Traditions + Culture

For years now we’ve been talking about and celebrating the Day of the Dead festivities on SpanglishBaby, but this is the first year I’m finally going all out with Camila since I feel she can now get a better grasp of what it means. My plan is for us to put an altar together for the bisabuelos and bisabuela she never met. We’re also invited to a party this Saturday where all families have been asked to dress up asRead More ...

It’s October and that can mean only one thing: Día de los Muertos is almost here! In the past three years since we launched SpanglishBaby, we’ve found that this is one holiday we’ve all grown to love and embrace. Not only because it’s a beautiful way to remember and celebrate our loved ones who have passed, but also because the holiday is so rich in colors, foods, traditions and symbolisms that represent so well what makes our Latino culture soRead More ...

The 51 million Latinos who live in the United States, (and those of us who have married into the familia!) know what a colorful, exciting, and beautiful culture it is. Hispanic Heritage Month which runs from September 15th through October 15th each year, allows us to share all the specialness of nuestra cultura with everyone, and gives us a chance to recognize the achievements of American Latinos. Amway, one of the largest direct selling companies in the world, is joiningRead More ...

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 ...

  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 ...

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 ...

If you grew up like me, you remember being pushed to give an abrazo to relatives you didn’t remember or who just plain gave you the heeby jeebies. I survived all those awkward moments, but I’m not planning to put my children through them. When Ana recently posted about piercing her daughter’s ears, it was the occasion for our first disagreement (friendly, of course). In explaining my reasons for not piercing my girls’ ears, I referred to my belief in bodily autonomy.Read More ...

There are rites of passage in many cultures that are sure to raise eyebrows, and even judgmental comments, from others. Many are justified for being inhumane and even torturous, but I refuse to believe that piercing my daughter’s ears when she was an infant falls within that spectrum. If I sound defensive right off the bat, I might be just a tiny bit. This week I wrote an article over at my Babble Voices blog – Besos – titled “HowRead More ...