother.^{[10][8]: 212}

Career

Medina was the assistant curator^[10][11] and a docent for seven years at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.^[4]

Starting in 2011, he wrote a blog about his experiences as a 21st-century Ohlone person and learning and sharing the Chochenyo language.^[10] He wrote a column, "In Our Languages" in News from Native California dedicated to writing in Indigenous California languages.^[10] News from Native California is published by the nonprofit Heyday,^[12] where Medina has been the Berkeley Roundhouse Outreach Coordinator^[10] since 2013. Heyday's Berkeley Roundhouse, formerly called the California Indian Publishing Program, celebrates Indigenous California cultures and support the local Indian community.^[13]

Medina has served on the board of directors of Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival^{[5][10][14][11]} since 2012. He co-founded Cafe Ohlone in 2018.^[2][15] He is also one of a few rotating hosts of Bay Native Circle, a weekly indigenous radio program and podcast which airs on KPFA.^[16]

Chochenyo language

Main article: Chochenyo language

Medina was introduced to Chochenyo as a child but began learning the language deeply around 2010 by studying the field notes produced by J. P. Harrington's field notes,^[10] who worked with early 20th-century Chochenyo speakers.^[17][18] Medina has participated in Breath of Life.^[8]: 206 By 2012 he could speak Chochenyo with others,^[6] and as he became more proficient, he began teaching his younger brother their ancestors' language as well.^[10]

Medina and the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe consider the Chochenyo language to be a distinct language,^[19] not just an Ohlone dialect.

In 1934, the only first language speaker of Chochenyo died,^[6] but in the 2000s the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and linguists at UC Berkeley began to learn and revitalize the language,^[17][18] and in 2009 SIL International reclassified Northern Ohlone from "extinct" to "living".^[20]

After hearing Medina speak at Mission Dolores in 2012, a journalist wrote: "Chochenyo is full of both harsh guttural sounds and soft tones, like velvet sandpaper. There is nothing like it."^[21][22]

Medina wrote the "In Our Languages" column of News from Native California^[10] and wrote the first piece in Chochenyo in that publication in 2014.^[10][23][24] He has spoken at a number of libraries, museums, and conferences about Chochenyo and Indigenous issues. In 2015 he was chosen to read verses in Chochenyo during the Catholic Mass at the canonization ceremony for Father Serra, and he took advantage of the opportunity which would mean hundreds of millions of people hearing the language.^[6]

In 2020, when Cafe Ohlone was closed, Medina and Louis Trevino began hosting weekly Chochenyo and Rumsen language classes online.^[25][26][7]

Between 2020 and 2023, Medina and Trevino collaborated on the Exploratorium's ¡Plantásticas! exhibition, contributing traditional ecological knowledge passed down to them by Ohlone elders. Labels at the exhibition are trilingual in Spanish, English, and Chochenyo, and Chochenyo advertisements appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco magazine, and on BART public transportation. The exhibition is open through September 24, 2023.^[27]

Ohlone cuisine

Main article: Cafe Ohlone

In 2018,^[2][15] Medina co-founded Cafe Ohlone (Chochenyo: mak-'amham, 'our food')^[1] with his partner^[15][28][14] Louis Trevino (Rumsen).^[3] It was originally a pop-up restaurant located at the University Press Books bookstore in Berkeley. The menu changes seasonally, and ingredients are gathered by Native people around Ohlone territory. Dishes include acorn soup and acorn bread, watercress and sorrel salad with berries and seeds, quail eggs, venison, chia pudding, and a variety of teas.^{[29][30][15][4][28]} Meals are accompanied by information about Ohlone history and culture,^{[30][15][4][2]} and sometimes songs.^[31]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, University Press Books permanently closed,^[32] and Cafe Ohlone began offering foot-square wooden takeout boxes in lieu of communal dining.^[33] On Sunday, August 14, 2022, Cafe Ohlone held a one-time tasting event in Pacifica.^[34] After multiple reschedulings,^{[35][36][37][9][34]} Cafe Ohlone reopened in late 2022 at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.^[38][39] Upon reopening, Cafe Ohlone served tea on Wednesdays, lunch on Thursdays, and brunch on Sundays,^[39] with dinner beginning in October.^[39][40][41]

The café in its new location was dubbed ‘oṭṭoy, meaning "repair", "mend", or "healing" in Chochenyo, referring to the relationship between Ohlone people and the Hearst Museum.^[42][43] The museum houses human remains and cultural objects looted from Ohlone shellmounds,^[26][39] which it has stated that it intends to return to Ohlone people.^[26] However, the museum director Lauren Kroiz claims that NAGPRA prevents the museum from returning remains and artifacts.^[39] Medina said that Cafe Ohlone at the Hearst Museum "could be a model for other campuses across California and the country."^[9]

References

1. "hinṭo?–what is mak-'amham?". mak-'amham. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
2. Soleil Ho (March 28, 2019). "The Bay Area's most intriguing new pop-up highlights precolonial California cuisine". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
3. "mak-nuunu—our story". mak-'amham. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
4. Emily Wilson (Feb 26, 2019). "How California's Indigenous Cafes Repair Colonial Damage". Eater, Vox Media. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
5. "Vincent Medina (Chochenyo Ohlone)". Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
6. Nolte, Carl (September 22, 2015). "Ohlone descendant to recite native language at Serra ceremony". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
7. Medina, Vincent; Tsai, Luke (May 18, 2022). "Cafe Ohlone Set To Reopen in June in Berkeley". KQED Forum (Interview). Interviewed by Alexis Madrigal. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
8. Medina, Vincent (2014). "Ohlone Elders & Youth Speak: Restoring a California Legacy" (Interview). Interviewed by Janet Clinger. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
9. Kadvany, Elena (April 22, 2022). "The world's first Ohlone restaurant is opening soon at UC Berkeley. Can it overcome the location's painful history?". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
10. Mariko Conner (September 16, 2014). . Heyday. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
11. "Vincent Medina". Oakland Symphony. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
12. "Mission". News From Native California.
13. "The Berkeley Roundhouse". Heyday. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
14. "Vincent Medina". Slow Food USA. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
15. Anna Mindess (February 22, 2019). "Indigenous Food at Café Ohlone". Edible East Bay. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
16. "Bay Native Circle". KPFA & Pacifica. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
17. Maclay, Kathleen (4 June 2004). "Conferences focus on saving native languages". Berkeley News. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
18. Tremain, Kerry (September 2004). . California Monthly. Cal Alumni Association. Archived from the original on 8 September 2004. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
19. "Language Revitalization". Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
20. "Northern Ohlone [cst]". SIL International. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
21. Nolte, Carl (November 23, 2012). "Reviving Indian language Chochenyo". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
22. Nolte, Carl (November 23, 2012). "Reviving Indian language Chochenyo".
23. Vincent Medina (2014). ""In Our Languages" translation. Hossi Melle/Hossi Šaaw". Retrieved 12 January 2012.
24. AICLS (18 February 2014). "Chochenyo Ohlone by Vince Medina". SoundCloud. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
25. Tsai, Luke (May 9, 2022). "At the World's Only Ohlone Restaurant, Even the Trees Will Sing in Chochenyo". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
26. Tsai, Luke (June 29, 2021). "Embracing a Painful History, the World's Only Ohlone Restaurant Finds Unlikely New Home". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
27. "In a historic first, BART runs Exploratorium train and station advertisements in Chochenyo, the language of the East Bay Ohlone". Bay Area Rapid Transit. July 6, 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
28. Rao, Tejal (Aug 12, 2019). "California Cuisine, Long Before Chez Panisse". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
29. "menyutka—menu". mak-'amham. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
30. Emily Wilson (February 21, 2019). "Indigenous California Chefs are Reviving and Preserving Native Cuisines". Civil Eats. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
31. "Cafe Ohlone". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
32. Luke Tsai (Jul 1, 2020). "Cafe Ohlone, the World's Only Ohlone Restaurant, Permanently Closes Its Berkeley Storefront". Eater, Vox Media. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
33. Luke Tsai (Oct 28, 2020). "The Bay Area's Only Ohlone Restaurant Unveils Its First Ever Takeout Offering". Eater, Vox Media. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
34. Campbell, Eileen (August 16, 2022). "Cafe Ohlone opens in Pacifica for one delicious day". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
35. . mak-'amham. Archived from the original on 11 June 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
36. . mak-'amham. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
37. . mak-'amham. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
38. Kadvany, Elena (August 30, 2022). "The world's first Ohlone restaurant opens this week in Berkeley". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
39. Mindess, Anna (August 30, 2022). "Reservations are now open at one of Berkeley's most anticipated restaurants". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
40. Yadegaran, Jessica (August 31, 2022). "The country's first Ohlone restaurant opens this week in Berkeley". Retrieved 31 August 2022.
41. Yadegaran, Jessica (August 31, 2022). "The country's first Ohlone restaurant opens this week in Berkeley".
42. Mindess, Anna (May 24, 2022). "The California Chefs Showcasing the Diversity of Native American Cuisine". Retrieved 21 July 2023.
43. Kell, Gretchen (April 21, 2022). "A healing collaboration: Café Ohlone moves onto Berkeley campus". Retrieved 21 July 2023.

External links

• Medina's former blog