tracy lopez

Editor’s note: They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this holiday season we asked all of our regular contributors – we’re up to nine! – to just send us a photo that expresses what the holidays mean to them for this collection of Bicultural Christmas Photos. What kind of photo would you have sent in? “When I was little, my mother always made cookies around Christmas time. Decorating the sugar cookies with my sisters is an especiallyRead More ...

Growing up, gifts or money enclosed in a greeting card meant I knew what I would be doing the next day – writing “thank you” letters. My mother wasn’t strict with my sisters and I in many ways – but when it came to etiquette, we knew what was expected of us. Fortunately, writing the “thank you” letters never felt like an obligation to me because I loved to write, I loved everything about the process of sending mail, andRead More ...

Flirting In Spanish: What Mexico taught me about love, living and forgiveness is the memoir of Susan McKinney de Ortega, a woman born and raised in Philadelphia who goes to Mexico in her 30′s to find herself – but what she doesn’t expect to find is that she and one of her 19 year old English students, Carlos, are falling in love. At first she goes back and forth between resisting and surrendering to her feelings, questioning the stigma ofRead More ...

Editor’s note: We continue our coverage of NPR’s special series “Two Languages, Many Voices” with a preview of today’s story, which will air on Morning Edition, related to bilingual families and technology.  Access to the internet and being able to afford a computer doesn’t necessarily mean one can make use of either. This is the case for many Latino immigrants in the United States. The Bilingual Families and Technology report in the NPR series, “Two Languages, Many Voices: Latinos inRead More ...

Spongebob Squarepants is not good for your 4-year-old’s brain – at least that’s what a new study from the University of Virginia says. Researchers divided sixty 4-year-olds into three groups. The first group watched a 9-minute clip of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, the second watched a 9-minute clip of PBS’s Caillou, and the third group drew pictures for nine minutes instead of watching television. When the nine minutes was up, each group was tested in what psychologists call “executive function.” TheRead More ...