Daily Blog

¨Hurry up and put your shoes on,¨ I tell my son, “or you’re going to be late for Spanish school.” He stops fidgeting and looks up at me with a big grin. “Mama, did you know that for some kids Saturday isn’t a school day? For some kids, Saturday is a Mommy and Daddy day.” ************* We’ve made the decision to enroll the boys in Spanish school on Saturdays. Like most parents who are raising bilingual children, I worry aboutRead More ...

Flirting In Spanish: What Mexico taught me about love, living and forgiveness is the memoir of Susan McKinney de Ortega, a woman born and raised in Philadelphia who goes to Mexico in her 30′s to find herself – but what she doesn’t expect to find is that she and one of her 19 year old English students, Carlos, are falling in love. At first she goes back and forth between resisting and surrendering to her feelings, questioning the stigma ofRead More ...

Editor’s note: This is Part 7 in a continuing series by Amy Conroy. To read the other parts, go here.  “Finally, it’s over!”, said by the same homebody 5-year-old who requests leave of Disneyland after a few hours. Oh sweetheart, it’s only just begun! True, it was relieving to come home after living in Mexico for four months. There is nothing like coming home, and the water here is so clean and plentiful! BUT, we are going back. I amRead More ...

At the end of last year, our nanny announced she was going back to Mexico. I thought I was going to die. Going back to work full-time when my son was barely 8-months-old had not been easy, but I thought we’d won the lottery when we met our nanny and at least I was able to work knowing that both my children were in good and loving hands. While I completely understood her reasons for going back home, I wasRead More ...

Editor´s Note: We have joined the Latina and Latino blogging community in an impressive effort let by NewLatina.com to bring awareness and raise funds for Spina Bifida, “the most commonly occurring birth defect in this country.” One of the strongest voices for spina bifida is Laura Tellado through her blog HoldinOutForAHero.org. Below is a letter from her to you. October is an eerie month, filled with monsters, mummies, and the macabre. But while the occasional witch or skeleton might freakRead More ...

What exactly is the role of language? Why do some of us only speak one, while others manipulate multiple languages in their everyday lives? I have been dwelling on the notion of whether language is considered innate or whether individuals make strategic moves to learn or acquire language(s). In the field of second language acquisition there exists the idea that language is either learned or acquired. For example, the first language a baby gets is considered acquired. Why? Well, becauseRead More ...

I lived in Miami for almost 19 years before moving to Denver five years ago. While I had heard of several bilingual immersion schools in the area, Coral Way K-8 Center was not one of them. I guess some stuff only becomes important once you become a mom. It turns out Coral Way is the oldest bilingual immersion school in the country, or so I was recently told by NPR’s education correspondent Claudio Sanchez, whose report about the school airsRead More ...

I grew up in Canada and I always enjoyed celebrating Halloween. I have fond memories of dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, and trick-or-treating. When I chose Mexico as my country over a decade ago, my associations with this time of year underwent a radical shift. I fell in love with Day of the Dead, and it’s a tradition I’ve embraced wholeheartedly, and I enjoy sharing it with my children very much. Halloween is a fun holiday, but Day ofRead More ...