Author´s Note: Last year I wrote this post because I was highly inspired and motivated to help out the RMHC Day of Change after a visit to one of the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald Houses and the families I met there. In support of this year´s Day of Change, happening this Thursday, September 9th, I´m read more ...
Many of you know through our tweets and our Facebook updates that my daughter and I are currently in El Salvador visiting the family for one whole month. It has been two years since the last time we were here and a trip was long overdue, especially for Camila. My daughter, who just turned three, read more ...
My four-year-old daughter, Vanessa, just finished two weeks of an immersion language summer camp…in FRENCH! I’ve been wanting her to go there since last summer, but things didn’t really work out the way I’d plan them and so we had to wait until this year. And, I’m actually glad we did! French is my third read more ...
Editor´s note: The following is a guest post and vlog by Carrie Ferguson Weir. My girl’s first words were in Spanish. And, I was so proud. Here I was in Tennessee, with no Spanish-speaking relatives nearby and my little baby was hablando español. And then she turned 3 y “I don’t speak Spanish!’’ became her read more ...
The other night, my husband and I were having a pretty “heated” discussion about the right Spanish word for earring. Pretty lame, huh? But I’ve always had a fascination with words – it’s not for nothing that I chose journalism as a career path – in both English and Spanish. Anyhow, for my husband, who read more ...
My mom just got back from a month-long trip to Perú, our homeland, and as soon as she landed, I wanted to know when she’d be over. Not only did I miss her and wanted for her to see her nietos (especially since my baby boy, Santiago, has changed so much in the past few read more ...
It’s starting to happen. English is slowly creeping into our house. My almost four-year-old is consistently using more and more English. She never fully speaks solely in English to me, but whereas before she’d say an English word or two in a sentence, lately she’s been known to say full sentences. I know there’s nothing read more ...
The following post was originally published on September 18, 2009 under the title “How To Create a Perceived Need for the Minority Language.” My 18-year-old goddaughter, Veronika, was recently in town for the weekend and I noticed something pretty interesting that I’m still trying to figure out. Although she was raised bilingual by my (Peruvian) read more ...
My daughter, Vanessa, is always curious about what languages other people speak. I didn’t teach her that. Neither do I go around introducing people to her by announcing they speak English, Spanish or both. Yet, it’s pretty usual for her to want to know. Once she finds out, she likes to make all aware that read more ...
“Mami todavía no vamos a ir a home porque estamos buscando un treasure.” This is what my almost 4-year-old said to me last week as we were heading back from our regular afternoon stroll to the duck pond by our house. I was floored. I know this is totally normal in the journey of those read more ...
Just in time for back-to-school, Scholastic has come out with the latest set of DVDs in its Storybook Treasures collection. Adventures at School includes a total of 14 stories, three of which are narrated in Spanish. Like the Max and Ruby stories, these are short and varied in illustration and topic, with some catchy tunes. read more ...
I come from a long line of atypical Latin American women who don’t really know how to cook. (My mom won’t be happy I’m divulging this information. Sorry mamita, I still think you’re an amazing woman!). I don’t have pangs of nostalgia for my grandmother’s arroz con pollo or for my tía’s empanadas. Growing up, read more ...
Most of us have been affected one way or another by the economic woes this country has been through in the last couple of years. And, although children might be too young to understand all the implications and repercussions of a bad economy, they are not blind to the changes these bring about in their lives. Yet, at least for read more ...
