tradition

Like most kids I know, Vanessa and Santiago are crazy about music. Vanessa loves to sing and Santiago loves to dance and play instruments. A few weeks ago, Santiago got a song book from his preschool with all the songs he and his classmates would sing during their annual Christmas show last week. As soon as Vanessa got a hold of the song book, she started singing out loud as many as the songs she already knew and just readingRead More ...

My first memories of Día de Los Muertos was the smell of fresh mole and bolillos (baguettes) that my grandmother made and we took to the cemetery where her parents and siblings were buried, this repeated every November first, it was the most magical event of the year for me. I didn’t really know about Halloween then. Abuelita said that bringing your relatives’ favorite foods to their tomb will bring their souls back to their buried bodies and we will feelRead More ...

  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 ...

I grew up in El Salvador going to Piñatas, not fiestas de cumpleaños, but Piñatas. If you guessed that the smacking of the hanging toy was the main attraction, you’re right. The thing is I don’t remember ever having fun when it was my turn to grab the stick and hit the swinging piñata. I never felt tall enough, strong enough, or maybe I simply was never interested enough. I was reminded about this feeling of childhood inadequacy last weekRead More ...

It’s 2:30 in the madrugada and the rooster won’t stop crowing. I thought this only happened at the break of dawn! What is going on? It was okay the first few days, but after all the late nights celebrating Año Nuevo and the first day of 2009 and just life in general – as they do on this beautiful island on a regular basis – I want to kill the stupid rooster. But then, I remember how Vanessa’s face litRead More ...