culture

Mexico has been very present in my life lately.  From the continuous buzz regarding the Bicentennial and tomorrow’s Centennial celebrations, to next week’s environmental COP16 summit in Cancún, to the planning of our family trip to spend la Navidad with my husband’s Mexican family. We haven’t celebrated the holiday season with family at all since Camila was born three years ago. So, this trip will be special in many ways.  In an odd way, even though I was raised inRead More ...

Our cat died not too long ago.  My children had both been fond of her, and were very aware of her absence.  My two and a half year old had a lot of questions for me as to where our pet had gone, and I found myself addressing the topic of death with him.  Of course I adapted my explanation for his age and maturity level, explaining that our cat, Amiga was in heaven and that she was happy thereRead More ...

Hispanic—or Latino—Heritage Month, a celebration that runs until Oct. 15, started last week. Unlike years past and because of the influence of the growing Latino population, many more communities have special events and activities during this month-long celebration which are a great way to expose your bilingual children to our culture, food, music and arts. Our good friend Melanie, from ModernMami, has compiled an awesome list of resources to celebrate this month with your niños. In it you’ll find linksRead More ...

One of the challenges of being a not-so-perfect Spanish speaker teaching my toddler Spanish is that I am self-conscious of how I sound in public. I really liked Susan’s blogpost last week about being complimented on her accent and her point that accents are nothing be ashamed of.  However, I was born in El Salvador, and as a Latina, people often expect me to speak Spanish well.  The fact that we immigrated here before my first birthday is really notRead More ...

I have what could be considered a textbook American family on my dad’s side of the family:  one aunt and uncle, two cousins, a few great-aunts, great-uncles, and other more distant relatives I’ve gotten to know to one degree or another.  On my mother’s side:  seven aunts and uncles, more cousins than I can count, and I couldn’t keep track of my extended family without a seriously detailed family tree. People have tried to convince me that in Latin America,Read More ...