Juan of Words

Bedtime Stories for Bilingual Kids: Book Review & Giveaway

I know the author!  It’s always fun to be able to say that.  Even more thrilling when it is someone who has always been nothing but compassionate and supportive to all writers they come across.  Rosalinda Vargas, my friend and author of this new bilingual book, Sometimes I Don’t Want to Sleep, is definitely a woman who fits the bill!  Rosalinda has always encouraged my own writing, so of course, it is a real pleasure to now be able to introduce this, her latest book, to all of you!

Dancing instead of sleeping.

First off, I have to say that the illustrations by Deborah Eve Alastra are gorgeous!  Their deep and vibrant colors are so culturally significant that they evoke a sentiment of familiarity to the reader.  I feel like I could have grown up in any of these images.

Working instead of sleeping.

The story itself deals with the all-too-familiar excuses of why the purposely-unnamed main character – the author allows the reader to be a part of the story by choosing not to make the book about any particular character – does not want to go to sleep yet.  She wants to see, hear, and live life.  Not go to bed!

Finally sleeping.

Finally, she can’t help herself anymore and has to go to sleep, reminding the reader that tomorrow is another day, and another opportunity to continue exploring the world.  Sometimes I Don’t Want to Sleep is completely bilingual and includes a list of Spanish words to explore and learn at the end of the story.  Definitely a great resource for parents and educators working with children on their bilingual fluency.

Sometimes I Don't Want To Sleep by Rosalinda Vargas

As part of this book review, I am also giving away one copy of Sometimes I Don’t Want to Sleep.  If you would like to enter for a chance to win this book please leave a comment on this post with your email address (don’t worry it won’t be published anywhere) by no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, March 12, 2012.  The winner will be announced on this blog post by the end of next week.

You can also purchase a copy of Sometimes I Don’t Want to Sleep by visiting Rosalinda’s Book Shelf.

Rosalinda Vargas

About the Author: Born and raised in Texas, Rosalinda Vargas is a new up and coming bilingual author. She writes children’s picture books and has started a new English/Spanish poetry collection for YA and Adults. Her poems are deep. They are written from childhood memories.

FTC Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from the author as part of a book tour. Juan of Words was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.

¡Súbele al Suave! Downy Wants You Dancing for Clean Clothes

It’s taken everything in me not to run down to the neighborhood washateria and dance to this track after inserting a quarter into one of the machines!  That was the first thing I thought after the folks at Downy shared with me these awesome new videos for their ¡Súbele al Suave! campaign.  I actually tried to convince Anjelica to record me dancing over the weekend… she didn’t really say much about the idea other than uh-huh.

We didn’t because we didn’t have enough time, but something tells me someone must have told Downy that I’m a big fan of marketers reaching out to the U.S. Hispanic population the right way!  These commercials are so hilarious…

Because what else are you going to do when your washing machine starts jamming out?!

Because this guy’s a little to good for an amateur.  Show off!

Because this one, sadly, dances a lot more like me in real life.

And of course, because you can’t do a dance video at the washateria without doing at least a little bit of ‘the washing machine’!

Downy says this new wave of funny videos is just the beginning of a new series of activities they are planning – some of them interactive – to celebrate “the softness of just-washed clothes.”  According to a recent survey by P&G, soft clothes make consumers experience positive feelings, for example, 80 % of consumers feel happy when they touch the softness of their clothes.

I’d agree.  Clean clothes makes me happy.

Now, who wants to see me dancing to ¡Súbele al Suave!?

Here’s the track just in case you might want to make your own video too.

This is not a sponsored post.  I did not receive any compensation for the content of this entry.  All of the opinions are my own. 

Q&A: Chris Perez on His New Book “To Selena, With Love”

All of 17 years ago, in the immediate aftermath of her death, Selena Quintanilla Perez’s husband, Chris Perez was the one person we rarely saw anywhere, making any comments on behalf of himself or the Quintanilla family about her passing.  In fact, until his 1999 studio album with the Chris Perez Band it was sort of like he had disappeared all together.  Even when he did come out to promote his new music he rarely said much about his late wife.  In his new book, To Selena, With Love, released this month, Perez explains that in a lot of ways he had sort of disappeared into himself.

'To Selena With Love' by Chris Perez

The book tells the story of Selena and Chris from Chris’ perspective, in what he hopes will shine a new light on the legendary Queen of Tejano Music as a woman.  The woman that he fell in love with, married and lost.

I had the chance to talk with Chris over the phone about his life with Selena and the new book.  While I’m still in the process of reading the book myself, as a huge Selena fan, I am grateful that Chris has given us the opportunity to get to know who she was just a little better.  Chris was very friendly and polite during our 30 minute conversation, even when pressed with some of the more delicate questions:

Juan:  Why did you feel now was the right time to share your life with Selena in such a public way?

Chris:  What makes it so surprising to a lot of people that I actually did it in the first place is because I was the one that always said… “I’m never going to do that… I’d never see myself doing this” …but then it’s true what they say, I guess, about time kind of healing.  I don’t know if we can ever heal 100 percent from something as tragic as what happened, but with time you do start to see things in a different light and things change.  I’ve been through a lot in life after her death that it just kind of… I felt like I had suppressed a lot of memories in thinking it was helping me deal with it, with the loss of her… it’s one thing to lose your wife in the way that it happened with Selena, but it’s also another thing to be in the same industry that she was in and to be surrounded by her image, videos and music all of the time… I couldn’t go to work and escape it so to speak.  It was overload for me.  I think that’s one of the reasons I kept everything sealed up… In a way this is kind of my way of me dealing with everything.

Juan:  I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult those first few days afterwards must have been like for you, can you tell me anything about that time in your life?

Chris:  It was almost like going into shock.  It’s not that you don’t feel anything.  It’s more like you just sort of go numb… As corny as it sounds, things are just not the same after that.  The colors aren’t as colorful as you thought they were.  The food doesn’t taste the same as you thought it did.  Things don’t feel the way they did before… It kind of shook me down to the core.  The best way I can describe it is numb, going numb… it’s too much you know… Looking back on it now, I lived a lot of my life after her passing with blinders on.

Juan:  In the immediate aftermath of Selena’s passing her family was at the forefront of communicating with the media.  We didn’t see you for a long while.  Where were you during that time?

Chris:  I locked myself up.  I couldn’t even take the trash out.  I had the Porsche, her red car, in the garage and it was surrounded by plastic bags full of trash.  I couldn’t take it out.  I would have to wait until four in the morning when friends of mine and I would load up pickup trucks with bags and go and dump them off at the dumpster where nobody could see us, and that was pretty much the only time I left the house…  From March 31, 1995 until the following year in November I was that hermit… for that whole time I didn’t move anything of hers.  It was like she still lived there.

Juan:  How did you find out about what had happened to Selena that day?

Chris:  I didn’t find out as soon as I should have because that afternoon she had taken my truck and my phone.  She had a really bad habit of just leaving her keys wherever, as well as her cell phone… but that day, with everything that had happened with Yolanda, she got up really early… I didn’t even know that she was leaving.  I woke up as she was leaving and didn’t even ask her where she was going… so she had my phone and there was no way to get a hold of me… I was with my father running errands and nobody could get a hold of me.  I came home after everything had happened… When I got the call, her aunt told me that she had been in an accident.  I assumed it was a car accident and she was in the hospital.  I asked what happened and she said she was shot two times, which wasn’t true… she got shot one time.  After that we just ran out of the house and went to the hospital.  Never once thinking that what had happened was possible, that she wasn’t going to make it.  As a matter of fact, I already had my speech for when I got to the hospital to get after her for going by herself and not telling me to go with her… I kind of walked in sort of with a half smile thinking “where is she?, let me at her”, and that was when Abraham just looked at me and told me that she was gone.  You can imagine, it was like a ton of bricks falling on you.

Juan:  Do you feel in writing this book, that this is sort of like letting her go or moving on with your life after all this time? 

Chris:  It’s not letting her go.  That will never happen.  I just felt it was really important for her fans to get to see another side of her.  It didn’t seem fair to me anymore that she was only known as this great entertainer, performer… She was the one that loved the everyday things in life.  She didn’t need a lot.  She didn’t ask for a lot.  She was normal in a lot of ways…

Juan:  Are you still in love with her?

Chris:  Yeah, I always will be.  Of course!  To this day – I mean I’ve said it before – I’ve never met anybody like her.  She was definitely one of a kind.

Juan:  And inevitably people are going to think that maybe this is about making money, above all else, what would you say to these people? 

Chris:  Well they can say that.  I don’t even need to respond to that.  They’re going to say that.  It’s inevitable and I knew that going into it.  And there is nothing I can say that would change their mind.  In other words if I have to explain it to them, they’re never going to get it.

Chris will be in Houston tomorrow signing copies of his new book. 

FTC Disclosure: Juan of Words received a free copy of the book from the author as part of a Penguin Group (USA) Inc. book tour. Juan of Words was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.

New Music: 3BallMTY & Their Cultural Phenomenon Sound

Don’t know how or why it happened, but it’s safe to say that I am now a fan of something called 3BallMTY.  What is it?  I’m not exactly sure myself yet, but it is one of the most infectious music sounds I’ve heard in a while.

Zebra print botas picudas in 3BallMTY video.

I think I first heard their music at a wedding or quince and didn’t really care too much for it.  Then it started catching my attention over the radio.  That usually happens with me.  I won’t like something at first until I’ve sampled it a couple of times.  Hasta la misma Adele me fastidiaba al principio.  Now I can’t get enough of her.  But yeah… this track for Intentalo is making me want to put on a pair of botas picudas and dance around like the guys in the video.

That’s the thing about this seemingly new genre of music – which the creators themselves describe as a fusion of cumbia, Tribal Guarachero, Latin House, Afro and Experimental beats – it feels so familiar and new at the same time.  

The 3BallMTY Collective itself is described as a group of three prodigy teenagers from Monterrey who have been spinning and pushing their own music in Monterrey, Mexico for years now.  They say their unique hybrid of music is now catching momentum and creating a cultural phenomenon across the world.  They do still play quinceañeras and private parties too, though!

For me, what really sealed the deal was to see the mixture of culture and tradition being upheld and honored in a new generation.  All of the kids in the video look so proud of the tribal dancers when they come in and start dancing. That was awesome!  Granted tribal itself is a relatively new genre of music as well.

Weekend Photos: Houston Rodeo Cook-Off

We went.  We saw.  We ate.  I danced.  With strangers.  And we had an overall great time.  In case you haven’t noticed by now, Rodeo is huge here this time of year… and well, I just wanted to share a couple of pictures with y’all from our first outing to RodeoHouston this weekend.

Gone Country!

We were invited to the Rodeo Cook-Off on Friday night and of course had to go in our best Western wear.  It’s one of the few times out of the year that we will actually wear cowboy boots and sombreros. 

This is how you Rodeo

If you’re going to the Cook-Off, you better have access to one of the private tents.  This is where all the fun takes place.  Music, dancing, food, beer… all that good stuff.  Different companies and groups host their private tents and invite people to attend during the Cook-Off.  Usually there’s an open bar!

Getting down myself...

Which can sometimes lead to pictures like these being tweeted about you.  This one was put out by none other than my loving wife, whose exact words were “Juan makes very quick friends.  Dancing Girls just wanna have fun.”  ¡Ay caramba!

Finally, look out for the fellow at the end of this Honky-tonk video yelling yee-haw.  You might just recognize him a little…

Hey Levi’s, Real Women Have Curves!

So apparently the folks at Levi’s have never seen the movie Real Women Have Curves starring America Ferrera, Lupe Ontiveros and Ingrid Oliu.  Why?  Because had they watched this comedic drama of a runaway hit, they might have avoided themselves a little, or a lot of the hot water their currently in for putting out their most recent “Hotness comes in all shapes and sizes” ad for their Curve ID line of jeans.

Levi's latest Curve ID jeans ad. Are those really three different sizes?

At first glance the message seems harmless and positive enough… but take a closer look.  I bet you were wondering the same thing most people have been – what three different shapes of women are they talking about?!  Save for the extra “junk in the trunk” on the last two models, they all seem to be about the same size.  Nombre, pues como diría mi abuela… ¡tiene más carne este hueso!

Certainly on the runways these three different sizes might be drastically different, but in the real world (or at least in the states) the average woman‘s jean size is a 14.  Come on Levi’s, you can do better!

Here’s some motivation for you all to get started!