Elsie Rivas Gomez is a mother, wife, teacher, and writer living in Pasadena, CA. She was born in El Salvador and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her first collection of poetry, Swimming in El Rio Sumpul, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can find her blogging over at MamaFeminista.
Twitter: ergomez
“Que Divina!” I loved the Babel Animalitos T-shirt from the moment I saw it. The t-shirt comes in pink and blue and features three pairs of animalitos “speaking” in both English and Spanish. As our little Spanglish children all know, the doggie says “Guau Guau” in Spanish, but “Woof” in English. The sombreroed pajaritos on this shirt chirp, “Pio Pio!” It made me and Marisol both smile immediately with its playful graphics. I noticed right away that the shirt wasRead More ...
My family has always celebrated Thanksgiving, and as long as I remember it has marked the official start of the holiday season. Last year, I wrote about how mi familia comes together for the holidays, and how it makes for a crowded and busy time. Now that I have a family of my own, we alternate holidays with each side of the family, allowing our kids the opportunity to form memories with everyone in their large, beautiful, diverse family. It’s not always easy.Read More ...
For the DREAMers I know that our community at Spanglishbaby is a diverse bunch, and that we come from a variety of personal and political perspectives, so I’m a little nervous about writing a post about politics, but I’d like to share with you some of my reflections on the recent passage of AB 130, the California DREAM Act: The California DREAM Act allows undocumented students to receive financial aid, if financially eligible, from private and public sources. Under AB540,Read More ...
We are deep in Disneyland on a family vacation, tired but happy. The girls have been enjoying the music, make-believe, and spectacle that is this childhood fantasyland. I am happy to report from the glittery trenches that there is plenty of Spanish to be heard on main street, churros in every land, and a pretty decent Mexican restaurant in the park as well. Looking around at the staff that works here in the Happiest Place on Earth, I see manyRead More ...
The biggest surprise of having hermanas is how much they truly adore each other. When I was pregnant, I cannot tell you how many people lamented the fact of “another girl.” Over and over people asked, “oh, how does your husband feel about that?” As if it was some sort of tragedy! As if he was some jerk who would be saddened by the prospect of another girl. It never occurred to either of us to be anything but overjoyedRead More ...
As I mentioned in an older post, Marisol’s name is the source of some pronunciation issues for our friends and even family, sometimes. A few nights ago, Marisol did something about this that just made me so proud that I thought I should share. I was in the kitchen setting the table for dinner with a great friend of ours, when I heard Mari in the other room saying, “No, it’s Mah-ree-SOL. Mah-ree-SOL. It’s Mah-ree-SOL, Nathan.” I ran in toRead More ...
Ana
Roxana
We are two Latina moms – best friends since college – who are extremely passionate about ensuring our children not only speak both our languages, English and Español, but that they also grow up proud of both their cultures, Latino and American. Over three years ago we realized there's was a lack of information available for parents raising bilingual + bicultural children, so using our background in media, we launched SpanglishBaby.
