Discovering my Swedes and Scots Swen and Ingegorg met sometime in the early 1600s, perhaps not too far from Aspeboda, Sweden, where they were born. Ancestry.com tells me they are my 10th-great-grandparents. Stay with me, through a brief history of my non-Cuban-ness. It’s quick-ish. It leads to questions about identity, often discussed here. So, Swen [...]

Ah lawdy, lawd, dios mio. Forgive me, but I secretly recorded my daughter and her friend. (There’s an app for that,) I had to. The conversation was just too funny and rich and it showed me all too boldly that my daughter is a cubana en la sangre, for she is fascinated by symbols and [...]

Two things have been happening in our lives for several months and I just realized that one has been a metaphor for the other. It took my dreaming of an overflowing toilet a few days ago to link the two. So, our toilets started backing up this winter. The plumber told us it was time [...]

Our 8-year-old got her first pair of glasses this week. It was awesome and, for me, a little bit heartbreaking. She kept telling me all that she can now see — the grass isn’t a fuzzy blanket, there is a girl’s image on the Wendy’s sign, and hey, there are words on that thing hanging [...]

Please don’t call me Selfish I discovered a great essay by Susan Newman over at Babble that made me think a lot — again — about being the mother of An Only Child. The title was “Is it Selfish to Have One Child?” Selfish? Que-Que? The idea of being labeled selfish stopped me, made me [...]

Maria announced, quite proudly: “I know The F-Word!” “Really? What’s the F-Word?” “You know the F-Word, Mama.” “Fun, fudge, flip?” “Mamaaaaahhhh.” “OK, why don’t you tell me what you think the F-Word is?” “It’s a bad word.” “It’s OK. You’re not in trouble, I just want to make sure we’re talking about the same F-Word.” [...]

…meet your future mandolin player. She can kind of play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And tune the thing. Get ready. So yes, city folk, we’re taking mandolin lessons around here. Even I grab the lovely piece and hit it some. La Nena also is taking two other classes after school. That’s three extra-curricular activities…There are [...]

Maria tentatively spoke up. “Mama, her voice sounds kind of funny,” she said nodding toward the stereo. The voice she heard belongs to a pop singer without much range, a young woman who once melted down publicly and is attempting to come back. The voice on her latest single is most definitely not completely human. [...]

We get into the car. It’s about 100 degrees and humid. Maria says: “Ay, carajo, it’s hot!” Guat? And then, I realize. We’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the musical, In the Heights — love and hope in Latino Washington Heights.  The line my kid so expertly and correctly gave me from the back seat [...]

I am reposting this video, which got all kinds of love this week on the Tiki Tiki, so that anybody who pops over here from the Spanglishbaby Blogging Carnival sees an update on the abuelito. The post I contributed to the carnival is from 2007…and not much has changed. My father continues to delight and [...]