Traditions + Culture

  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 ...

I have to admit the traditional American Easter celebration with bunnies, egg hunts and such still feels new to me. As much as I grew up with both the U.S. and Salvadoran traditions, in El Salvador Easter week was Semana Santa; and that meant a week of beach and religious celebrations. This is honestly the first year we’ve gone all out with a visit from the Easter bunny, an egg hunt and, claro, learning how to make cascarones (confetti EasterRead More ...

  The tradition of posadas have begun and Mexico honors this celebration a lo grande. So big, that they’ve even broke two World Guinness records this year for having the biggest nativity scene, as well as the most amount of figures in one scene. This massive nativity scene, which is a recreation of what the city of Belén must have looked like two centuries ago, has been set up on the parking lot of the famous Estadio Azteca of MexicoRead More ...

I have to admit the first time I saw a brown Santa Claus I was taken aback. He didn’t seem right. He didn’t fit into the mold of the Coca-Cola envisioned Santa Claus we’ve all grown up with. This was years ago, and I had honestly not given Santa’s skin color any more thought until a couple of weeks ago when a friend asked a group of us (almost all Latinas) if we cared if the jolly man was brownRead More ...

The Christmas season/la Navidad is finally here! The air is quickly filling up with the holiday cheer that our familia and all that great food brings. Along with all of the great traditions that come with the holidays, we cannot forget about music! So let´s get ready to practice our villancicos. Villancicos? Some of you might  know exactly what I’m talking about, and for the rest, you might be more familiar with them than the name leads you to believe.Read More ...