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Blurring the Holidays

2008-12-23T22:01:07-07:00

It seems like we’re always hearing stories about how cultures and traditions get thrown in the blender around the holidays. As we enter this holiday season, how have you and your families blurred the lines between holiday traditions to make the season more special?

Tocayos & Nick Names

2008-09-18T19:21:47-07:00

Tocayo - A shared title for someone who shares the same name as you. I’ve always wondered why Pancho and Cisco didn’t refer to each other as tocayo.

Other than Latinos, do others share the cultural habit of giving nick names based on a physical or mental flaw? Chueco (if you limp), Coco (someone with a big goiter), Gordo (heavy), Flaca (skinny or heavy), etc.

I was pretty heavy (fat) as a kid and I started hearing that nick name coming at me a couple of times. That’s when I took it upon myself to bestow my own selection of a nick name upon myself. Cisco,

To this day, I’m still Cisco to all my relatives. I like the ring that Tio Cisco has had. It confuses people when I’m in Mexico and introduced as Cisco because a while later my name pops up as Jose, Pepe or even Joe. I used to tell people about the Cisco Kid show but that was an American show about 2 Mexican guys in the American West- people in Mexico had no idea what the hell it was about (that tocayo thing I guess).

The other nickname my mother used to also call me was Pepe.

What are your nick names?

Languages at Home?

2008-09-07T14:48:44-07:00

I’m wondering if any of you out there grew up in a family like mine where multiple languages were spoken in your home? In my case Spanish was first and English and French were second & third languages.

Is it easy for kids and young adults to find others from multicultural familes to hang out with?

2008-06-26T05:59:11-07:00

We’ve watched our kids make friends with a really diverse group of people. That’s great because it makes their lives and ours way more interesting. It seems like it kind of happens subconsciously, though. Do you find that you and/or your kids consciously seek out people who look like they may come from mixed households? Does that potential common ground make reaching out any easier?

Expanding horizons, how?

2008-05-10T12:54:18-07:00

I forget the exact figure, but I remember the number of Americans with passports being appallingly low. Sometimes our collective ignorance of things beyond our border is stunning. I once had a highly educated financial analyst ask me if I knew what the exchange rate of the Puerto Rican dollar was to the US greenback.

How can we, as Americans, try to expand our horizons and understanding to create a holistic view and appreciation of the human village on this, the 3rd rock from the sun?

What am I?

2008-05-02T15:01:59-07:00

Have your kids ever heard the question “What are you?” at school? Our kids certainly have. Is there a simple answer to this question which can be more complex for children in BLUR families?

Is the campaign a race, or is the campaign about race?

2008-08-07T13:12:34-07:00

I’m not sure whether or not this is the right place for this.

I’m interested to find out whether or not people feel that too much time is being spent by our presidential candidates focusing on race? It seems there are extremely pressing issues that we need to understand their positions on, and the time spent on whether or not “the race card” is being played detracts from that attention.