Isabella Benjamin-Quintana

Isabella Benjamin-Quintana (she/they) is a recent Macalester Graduate, holding a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies. Isabella came to the Four Sisters fellowship with a passion for urban agriculture and food sovereignty work. Growing up, Isabella often visited her family’s farm in Veracruz, Mexico, gaining a deeper appreciation for smallholder and subsistence agriculture. She holds fond memories of picking fruits like papaya, lime, or tamarind from her family’s fruit trees and preparing them in traditional dishes.

Isabella has also worked in foodshare mutual aid groups throughout the Twin Cities, and through this experience, recognizes the vital importance of communities of color having access to healthy, culturally responsive foods. For her family, this involved accessing foods such as tortillas or dried Mexican chiles; staple ancestral foods essential to her family’s diet for generations. For Isabella, strengthening our relationships with foods is also a process of remembrance and healing.

After this Internship, Isabella plans to bring the skills she learned with Four Sisters to deepen her understanding of regenerative food systems in the urban agriculture landscape of the twin cities.