Bicultural Vida

Will my children be as passionate about Spanish as I am? I sure hope so… I know it’s crazy for me to even think about this right now considering my kids are only 5 and 2, but it’s something I often wonder. In fact, I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but then I got the February issue of Latina magazine which has an article titled Are we losing our Language? on the cover and I decidedRead More ...

You might remember how worried I was about teaching Vanessa to read and write in Spanish before she entered kindergarten last fall. In the end, I opted not to go that route and instead she’s been learning to read and write at school in English first. When I made my decision, I figured it’d be easier – for both of us – to transfer the skills she learned in English to Spanish and all would be merry. Little did IRead More ...

Editor’s note: This post is my contribution to Spanish Friday. De niña siempre celebré Reyes Magos, pero la verdad es que no me acuerdo haber comido rosca, aunque seguramente lo hice por lo menos los años que viví en México D.F. Lo que sí me acuerdo es dejar un zapato al pie de mi cama el 5 de enero y levantarme el 6 y encontrar caramelos y juguetes chiquitos dentro del zapato. Mi esposo es de Puerto Rico y allá élRead More ...

Editor’s note: During the next few weeks, we’re going to be doing things a bit differently here as Ana and I concentrate in meeting the deadline for the forthcoming SpanglishBaby book. We hope you bear with us. Because we’ve been around for almost three years (wow! when did that happen?), we’ll be sharing some classic posts from when it all got started. This post was originally published on February 6, 2009. It’s 2:30 in the madrugada and the rooster won’t stop crowing. IRead More ...

When Vanessa was younger I used to tell her I didn’t speak English, but now that she’s in kindergarten, she’s pretty much figured out that’s not true. Although we speak only Spanish at home, because she now spends a lot more time in the outside world, she’s heard me interact in English in more than one occasion. The other day, though, I was really surprised when she asked me – in Spanish – if I spoke English. When I saidRead More ...

Camila, my husband and I are spending the holidays in El Salvador. One of the highlights of the trip so far was getting to celebrate mi abuelita´s 89th birthday and getting to snap this first picture of four generations of Martinez girls. My abuelita is really the one who set the stage for my bicultural upbringing since she was, in part, responsible for getting my dad the job in Houston which forced the newly married Salvadoran couple (mi mami yRead More ...

Editor’s note: They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this holiday season we asked all of our regular contributors – we’re up to nine! – to just send us a photo that expresses what the holidays mean to them for this collection of Bicultural Christmas Photos. What kind of photo would you have sent in? “Each year we visit the Christmas tree in Old Town Pasadena. It always delights the girls. I like the way we areRead More ...

Editor’s note: They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this holiday season we asked all of our regular contributors – we’re up to nine! – to just send us a photo that expresses what the holidays mean to them for this collection of Bicultural Christmas Photos. What kind of photo would you have sent in? “I am starting new, multicultural Christmas traditions with my newly blended family this year. The photo is of my stepdaughters and sonRead More ...