About
We are touring musicians based out of Albany, NY. Taina Asili has been touring the nation as a songwriter and vocalist for two decades, most currently with her current group Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde, which she shares with her husband and guitarist Gaetano. Gaetano began touring ten years ago with hip hop rock fusion group Broadcast Live, and now tours with Taina. Together, we also study and perform flamenco as Asili & Vaccaro, which has landed us with our family in Spain twice (an amazing adventure we write about in our blog). Our lives are committed to social justice, as reflected in our music and lifestyle, and our activism leads us to work in many areas, from prisoner justice to ecojustice. Oh, and we are parents of two beautiful children – 11 year old Yabisi and 2 year old Caona. And we are all vegan.
Taina is Puerto Rican and Gaetano is Sicilian, and for us, food is a very important part of our lives. We both love to cook, but when we are on the road, cooking is often not an option. So, we love to go out in search of restaurants with soul that can cater to our vegan diet. As many vegans know, this is not an easy task. Add to this that our eldest child Yabisi, who often accompanies us in our travels, has become quite the vegan foodie, and we have a unique challenge on our hands. After many years of touring, we have begun to refine the art of seeking out these vegan-friendly gems around the world, often using a combination of web resources (like happycow.com), speaking with local folks, and pure experimentation. We offer you this blog in hopes that you will enjoy these places on your travelling vegan adventure as much as we have. Buen provecho!
What vegan means to us
When we were younger, we became vegan as part of our animal rights and environmental justice activism. Though we still see caring for animals and the environment as important, we now find it be equally important to respect all different kinds of diets in the world. I intentionally omit the word “choice” after diet, because for many, how one eats is not a choice as much as it is connected to socioeconomic privilege or lack thereof. As such, it is important to us to participate in the food justice movement, so that everyone has equal access to healthy food. Also, how you eat is deeply connected to who you are physically, mentally, spiritually and culturally, and therefor, only you know what’s best to fuel your body. Our family eats vegan, but we honor the diet diversity of this world and would not want it any other way. As we travel, we do not expect to be catered to whereever we go, but rather, find places where we can humbly, comfortably and respectfully weave ourselves into the cuisine.