Oregon Culture Keepers Roster

Ali Esteghlalian (Beaverton) is a Persian storyteller and traditional cook. He has spent years listening to his Persian/Iranian elders, recording their stories, and connecting his family traditions with those accounts. Esteghlalian shares those stories and practices while spending time with his immediate family and with Persian and non-Persian communities alike. A skilled cook, he has made it his mission to preserve, revive and showcase his family recipes. Esteghlalian’s family has deep roots in the artistic and cultured city of Isfahan, Iran. Their frequent and extended visits to Isfahan enabled him to experience the traditional art forms that were for generations part of daily life. Esteghlalian learned from family elders as well as others from nearby communities whose families had served his for generations. They told him stories about how ‘things were done’ in older generations and more recently. Striving to be a keeper of the traditions, Esteghlalian has spent days and weeks listening to these elders, recording the details of their stories, and making connections between different aspects of his familial traditions and customs of Persian/Iranian folk culture. Besides documenting stories and other traditions, Ali Esteghlalian has also focused on documenting in order to preserve, revive and showcase family recipes passed down from his elders. He actively reads and researches old Iranian traditions and has traveled extensively within Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey to gain firsthand exposure to some of the origins of his family traditions and customs. Esteghlalian is currently compiling the results of his research into a mixed fiction/non-fiction novel to preserve and disseminate his family history. He currently teaches a monthly Rumi poetry reading circle for Persian speakers in Portland and delivers lectures on Persian and Iranian history and arts by invitation. Esteghlalian speaks several languages (English, Persian, French, some Arabic and Turkish) and has traveled to over 60 countries and has lived in US, Canada, Iran and Turkey. Esteghlalian is a chemical engineer and received his PhD from Oregon State University (Bioengineering) and his MBA from the University of California, San Diego.”