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Fhanie Medina Martinez

English 102/ Sandi Cannon

Syllabus Work: Artifact Essay

February 28th, 2020

Artifact Essay

Many people keep special a special artifact to remind them of a special event in their life

or they keep it to symbolize someone. Artifacts can range from an actual physical thing to

drawings such as tattoos. The type of artifact can also be defined by the size since some artifacts

can be the actual building itself or small rock that has a special meaning to the businesses. In my

fieldwork site, there are two main artifacts that caught my attention from the first time I went

there. A lucky utensil and the kitchen of the restaurant.

The lucky utensil one of the first things I noticed because when I was looking at how she

was cooking she would always use the same one. Her lucky utensil is a medium-sized sieve

which she mostly uses to do her famous salsa for fried fish. Sieves are used to separate a solid

from a liquid. It is usually made in the shape of a half-circle and has a long handle at the end. To

use it you would get your mixture, then you pour it on to the sieve and try to shake it a little so

the as much water as possible drains down into another bowl. There is a background story to

which she considers the sieve to be lucky. This story is known by the owner and the workers

only but they decided to share it with me. Her most trusted worker Lorena told me the story since

the owner was busy cooking and didn’t have time for an interview. She stated that when she was

a little girl and she helped her mother make tamales to sell on the street. Since she is the older

sister, her mother and she were the cooks of the house, and little by little her mom began to
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notice that she liked to cook. Due to the fact they didn't have much money for her birthday, her

mom gave her a new sieve. Since that day she always used that utensil. She considers it to be

lucky because when she uses it she always gets everything right and on point. For example, once

she was doing fried fish and she had left her sieve at her sister's house and she started freaking

out because everything in the cooking process was going wrong. Her employees and relatives

already know that it is her greatest possession so they take extra care of it. The reason I chose

this artifact is because of the importance it brought to the restaurant. Without that sieve,

Saturnina wouldn’t be able to make her delicious dishes because like she said something would

go wrong. This artifact represents a belief that the employees and the owner have towards the

luck utensil. The person that uses this artifact is the owner and it shows the amount of love she

has for that everyday use instrument. It also helps us see how dedicated she is since she has taken

care of that sieve for a very long time.

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The second artifact I found interesting was the kitchen. The restaurant itself is outdoor so

a part of the kitchen is uncovered for the customer’s eyes. The restaurant is named after a famous

city in Mexico “Heroica Veracruz” which is close to where Saturnina is originally from. Heroica

Veracruz is a city known for its beautiful ocean and the friendly environment of people. The

whole restaurant ocean themed and it is based on the beach of this city. The kitchen is where the

seafood gets ready and done. Seafood is popular for being healthy and delicious at the same time.

It contains proteins, vitamin B, calories, and low saturation of fat, however, it is mostly known

for its richness in omega-3. Omega-3 is a good type of fat that helps us reduce the risk of getting

heart diseases, dementia, and/or arthritis. To find the information about the location I interviewed

the owner. She told me about the property terms she signed about. When she acquired this

location there wasn’t anything but dirt so she started investing and making money out of it. She

also told me why she chose this specific shape for the kitchen of the restaurant. The shape of the

kitchen looks like the windows of a food truck. Since it is ocean-themed I supposed that is why

the roof is made out of palm leaves. The reason I chose this artifact was that I was surprised by

all the ocean details throughout the restaurant. Since the kitchen is a vital part of a restaurant it

must be really important for the owner to make sure it is always kept clean and tidy. This artifact

tells us about the behaviors they do in the restaurant and the way they prepare and clean the

kitchen. Since the owner is one of the main cooks, we can see that she is very dedicated to her

job and is planning to improve with her business in the future.

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In conclusion, the two artifacts that interested me were the lucky utensil and the kitchen

of the restaurant. Artifacts are known for their significance in one’s life which I believe to be

true. This is because many people including myself possess some valuable artifact we treasure

because it reminds me of something. Artifacts open doors that words can not open because of the

visuals we use when writing. On the other hand just describing the artifact when with if it were

just the words, the audience would have a hard time imagining what is going without being able

to see a picture of the storyline.

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Works Cited

Folk, R.L.; Ward, W.C. (1957)Brazos River bar, a study in the significance of grain size

parameters. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 27, 3-26.

Connor, W. E. “Importance of n-3 Fatty Acids in Health and Disease,” American Journal of

Clinical Nutrition 71, no. 1 (January 2000): 171S-175S.

Alfaro Medina Saturnina. February 23, 2020

Campos Lorena. February 22, 2020