Burrada – dicho o acción torpe, brutal.

They’re called burradas because they are things we all do without thinking.  Things that might embarrass us or even make us feel pretty clueless for a couple of seconds.  Sort of like blonde moments – we all have them regardless of what color our roots might actually be, and they’re just pretty hilarious.  So take a look at some of our best blonde moments caught on video.

I still say I make/have fewer burradas!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw6QIJmZfhE

¡Los Metiches!

And here it is, our very first Official TAG Video about Who We Are!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GwLjwg3MN4

We also thought it would be incredibly chingon to have you guys submit your own videos answering these same questions.  After all, the whole point of a TAG video is to do just that.  Plus we just really want to know who you are.  To get the ball rolling we’ve already tagged a few people ourselves.  Hopefully they’ll jump in and keep on tagging others.  If you’re so inclined, please make your own video and leave us the link here too.  We’d love to see it!

Oh yeah and before we forget, since we know you’re all busy, here’s a quick Cheat Sheet (with times) for all of the Questions on this Video:

1. 00:26 - What do you think is your best quality?

2. 01:24 - What is one thing that people don’t know about you?

3. 02:35 - What was your first job?

4. 04:37 - What do you consider is one of your worst habits?

5. 07:13 - What is one of your fears?

6. 08:33 - What is your favorite movie or book?

7. 09:42 - What is your strangest or most unusual talent?

8. 10:48 - What is one of the nicknames you’ve had, past or present?

9. 13:50 - What is the best decision that you have ever made?

10. 16:05 - What achievement are you most proud of?

11. 19:03 - SPECIAL TREAT for hanging in there with us!

Thank you for playing!!

¡Charanga, Pachanga, Charanga, Pachanga!

It should be pretty simple to tell.  I mean you can’t pass off a tamal or a torta for an hors d’oeuvre, much less frijoles pintos or asado… though in all fairness, word around the street is that these new gourmet food trucks are doing wonderful things with our comida.  But for this question I figured (well Anjelica pointed it out to me) that it would be better to let Los Metiches answer for all of us.  Check it out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2yUhz1OGZg

Spanish is actually my first language.  Y a pesar de haber estudiado y vivido toda mi vida aquí, nunca deje de hablar el español. My parents wanted us to speak both languages and made it their job to teach us español at home.  Por eso ahora cuando la gente se sorprende y me dice “oye, ¡qué bien hablas el español!”, me da muchísimo orgullo que mis padres nos ayudaron a preservar esta parte tan linda de nuestra herencia.  No hay como pelear, amar, sentir, y gritar en español.  Porque como ustedes bien saben, nuestro vocabulario es mucho más Romántico y amplio.  A veces al traducir una palabra de español a inglés se le pierde todo, especialmente la emoción y el corazón.

Por eso cuando me invitaron a participar en “El Día E”, el día oficial para celebrar nuestro idioma alrededor del mundo, no lo tuve que pensar ni un solo instante.  Acepte con todo gusto, y aquí les presento mi palabra favorita en el idioma.  ¡Gracias a todos por las sugerencias en las redes sociales!  Espero les guste el videllito (a y nada más pa’que sepan, la cámara agrega unas cuantas libritas… pensé que debería aclarar eso, jajaja).  Compartan sus palabras en español favoritas conmigo porfis!

Ve más videos El Día E de mis amigos y amigas Aquí

También visita la página oficial de El Día E Aquí

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw68H77UI-o

¿Cuál de los dos?

Beginning today, every Friday on Juan of Words I’ll be offering a weekly vlog series titled Viernes Vloguero.  Why?  Just for fun… and because I’m hoping it will be a good kickoff to all of our weekends.  At the very least, a good laugh at my expense.

What will be on it?  Mostly burradas that I come up with, strictly for your entertainment, prometo, along with any of your cool ideas that I’m brave enough to carry out… or able to produce in a halfway decent manner.  Espero les guste la idea y se sientan libres de dejarme comentarios.  ¡Los que sean! (bracing for them)

So this first vlog is on Machos vs. Metrosexuals!  Well, more accurately, on how this mexicano came to the realization that I do have more metrosexual in me than I would care to admit.  The proof is in all the chucherias stashed away in my restroom right now.  Way more than junk than I would have ever imagined!

Can you say facial scrubs and blackhead strips?  ¡Uuyy, que cosas!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjFSq72mkks

Married people behaving badly.

This video started out as a joke.  My wife and I had been talking about maybe doing a vlog together.  She has the editing system… a little bit more sophisticated than what I have been using, mostly FlipShare and YouTube, and she wanted to show me what Windows Movie Maker could do.

We hadn’t agreed on any subject or concept for the vlog and just decided to go for it.  The interview, with cepillo for a mic and all, is a little difficult to understand because we tried using a cell phone and a laptop to add our own soundtrack, but the Bloopers are well worth the wait, LOL!  Anyhow, I hope you enjoy.

It was all in good fun, and I am now a fan of Windows Movie Maker as well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXJ4MPuFas

Ash Wednesday, A New Beginning

So since the last vlog  I’ve obtained a new video camera that my wife purchased at a very good deal.  Something like $20 for it at a major retailer…and it’s HD and everything.  Very cool!  Only I was so impressed by its bells and whistles that I was afraid to use it until now. My mind literally couldn’t think of anything to talk about on a video, lol.

Words are SO much easier!

But since yesterday was Ash Wednesday and we sort of ended up at church inadvertently at the last minute, it gave me inspiration, and more than anything the courage, to actually film myself on this new camera, which by the way has a side panel that makes it very distracting to look straight into the camera only (I’m not used to seeing myself while filming).  Anyhow, the subject matter of this vlog is pretty self-explanatory:  Ash Wednesday, Random Acts of Kindness, and Paying it Forward.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOAViu8Wn_A

Hope you like it.

My goal is to make this recipe as simple as possible for anyone to make, or at least get an idea of how to make salsa verde.  For red salsa you would basically change the color of your tomatoes – and remember folks the more chiles you add to your salsa the spicier it will be.  If it comes out too spicy people might accuse you of having been angry when you made the salsa.

Your comments are always welcome – thanks for watching!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyUaqtnLl7E

Refried Beans

So for Fourth of July what better way to commemorate our diversity in people and cultures than to highlight one of my own cultura’s most exportable recipes.  In the Great State of Texas refried beans, or frijoles refritos, are the perfect companion to any number of Tex-Mex dishes, as well as the main dish itself.  Wether with rice on the side, cheese on top, chile verde or rojo, eggs, or anything else your little pancita desires, this treat is all of one word, all the time: delicious.

Now for you professional cooks, both domestic or otherwise, you’ll have to forgive my methods in this how-to video.  I am cooking from the perspective of a pseudo-machista Latino male who very rarely cooks…mas bien, who doesn’t know how to cook much at all.  I know.  I am working on that.  But anyhow, the beans used are Goya Pinto Beans and the video is meant to show that if a guy like me can do it so can anyone else.

Please enjoy, share your recipes for this and other dishes, and let me know what other foods you think a guy like me should attempt.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp9ThZov4PE

At the age of 15, working for free in a homeless shelter for an entire week was not even within my radar of things to do.  Maybe that would have been different if I could have done it in place of school.  In fact, I know it would have. 

Katie and Alice are ninth graders at the Houston British School and they were lucky enough to skip a whole week’s worth of classroom instruction by volunteering at a place of business for one week.  They don’t get counted absent or reprimanded for not being in class.  Instead they are congratulated and tested on what they have learned in their real world work experiences.  

The British teens tell me this a tradition most schools in England adhere to!  Somehow, Take Your Child to Work Day is beginning to look like a rip off!

Anyhow, I digress.  These young ladies could have spent the week at the Houston Zoo, a law firm, the Mayor’s Office, or anywhere else…more uhm fun, but they didn’t.  They chose to work with the dozens of local homeless women and children who have been displaced in the fourth largest city in the United States, and who live at The Salvation Army’s shelter, Family Residence.  Very cool!

Hear from them why they chose this assignment:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PsjUKY3pUw

The high school student admits she wanted to go to college, but because of her family’s limited resources she had all but given up on her dreams.

Instead Perez foresaw a future for herself of helping her family make ends meet after graduation.  That all changed when, to her surprise, she was awarded third place and a $3,000 scholarship for her entry in this year’s Youth of the Year speech competition put together by The Salvation Army Greater Houston Area Command and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. 

Immediately her eyes welled up and the idea of attending a four year university became a more plausible reality. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xs92O7hqYQ