Pan Dulce

Pan Dulce by Jeremy Abad follows Oronda, a loving Mexican grandmother whose special pan dulce recipes mirror the personalities of her family members. Oronda is a warm, vanilla-and-rose-scented grandmother who deeply loves her family and expresses that love through baking traditional sweet breads. Each bread she makes symbolizes a specific family member's spirit and character. For Elisa, Oronda makes the Conchas because Elisa is bold, outspoken, and fiercely loyal to her father. For Esteban, Oronda's cowboy husband, appears tough and proud but deeply loves and respects her. She bakes Cuernos for him, horn-shaped breads that reflect his bull-rider bravado and strength. For Santina, it is the Empanadas because she is quiet, introverted, and dreamy, preferring books, painting, and writing to socializing. For Vanessa, it is the Alamare is fragile like Vanessa as she sleepwalks, and longs for her absent father, singing to him in the night. For Kiko, the Polvorón is to bring light and color into his life in the hopes of changing his heart and teach him to love. For Carlito, it was the warm Cemas she bakes him large, warm Cemas, which he eats joyfully, sharing the moment with Lulu. As time passes, Oronda tires more easily, and her family takes her baking skills for granted until one day, while making Buñelos, she stops, looks out at the evening sun, and collapses, still clutching her mother's masa roller. With her death, her unique, generational recipes and techniques disappear, symbolizing the loss of family tradition and her irreplaceable presence.