Ana’s Blog

I am serious when I say summer is my favorite time of year. I might be slightly biased because , growing up in El Salvador, summer is really all I know.  As soon as the weather starts warming up and days get longer, I start daydreaming about the beach, the pool, the barbecues, sitting outside at my favorite café and all the outdoors has to offer.  But, now that I´m, errrr, older I have to adopt certain summer rituals toRead More ...

Yes, I´m selfishly using this space to get some advice from you. I´m actually a bit nervous to even pose this question here because it almost seems obvious that my girl needs to attend a language immersion pre-school, but it´s not so black and white. I´ve complained for years now that there are no viable language immersion pre-schools in the LA area.  For sure, none close to me.  So, when Camila turned 15 months I enrolled her in a familyRead More ...

My daughter has always had an extremely energetic and lively spirit. She can be the loudest and most attention-grabber in the room, but only once she´s comfortable with her environment and, especially, if the environment is mostly Spanish-speaking. I have to admit that I´ve been a tad worried that our efforts to immerse her in Spanish all the time aren´t allowing her to fully be herself when she´s with a group of kids that only speak English. Because of that, fiveRead More ...

I wished I could say I live a totally green and eco life.  I can, however, say I try and try and am conscious about waste and recycling.  Anyone who knows me can tell you I did try cloth diapers, but failed, and that I am the plastic bottle and paper plates, cups, etc police. It´s so easy to carry around your own water and refill it. Why the need to buy cases of plastic bottles that fill up theRead More ...

My husband and I met during the years I lived in Mexico City.  We got married and soon after moved to L.A. thanks to a job offer.  We had our first and only daughter almost four years ago in the U.S.  She has both a U.S. passport and a Dutch one because her paternal Opa (grandfather) is a Dutch citizen.  She doesn´t have or need a Mexican or Salvadoran passport to have those nationalities in her blood. We have beenRead More ...

I was born on May 10th, which is the day many Latin American countries celebrate El Día de las Madres/Mother´s Day.  Yes, I have been such a gift to my mamá! I´m used to having to congratulate my mom and give her a gift at the same time I´m receiving a gift and congratulations from her.  As of 3 years ago, I´ve had to get used to receiving the one congratulation for the day I was born and for beingRead More ...

It’s been a little over two years since we launched SpanglishBaby into the blogosphere.  We started this space as a passion project where Roxana and I could write, share and learn from the community of parents raising kids bilingually and bi-culturally, like us.  The more SpanglishBaby grows, the more content we have to produce and time we must dedicate to keeping it all up. At the same time, both Roxana and I have to work and find any time possibleRead More ...

We´re all about bilingual and Spanish-language books this week in celebration of El Día del Niño, El Día de los Libros. Thus, I was very excited to see that the world-famous Festival Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara is debuting their first ever Spanish-language book fair in U.S. this weekend in Los Angeles: LéaLA. With over 100 of the most important publishing houses in attendance, LéaLA is being touted as “One of the most ambitious efforts to bring Spanish language booksRead More ...