Roxana is a bilingual and bicultural mamá to Vanessa, an inquisitive first grader, and her always on-the-go little brother, Santiago – both of whom are growing up between two worlds and in two languages. A long-time journalist, Roxana is in charge of all editorial content on SpanglishBaby.
Twitter: @roxanaSB
Last week we posted the following question on our Facebook fan page: “What has been your biggest obstacle in raising a bilingual child?” Within minutes, we had tons of answers explaining all kinds of different obstacles. But soon it was clear which were the most prevalent (in no particular order): #1 You’re the only one who speaks Spanish at home (or the OPOL method is hard to do) I’ve always kind of silently envied those who use the OPOL methodRead More ...
This took me completely by surprise, but as soon as Vanessa tried chicha morada for the first time, she was hooked. Wherever we’d go during our recent trip to Perú, she’d ask for a glass (or two) of this deliciously refreshing Peruvian drink made from maíz morado. It was surprising because, as a child, whenever someone who knew me well planned on serving chicha, they knew they might as well prepare a separate batch sólo para mi. Such was myRead More ...
(Photography by Julio S. Sandoval) Last week, we baptized my gorgeous boy, Santiago. Ana, who is my son’s godmother, and her beautiful family came to Denver from LA for the celebration. It was a lovely ceremony and the party afterward was fun and totally relaxed. I cooked arroz con pollo! Santiago wore a beautiful white guayabera his godfather brought from Mexicali. I was worried he’d cry or at least soltar un chillido when the water was poured on him. Instead,Read More ...
I recently found out that Latino children are 60 percent more at risk than white children to have asthma attacks. I also found out that Latinos are three times as likely as whites to die from asthma. (If you’d like to know why, please check out this article). And, I freaked out because my own daughter, Vanessa, was diagnosed with asthma almost two years ago! Were you aware of these numbers? I wasn’t and I felt guilty. But I’ve decided to turnRead More ...
I’ve become a big fan of Barefoot Books for several reasons. First, I love that the variety of topics their books cover: from world cultures to monsters & magicians. Then, I love how they have a growing selection of books in Spanish and French. You might remember I wrote about their Bilingual Bear series at the beginning of the year. Navegamos a Galápagos: una semana en el Pacífico by Laurie Krebs falls under their category of travel and adventure. AsRead More ...
We’re baptizing our son, Santiago, on Saturday. I feel terrible that we’ve waited this long (most Catholics do this right after a baby is born). His sister was baptized when she was barely 2 months old. Santiago is 19 months today. I can come up with a handful of reasons why we’ve waited this long, but the truth is that I’m really happy we’re finally doing it. I’m also really happy because Ana — who is Santiago’s godmother — andRead 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.
