For weeks now my girl has been asking me every day if today is the day when Sofia the First starts airing on Disney Junior. I kept saying “Todavía no,” but reminding her that she would get to watch the movie, Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess, in an actual theater at the Walt Disney Studios lot. I’m sure she really has no grasp at just how special and exciting that is, but she felt it once last Saturday came around and the three of us (including papá) headed out to the Disney lot in Burbank, CA to find our own spot in the Lavender Carpet and get our chance to interview celebrities as they walked by.

Of course, being it that I had the cutest 5-year-old little assistant at the premiere, we were lucky to get interviews with Sara Ramirez (voice of Queen Miranda), Lou Diamond Phillips, Darcy Rose Byrnes (voice of Princess Amber) and many more, including a very special fan-moment for my girl!

Watch our star-studded Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess movie premiere and storybook launch moments and interviews below. There are so many cute moments and we even got to talk to Sara Ramirez about the importance of being bilingual.

Be sure to check out my post on Babble Voices for a whole bunch of pictures from the event, plus what we thought about the movie (Hint: We LOVED it and want the TV show to start YA!)

Tune into the Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess movie premiere on November 18 on the Disney Channel and November 22 on Disney Junior to be enchanted!

For “Sofia the First” games, videos and  activities, visit DisneyJunior.com.

In February my daughter witnessed one of the life events that has made the most impact in her: a wedding. Ever since then, she’s been obsessed with the ceremony and white “princess” dresses. I had no idea when we were sitting in the chapel, with her on my lap, and me whispering in her ear explanations for what was happening in the ceremony – the aras, el ramo, los lazos, los anillos, la vela, el beso – that it would become so engrained in her and she’d remember every single detail. And I do mean cada detalle! 

Every chance she gets, she reenacts the wedding. Her Barbies and Kens are usually the protagonists and I’m the one conducting the ceremony. I can’t dare skip one of the rituals because she will call me on it and make me repeat it all. Somehow, she can even hum the song that played for the bride’s entrance!

So you can imagine how overjoyed she was when Trendy Bambini sent her a Swan Lake Princess Tutu dress! The first thing she did was go into her room to put it on, found flowers to hold, put a bow on her head and ran to the living room to tell papá that they were to get married! We played along, let her indulge in her princess bride moment and I officiated the “ceremony.” It was the cutest thing ever.

Then we convinced her the dress was perfect for a photo shoot at the beach. She loved the idea, so we drove off to Malibu. It turned out to be a super windy day, but we had a blast with our photo shoot and she was beaming the whole time because it all felt so dreamy and special to her.

Check it out the pictures and that smile on her face. Amazing what a beautiful dress can do.

Then scroll down to enter a giveaway and grab a discount code from Trendy Bambini for a special something for your little princesa.

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Disclosure: This post was made possible through the sponsorship of Trendy Bambini. We thank our sponsors for making it possible to continue with our mission of SpanglishBaby.

Let me start by saying that my girl and I couldn’t be more excited about next month’s premiere of Disney Junior’s Sofia the First. I first wrote about her on SpanglishBaby back in June and just with that sneak peek my girl was hooked. What little girl wouldn’t love the story of a girl turned princess?

But I’ll tell you one thing, as much as we already love Sofia, never for one second did the thought cross my mind that she would be a Latina or even marketed as such. Never. Now, all of a sudden, the media is exploding with the “news” that Sofia is in fact a Latina. There’s even a direct quote on Entertainment Weekly by executive producer Jaime Mitchell saying “She is Latina.” But when VP of Disney Junior original programming, Joe D’Ambrosia, is asked about it he doesn’t admit or deny anything: “We never actually call it out….When we go into schools [to talk to young students about the show], what I find fascinating is that every girl thinks that they’re Sofia.”

And that is precisely my point. EVERY GIRL THINKS THAT THEY’RE SOFIA! My girl is Latina and a quarter Dutch, and she actually looks a lot like Sofia. But, again, not because of cultural identity, but because this is a princess with true emotions and a deepness like no other.

If Disney were truly to finally step out and directly cater to the Latino community that has been crying out for decades for a Latina princess to represent our girls, she would be as Latina as Tiana is black or as Pocahontas is Native American. In fact, I was at the blogger tour in Pixar and behind-the-scenes of the making of Brave in April. There I learned they go great lengths to make sure the Scottish culture was represented as authentically as possible. Don’t you think they would do the same if they were finally representing the Hispanic culture? Don’t you think Disney would shout it out to the world, especially to the Hispanic media if she really was Latina? Really?

Click over to Babble to continue reading this post.

And click here for an update: Disney Gives Official Statement on Whether Sofia Is or Isn’t a “Latina Princess”