Photo courtesy of GabsAway.
As a young girl, Gabriela (Gabi) remembers sitting at her family dinner table having lively discussions on a variety of topics, ranging from economics and politics to pop culture. After growing up and stepping outside into the real world, she found that these conversations were not as easy to have with others as they were at home around her dinner table.
Gabi felt truly lucky to have an open dialogue with her family, and that she had the determination to open discussions about “uncomfortable topics” with the people around her. Which is why she set up GabsAway, a meal sharing series here in Barcelona that provides a platform for open discussion on a variety of topics relevant in society today.
Recently, she has started the Diaspora Series in which she invites people to sit around the table and discuss the feeling of being away from home. In addition to giving people a space for sharing their experiences, she also ensures that her guests get a taste of some of the custom menus at venues across the city, showcasing local businesses and culinary artists.
Behind all the thought-provoking work that Gabi does, there is also the hidden story of her own diasporic identity, so we decided to have a chat with her to touch on aspects of her life that have been relevant in shaping the work that she does today.
To view some more of Gabi’s work, visit her website at gabsaway.com
The music on this episode is “No Frills Cumbia” by Kevin MacLeod from https://filmmusic.io License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)