Liza Colón-Zayas’ medallion

Liza Colón-Zayas, wearing her grandmother’s ornate Catholic medallion, in New York, Aug. 12, 2024. The heirloom, passed down by her grandmother, connects the Emmy-nominated actress to her Puerto Rican heritage. (Timothy O’Connell/The New York Times)

By Amelia Diamond

Liza Colón-Zayas used to ride her bike between the living room and kitchen of her grandmother’s apartment in New York City. Her Puerto Rican grandmother didn’t speak English, and Colón-Zayas, a Bronx-native Nuyorican, didn’t speak Spanish. But the two found other ways to communicate: through her grandmother’s patience as she rode her two-wheeler around the tight space; through hand gestures and homemade Puerto Rican food.

“As I look back, it breaks my heart that we couldn’t have conversations,” Colón-Zayas said. She’s now the guardian of her grandmother’s ornate Catholic medallion, a talisman given to her grandmother by Colón-Zayas’ grandfather when her grandparents moved back to Puerto Rico.

The medallion is kept safe in a drawer. Colón-Zayas last wore it when she made the Puerto Rican dish arroz con gandules for a cooking segment of “The Bear.” “I wore it for her,” she said.

In an interview, the actress, who was nominated for an Emmy for her role in “The Bear,” took out the medallion once again. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q. Tell me about this piece of jewelry.

A: This was my grandmother’s medallion. She was born in 1904, she came to this country in 1948. And then my grandparents moved back to Puerto Rico in the 1970s. And when they moved back, [my grandfather] got her this beautiful medallion. She was very Catholic. Then she handed it down to my mom, and then my mom gave it to me. She handed it to me when she moved out of her apartment in the Bronx, upstate. That was about 10 years ago.

Q. When you wore the medallion during the cooking segment you filmed, did it give you confidence or comfort? Was it symbolic?

A: It’s all of those things because my grandmother’s love language was food. She didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Spanish as a kid because I was born and raised in New York. And my parents were pretty brutalized for being Latino, so they wanted us to speak English. I didn’t like food, but I loved her food. So that was her way of caring for me, and being affectionate. She was very affectionate and very sweet and very patient with me because I was a handful.

Q. How would you describe the medallion to someone who hasn’t seen pictures of it?

A: Like John Travolta’s medallion in “Saturday Night Fever.” Grandma was rocking it before the rest of the world, before they realized how cool it was. It’s ornate, and it has Jesus on one side, and Mother Mary on the other and the baby Jesus engraved on each side.

Q. Did your grandmother actually wear it?

A: She wore it all the time. She was very Catholic. She couldn’t read, she didn’t go to school up in her mountain town. But she was very religious with her prayer. She had an altar, which used to scare the living hell out of me. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, and there’d be the shadows from the candles, and all the pictures hung up. But she still held on to her Santeria beliefs as well. I saw a couple of rituals with her, and I didn’t understand anything that was going on, I was in awe and in fear. But today I have a newfound respect for that other side, the Santeria beliefs, which are nothing like you see in the movies.

Q. Is there someone in particular who you want to pass down this medallion to someday?

A: I haven’t decided who, but I feel like the energy is female. So I would give it to a female-identifying family member that I love.

Q. Does having the medallion help you speak to her now?

A: It just makes me miss her, but I feel like I want to share the pride, a deeper sense of pride for my roots, to the population of Nuyoricans, Puerto Ricans born and raised here. I lost so much in terms of my culture, and my history and my language. And so, I just hope to encourage people like myself to reach back and to look deeper, and to cherish it. Because there’s such a beautiful, rich history, so many contributions that will enrich us personally, individually, and as a collective if we hold onto it.