Posts from the “Reflections” Category

So True!

06/25/10

Writing this post is awkward because it forces me to admit that much of my inspiration (read: desire to steal the idea) for starting this blog came from reading Metrodad — an incredibly funny, honest, and tender account of parenthood from a young father in New York City. I don’t know if he is the author of this cartoon, but I keep showing it all my friends who have two young children (which are many — we’re all just at that age). And of course, if you’re a parent, you totally get the humor in this — having two young children is tremendously challenging and exhausting, but at the same time, we all agree that we wouldn’t change it for the world. We just…

Categories: Reflections

Authenticity (or “Damn you, Fleet Foxes!“)

05/24/10

Am I a caucasian, middle class, liberal arts-educated, urban hipster? Definitely not (refer to previous post describing my upbringing in agrestic and anachronistic working-class Colombia) Would my taste in everything indicate otherwise? Definitely yes. Do I find it obnoxious and patronizing when people ask themselves rethorical questions and then answer them? You betcha. Does that keep me from doing it? Hmm. Music is important (indispensable, even) in my life and by extension (read: by imposition), in our family life. A random sampling of an afternoon soundtrack in our house could yield tunes by Elliot Smith, Andrés Cepeda, Depeche Mode, Silvio Rodríguez, Café Tacuba, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, The White Stripes, Helenita Vargas, Alci Acosta, Soda Stereo, Led Zeppelin, Pixies, Juanes, Juan Luis Guerra, Carlos Vives,…

Categories: Reflections, Tips, Trivial Occurrences

Duplicity

04/26/10

Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows that language is more than just words. I’m not talking about the cliché that X percent of communication is non verbal (although that’s very true.) I’m referring to what percentage of your being, of your “personality”, comes through in the things you say and how you say them. Lately, one of the things that brings me the most joy is to watch Gabriel interact in English with his mother and his maternal cousins, aunts, uncles, granddad, and nana. I feel like I’m watching another copy of my beloved son, created for the English-speaking world, being wonderful, clever, and delightful in new and different ways. [Note of self-consciousness: the reader must understand that I adore my second…

Categories: Reflections

Correcting

01/06/10

I don’t buy into the modern parental trend of rewarding children for trivial things like, say, existing or choosing not to bite me in the arm. I love my children to death and I shower them with hugs and kisses every chance I get (when they’re not pushing me away and asking me to keep it cool), and I also privately think they are the most remarkable children in all of the Upper Midwest, and quite possibly, the entire NAFTA region. But I’m quite comfortable telling my two year-old son, in a loving way, when he’s made a mistake. Initially, I was nervous about pointing out his mistakes in Spanish (“mistake” = using the wrong word or seriously mispronouncing it) because I feared this…

Categories: Reflections, Tips

Oh, No, I’m Turning Into My Mother!

12/04/09

Raise your hand if you ever swore you’d never be like your parents….wait!, don’t put your hand down yet, I have a few thousand to count. Here’s the catch for me: in order to teach my children about the old country, I sort of have to be like my parents. And how do I do that? Speaking Spanish Pointing at things with my lips Flailing my arm to create inertia that makes my thumb and my index finger make a snapping sound to indicate that there is trouble Neglecting to tame my uni-brow Going around the house turning off the lights Listening to music that deals with the following topics: life in the farm the drama and dishonor that is the loss of a…

Categories: Reflections, Trivial Occurrences

Gracias Por El Turkey

11/26/09

SAPPINESS ADVISORY: If you have a history of adverse reactions to excessive sentimentality, consult your doctor before reading on. I love Thanksgiving! For me, as an immigrant, Thanksgiving is the most meaningful and enjoyable of all festivities in this country (even if I’m forced to watch football to prove my masculinity: “Go Yankees!…oh, wait..“). The act of giving thanks for the bounty that this land continues to offer not only its native sons and daughters but also those who come searching for their individual version of the American Dream is a very special and beautiful ritual. And even though every year I have to refresh my memory on the history of Thanksgiving (thanks, Wikipedia!), and even though the history between white Americans and American…

Categories: Reflections

No Use for Dora the Explorer

10/23/09

Just to be clear, I think Dora and Diego are about the best thing that has happened to Hispanic people in this country since Ricky Martin made the entire nation shake its bon-bon the whole Summer of 1999. But it has been interesting to see where the concept of Dora and Diego fails when applied to the way I’m raising my sons. My older son now has a very clear idea of English and Spanish as two separate systems of communication used by two different groups of people, and he understands that some people can speak both (like, say, himself – duh!). But in order to secure the best chance that in the future he won’t all of a sudden want to start speaking…

Categories: Questions, Reflections

And Then There Were Two

08/31/09

My young family was blessed in August with the arrival of our second son, Samuel. Since his arrival, there’s been nothing but happiness, joy, fun, and sleep-deprivation in our family, and both my wife and I walk around blissfully smirking in a state of deep contentment and sad dishevelment. One of the many things that didn’t occur to me before Samuel arrived was a potential benefit of being a second child, beyond inheriting nicely broken-in shoes–Samuel will have a degree of exposure to Spanish language conversations at home that our first son Gabriel didn’t have. So as I find myself holding Samuel in my arms while I converse with Gabriel in Spanish, I can’t help but hope that all those words that are being…

Categories: Reflections

Transnational Raunchiness

04/14/09

Some times one can find huge coincidences and similarities between otherwise very different cultures and languages. Take for example, the oh-so delightful phenomenon where kids who are learning to speak, pronounce words in ways that make them sounds like profanity. You know, your beautiful child’s mouth innocently (and unwittingly) emitting R-rated epithets, much to the delight of your juvenile friends and YouTube followers. But what is really mind-blowing to me is that such tricky words or concepts be the same in two very different languages. For a couple of days now, I’ve been working with my automotively-obsesed boy to get him to learn the Spanish word for “truck”, which is “camión”. Maybe you see where I’m going with this: Many toddlers seem to have…

Categories: Reflections, Trivial Occurrences

Chaos Theory

03/24/09

With all the earnestness of a loving and proud father, I took my boy for a walk around the lake this weekend so we could take some fresh air, get some exercise, and spend some quality “boy time”. In a particularly tranquil moment when we were both taking in the bluish expanse of the frozen water, I kissed my boy’s forehead and told him: “Te amo” (“I love you”, in Spanish), to which he briskly responded:”I wouh you!” (“Te amo”, in gosh-darn English). Three simple words from a very tiny person encapsulate the excitingly frustrating universe-in-development that is the process of multiple-language acquisition. If my creationist friends out there will excuse me the metaphor, I imagine my boy’s little brain undergoing a micro Big-Bang…

Categories: Reflections