Maru’s Kitchen in Oakland CA

About Maru’s Kitchen

Marus_Kitchen

Proudly serving the Sacramento Area, Oakland East Bay and in between. Maru’s Kitchen is a family oriented business. Maru’s brings authenticity and culture to the table with every dish. Each order is prepared with individual clients in mind and always done with nothing less than tender loving care. Marus Kitchen culinary influence comes from a mixture of deep Spanish roots, including those from Marus original hometown of Costa Rica and those from her children’s Puerto Rican ancestry. With the combination of those two wonderful ties, Maru has incorporated an unforgettable savory blend of seasonings over the years that will have you thinking this is unlike anything I’ve tasted before, and wanting to come back for more!

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In Alba Garcia’s ‘Yo Soy Taíno,’ Puppets Tell the Story of an Abuela & Granddaughter Surviving Hurricane Maria

Seasoned animator and director Alba Garcia was deeply impacted when Hurricane Maria ravaged her homeland of Puerto Rico. The hurricane killed over 3,000 people and left survivors without access to basic necessities and electricity for months. While she now lives in the U.S., Garcia has family who still lives on the island.

The inaction and insensitivity on behalf of the United States government, in the face of such tragedy, pushed her to rethink what she knew about Puerto Rico’s history. She revisited the banishing of indigenous Taíno culture done by colonization. Although she had primarily only worked in stop-motion animation at the time, Garcia ventured into working with puppets when presented with the opportunity to explore the identity of her people in a new format.

With dialogue in Spanish and Taíno, the 13-minute film Yo Soy Taino (I Am Taíno or Dak’toká Taíno) revolves around an encounter between Puerto Rican grandmother Abuela Yaya (voiced by Amneris Morales) and her curious granddaughter Marabelí (Vianez Morales) following Hurricane Maria. Abuela Yaya teaches the young girl words and phrases in the Taíno language. She also offers her a crash course in the ways the United States has deliberately hurt Puerto Rico’s economy and tried to erase their multiracial heritage — a mix of Taíno, Spanish, and African traditions.

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Yes, You Can Visit Puerto Rico! Here Are the 6 Places You Can’t Miss

Two years after category 4 Hurricane Maria devoured Puerto Rico, the country is finally getting back on its feet. I saw the destruction first-hand as I lived on the island when it happened: collapsed infrastructure, snapped billboards, blue tarps covering homes that had lost their roofs, fallen trees blocking major roads. It seemed like a scene straight out of the apocalypse.

However, regardless of all the obstacles we had to rebuild the island, including the lack of funds from the federal government and all negative press not only toward the country but also its people, Puerto Rico rose from the ashes like a phoenix. The greenery bloomed stronger and better than before, and red and yellow flamboyanes cover the streets and shade Puerto Ricans from the eternal Summer sun.

Historical monuments and public spaces, like our stunning beaches and recreational parks, were quickly rehabilitated, and tourism was highly encouraged to help bring Borinquen back to life. Wherever you go, you’ll see a painted Puerto Rican flag, a symbol of the resilience and strength of our people, and if you don’t take a picture with one of them, were you even in Puerto Rico?

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Bad Bunny, Khalid & More To Headline Apple Music’s ‘Up Next Live’ Series: See Full Lineup

Bad Bunny, Daniel Caesar, Khalid, Ashley McBryde, King Princess, Lewis Capaldi and Jessie Reyez are confirmed to perform at Apple Music’s Up Next Liveseries, the platform confirmed on Monday (July 1). Each artist will perform for fans in one city, for one night only. 

Up Next Live will kick off on July 9 with Puerto Rican trap singer Bad Bunny at Apple Piazza Liberty in Milan and will wrap up on August 23 with Khalid’s performance at Apple Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C. The full schedule is listed below.

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TRAILER: Princess Nokia Makes Her Film Debut in Romantic, Coming-of-Age Film ‘Angelfish’

Nuyorican rapper Princess Nokia is making her feature film debut, but don’t expect her rapping moniker to appear anywhere in the credits for upcoming film Angelfish. For her first big screen outing, she’ll go by Destiny Frasqueri.

The change in credit speaks to the way Frasqueri wants audiences to see her acting work as removed from her more assertive and imposing music persona. There’s a softness to the Peter Lee-directed romantic coming-of-age film where she plays Eva – a young Puerto Rican woman who’s torn between her responsibilities to her family and her dreams, and Brendan (Jimi Stanton), an Irish-American man dealing with family problems of his own.

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Puerto Rican Hitmaker Jhay Cortez Doesn’t Need American Hip-Hop’s Approval

You already know Jhay Cortez. The Puerto Rican singer has been urbano’s secret hitmaking weapon for a minute; he’s credited as a writer on Billboard-charting singles like Anuel AA’s “Amanece,” Natti Natasha and Ozuna‘s “Criminal,” and Bad Bunny’s “RLNDT,” to name but a few. At least two of the biggest bilingual singles of the past couple years—Cardi B‘s “I Like It” and the Benny Blanco and Tainy’s team-up “I Can’t Get Enough”—benefitted from his work behind the scenes. And he’s been as essential to the stateside ascent of J Balvin as has the Colombian reggaetonero’s longtime producer Sky El Rompiendo. But in his mind, he’s still a kid in the studio, hungry for his own time to rock the mic.

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