Xef

Xef is built with love and rooted in community. Xef leads with care, inclucivity and with a steadfast commitment to the people. Xef brings with him an expansive skill set, from luxury cooking to community building, all of which is anchored in Xicanismo.

Xicanismo is an identity rooted in the knowing of self and a commitment to community. At Barrios, healing justice is deeply tied to the concept of la cultura cura (culture heals) – as young brown people born and raised in Fresno who grew up knowing that something was amiss. The stories were missing parts that their bodies held remembrance of. Some young people get consumed and others make it ‘out’. Xef made it out. And, Xef came back.

In his time with Barrios, Xef has built thriving programs in response to community needs. He has leveraged opportunities, coordinated collaboration, and activated high needs and low-trust communities to mobilize with him. No easy feat in a community where scarcity rules and competition is complex.

Like any great Xef – he cares about what you put into your body (food, thoughts, beliefs) because he knows you are what you eat. For what we consume is consuming us too. Xef thinks holistically and with a life affirming-consciousness that holds him accountable to the community.

Scheduled Workshops

  • Indigenous Foodways Journey

    90 min | Fairies’ Hollow

    Join Fresno Barrios Unidos on a storytelling journey into indigenous foodways. This three part experience will awaken your senses and open your mind.
    1. Native American Corn pre-Columbus
    For thousands of years, Native Americans purposefully transformed maize through special cultivation techniques. Maize was developed from a wild grass (Teosinte) originally growing in Central America and southern Mexico over 7,000 years ago.
    2. Three Sisters and Milpas: More than folklore, bigger than words
    Intercropping is an all-encompassing term for the practice of growing two or more crops in close enough proximity for biological interaction. Mixed cropping, companion planting, relay cropping, interseeding, overseeding, underseeding, smother cropping, polycultures, and using living mulch are all forms of intercropping.
    3. Making Masa in the 21st Nixtamalization
    Boiling corn in water with an alkali agent is known as Nixtamalization. The alkali causes biochemical transformation which removes the indigestible pericarp of the corn kernel, making calcium and niacin bioavailable.