The Storied Recipe, Becky Hadeed Interviews Molé Mama

Molé Mama Cooking With Love

I was recently interviewed as a guest on The Storied Recipe Podcast and our episode went live today!! Here’s what the host, Becky Hadeed, had to say about the episode and the highlights of our interview.

So grateful to welcome Diana Silva to the podcast today with a set of stories that will challenge and inspire us to live with more love. Diana is a YouTuber, podcaster, and author of the book Molé Mama: A Memoir of Love, Cooking, and Loss. The book begins when Diana’s mother, Rose, was given 3 days to live. It chronicles the 13 months that she outlived that diagnosis - the 2nd time in her life that she survived against the odds. As Diana walks with her mother deep into “the valley of the shadow of death”, she also cooks for her. In this way, Diana sustains her mother, comforts her, and finally learns the delicious Mexican recipes that Rose made for the 15 (yes, 15!) children and hundreds of migrant workers that she welcomed into her home over 50 years. We have much - so very, very much - to learn from both Diana and Rose in this episode, as their lives challenge us to love with greater sacrifice, endurance, and joy.

Highlights From This Episode with Diana Silva (Molé Mama)

• The universal Molé Mama and her message to us to leave our best behind
• The diversity of Mexican food that we don't get to experience in the United States
• The meaning of a molcajete - and what has it seen?
• Working in the fields as a child, the "bad men" that chased them through the fields, and what her mother taught her
• The intense discrimination Diana's mother faced as a Mexican woman
• Tuberculosis: living 7 years, from 17-24 in the ward. Laying flat on their backs , coughing, enduring experimental treatments, and losing all her siblings - and not as long ago as you think.
• "My mother had faith. And I'm not talking about religion. She lived her faith."
• Caring for 15 children as if they were her own - and how did Diana learn to accept that?
• "Just like scientists say we only use 15% of our brain, I think we only use 15% of our capacity to love."
• Saying goodbye to her mother with no regrets