Daily Blog

Today marks the beginning of the month-long celebration known as Hispanic Heritage Month. Today’s also the Independence Day of several countries in Central America, así que ¡Feliz Día a los salvadoreños, nicaragüenses, guatemaltecos, costarricences y hondureños! Tomorrow it’ll be Mexico’s turn and on Sept. 18, it’ll be Chile’s Independence Day, so it obviously made huge sense to have this celebration of all things Hispanic during this time of the year. Now, I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been aRead More ...

I heard this really interesting story on NPR the other day about Macon, Georgia public schools which are now becoming Mandarin immersion programs. While I thought this was a cool idea, I was shocked by some of the community reactions. There was anxiety on the part of some parents due to the fact that the Chinese instructors were being funded by local nonprofits backed by the Chinese government. NPR reported that, “Some parents see a Communist regime enacting its geopolitical agenda onRead More ...

  Bizarre cravings aside — like a few months ago when my intense thirst for something salty led me to slurp down pickle juice straight from the jar — this, my second pregnancy, has been marked mostly by cravings for the foods I grew up with and the wonderful and diverse sabores from all across Latin America: Tex-Mex enchiladas and chalupas covered in yellow cheese; chorizo con huevo breakfast tacos with salsa; tacos de pastor drizzled with chopped onion andRead More ...

Special thanks to Terri on Facebook for sharing this video with us. The 4-minute video takes us into the lives of a family that has made the decision to enroll their twins into a dual immersion program in San Rafael Elementary in Pasadena, CA. The beauty of the story is that the parents don’t speak Spanish, yet recognize the importance of a bilingual upbringing for their kids. The girl, Abby, and her twin brother are in second grade and youRead More ...

Our family was fortunate to have had the opportunity to once again immerse our children in Spanish by traveling abroad. You may remember that last year we spent the summer in Peru. This summer was spent in Costa Rica. There really is nothing like travel to enhance your child’s language skills and to provide them with global and cultural understanding. Such trips require planning and effort, but the work is well worth it. Since I do not have family livingRead More ...

As most of you know already, Ana and I are in the process of promoting our first book, Bilingual is Better, which will be officially released next Tuesday, Sept. 18. To that end, we’ll be in Miami all of next week for several media appearances — details of which we’ll be sharing with you soon in case you’d like to see us — and for our book launch party. Although nothing would make us happier than to have all of youRead More ...

Regardless of political affiliation, I would find it very hard to believe that any Latino out there didn’t think San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro‘s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention earlier this week was inspiring. Castro spoke so passionately and lovingly about his abuelita, his upbringing and all the hurdles his family has overcome that I’m sure many Latinos identified with him immediately. Hearing him sprinkle his speech with Spanish here and there was music to my ears. ButRead More ...

On any given night, you will find my husband, Toño, narrating leyendas and mitos to our four children before putting them to bed: the history of the escudo on the Mexican flag, the story of the hare outsmarting the coyote, stories from the Bible, or even Aesop’s fables. La llorona, David and Goliath, and Juan Diego and la Vírgen de Guadalupe trump Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood when Papi tells — and acts out — these traditional stories. InsteadRead More ...