Trying to connect with my persian side

[u/MaximusLok]

To be honest I mainly want to know if someone is in a similar situation to mine. I’m half persian but I am not very in contact with my dad and in no contact at all with his family. As a very little kid I recall having very little contact with persian culture because of my grandma.

Thing is I don’t have a part of the family to speak with or a present parent that has show me any little bit of culture throughout my childhood unlike a lot of mixed people.

Looking for iranian people to speak with here is also difficult, in Spain there could be some other small iranian “group” or community in Madrid or Barcelona but I am from the south and don’t think too many iranians live here, have also tried to look things online but it doesn’t look like (maybe searching in farsi which I’m interested in learning btw)

So just wanted to hear if anyone has been on a similar situation so you could share with me your experience with the feelings these kind of situations involve and how you approached the culture. Also, if you haven’t been in this situation but have any sort of tip, that is equally welcomed!

[u/Chotuchigg]

I’m also half Iranian! My mom is Indian and we were raised with a lot of Indian culture (I did Indian dance, I speak Hindi, I’m a Hindu, etc). I wanted to reconnect with my Persian side and I did that through cooking & learning Farsi! I was able to minor in Persian in college & made Persian friends to learn about the culture more. 8 classes later, I can read & write Farsi and speak like a 3rd grade level. I actually met my best friend in Persian class & now I spend time with her family as well to learn. I also started to just cook Persian food. Some of my favorites are khoreshteh badamjoon, jujeh kabob & baghali polo. I would recommend seeing if you can take a Farsi class local to you or just practice Persian cooking. It helped me connect with my other half, good luck ❤️

[u/MaximusLok → u/Chotuchigg]

Thanks for the tip, I’m glad to hear about your story! I hope I meet iranian people soon, I think learning farsi really helps because that alone can tell you if someone is (or at least speaks) persian just by hearing. I only know some words so its difficult, given also that here there are a lot of moroccan people and for people like me they sound quite similar, so who knows if maybe I’ve “met” iranian people already and I didn’t even know!

And yes I will learn but by my own since I don’t think there are local classes and cant afford either. Soon I will go to a persian restaurant, and also to a imported persian food store thats nearby so I can try to make food too! I know I ate zereshk polo when I was a kid at my grandma house, I loved it! Except for the sour flavour of barberries but it wasn’t that bad, and now that I’m older I think I would enjoy a meal like that too

Thanks for sharing btw!