cultural traditions

If you are a family with multiple cultures represented, a family that has immigrated to a new country, a mixed race family, an interfaith family, una familia multilingüe, an adoptive family, an expat family, a host family, holidays are a balancing act of choosing “which,” “how,” and “when” to incorporate the different traditions and customs. In our family, my husband is from Mexico, I am from the U.S., and we have two biological daughters, and two sons who are adoptedRead More ...

We’ve been in Texas since Friday spending time with some really good Mexican friends we consider family. We’re preparing everything for our New Year’s Eve celebration tonight and as I was checking to make sure we had enough grapes for everyone to eat 12 at the stroke of midnight, I started thinking of all the other traditions/superstitions Latinos have related to Año Nuevo. 12 uvas de la suerte This tradition is originally from Spain, but has been adopted by manyRead More ...

The very first Thanksgiving my husband and I spent together, was only three months after we had met and started dating.What a valiant boyfriend, to accept an invitation home to meet my family on one of my family’s favorite holidays! This intimidating family feast included 60 of my aunts, uncles and cousins in an animated sit-down dinner. As Toño followed the boisterous conversations, he may not have captured all of the English — but the warm hugs and laughter gaveRead More ...

The biggest fights in the early part of my marriage revolved around a recipe. A Thanksgiving recipe. For stuffing no less! It sounds absolutely ridiculous to me now, typing those words out loud — and frustrating that we wasted so much emotion over an innocuous mass of old bread and drippings. But then, it really wasn’t a battle of corn versus white bread to begin with. If this fight had a name it would be Babita v. Hazel, the battle ofRead More ...

Thanksgiving — the date in November — has never meant much to me. When I was growing up, I was in Costa Rica, and the fourth Thursday in November was just another day. My brother and I were busy with school, my parents with work. My American father would usually make a casual comment in reference to the day, and I had memories of spending Thanksgivings past with his family in California when I was very little, but that wasRead More ...