Sometime in the early ’90s, when Mexicans and other Latin Americans began to flood into Nashville, a news editor asked me this question:
“What’s this guy’s real last name?”
I told him both were the guy’s real last name.
But, the names are not hyphenated, so do we have to use both of them during second attribution?
I think [...]

In my circle of Latin friends and family, I have been mocked a little for my crunchiness: using a Midwife, insisting on breastfeeding despite less-than-perfect circumstances and even our use of cloth napkins. Soy un poco ridicula, they have said.
But, among members of my mom’s group in Nashville — co-sleepers, Diva Cup-wearers, CSA members — [...]

Some women inspire poetry, music, the construction of temples. War, even.
Me?
I inspire the creation of … headphones.
And,  not even totally me. My kid and her cabeza. I just happened to be there.

See these headphones by Griffin Technology? Well, a few weeks ago, I got a complimentary set because, well, my friend Web’s e-mail explains it:
“When [...]

One of the most beautiful sentences in the English language:
“It is now safe to turn on your electronic and hand-held devices.”
iPod on the plane! iPod for La Nena, actually — an expert flier who travels well but can color only for so long.
Before every trip we’ve taken for the last three years, I load the [...]

There were countless Saturday mid-mornings when I would open my bedroom door and up my nose would waft the smell of chicharrones, my younger brother’s snack-of-choice.
It just wasn’t the aroma I needed before noon, but my brother was addicted.
I thought of him first when I accepted the free bags of chicharinas and cinammon churros [...]

I have a semi-automatic reaction to “ethnic” media. Maybe blame it on TV comedies and movies that tend to portray non-Hispanic, white Americans as caricatures of one dimension. But, other than the ick Tico the Squirrel gives me, the kid books and videos we own that depict Latinos and Hispanic culture, have been great — a [...]