“My husband would always say, ‘One of these days, I’m going to open a restaurant for her,’” Castillo says, with a laugh. A few years later, Rhodel Castillo made good on his promise.
In 2008, the couple’s restaurant, Garifuna Flava, opened its doors on Chicago’s southwest side. In addition to Garifuna cuisine, Garifuna Flava serves up Belizean staples like rice and beans, stewed chicken, garnaches—a deep-fried corn tortilla topped with refried beans, onions, cabbage, grated cheese, and other toppings—and panades, a deep-fried, cornflour patty filled with fish or refried beans, and served with a condiment made from cabbage, peppers, and onions. In 2011, Guy Fieri pulled up with his Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives crew to invite Garifuna Flava to Flavortown. The exposure attracted many new fans, some of them coming from outside the US.
“I have a map on the wall in the restaurant. It’s amazing to see how many people from around the world have been here to taste our Garifuna food,” she says. There are markings for visitors from South America, Canada, and across Europe.
“Garifuna food, in particular, tells us a Caribbean story and a Central American story,” says Pablo Joseph López Oro, a doctoral candidate in the Department of African and African Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. “It gives us an opportunity to really think about the generational history of Garifuna migration.”
