Today’s post is pretty gratuitous. It’s hot in Texas. Like hot. Real hot. Hot, hot, hot. ¡Caliente! To quote Anjelica, I mean. So what better way to beat the heat that by enjoying some awesome Mexican snacks.
Today’s offering is piña con Tajin. Believe me it’s delicious! Just cut up your pineapple and add Tajin. And enjoy!
Right about what I’m feeling right now. Again, like I’ve done many times before, today I decided to skip lunch. I figured I would work through my lunch – you know, suppress my hunger by drinking lots of water and chewing gum (a model’s diet if you will) – and take off a little early at the end of my day. Well by 6 o’clock when I was finally leaving con mis tripas en friega todas gruñendo you could say I had changed my mind about my brilliant idea earlier.
I got home, ate one turkey sandwich with Velveeta cheese, Mayonnaise and Valentina sauce. Then another. Next, the spirits in the fridge were calling my name and I decided to have a couple of them. By the end of the night I sat down to have dinner. Beef and white rice, again, with a lot of Valentina sauce on top. Then this happened:
It made me remember that I had been meaning to write about the word entripado. What a wonderful opportunity to capitalize on my discomfort! After all, they do say a picture is worth 1,000 words. A ver si es cierto.
For those wanting more of an explanation, how about these synonyms for a definition: empacho, discomfort, irritation or frustration.
Now help me out. What are some good remedios for lo entripado? I mean besides Topo Chico, Picot or Alka-Seltzer.
Gracias!
SHARE YOUR MEXI-VOCABULARIO
I’m always on the hunt for new mexi-vocabulario.
What other words would you like me to include in the mexi-vocabulario? If you have one that you would recommend please share it with me here.
Writer’s Disclaimer: When I say mexi-vocabulario I don’t necessarily mean these words are exclusively Mexican, or only used by Mexicans. This is simply an expression of how they were introduced to me in our Mexican Spanish.
More Mexi-Vocabulario
Want more Mexi-Vocabulario? I’ve got it! Check it out. Just Click Here.
For Father’s Day this year I want to celebrate my own father, and father’s everywhere for that matter, by sharing a couple of the things that I have learned along the way in this journey we call parenting. ¡Feliz Día de los Padres!
It is. No one ever prepares you for that either. And the older they get the bigger their problems can get. There will be days when you want to just ask why. Why me!? Hang in there. It gets better.
They do! I can’t tell you how many times Edgar has repeated something we’ve said to each other in the car, ya saben en confianza, almost always at the most inappropriate of times. We couldn’t do anything else besides laugh… nervously. Repeat after me. You are not above telling your kids “you better not repeat this to anybody!”
Ask anyone. They’ll tell you I am a regular Sherlock Holmes when it comes to snooping around, eavesdropping, acting aloof, fishing for information, and Anjelica’s favorite by far, playing 21 questions. I have also mastered the art of standing quietly in a dark spot without making a single sound or finding the perfect places to hear and not be seen. I should add that to my Linkedin account!
Not necessarily at the kids, although sometimes one has to do what one has to do. Yelling at the top of your lungs can be a huge release. I can’t say that this is exclusive to parenting because I have always been a yeller when I get mad. I get mad and I get loud. It’s just my nature.
Although yelling too loudly and too often can lead to wrinkles at the top of your forehead and throbbing pain inside of your skull. You have to find that right balance between too much yelling and just enough.
I used to be much more serious I remember. Now. Not so much.
Regardless of how awful you might be at playing sports, drawing, coloring, cooking, driving, etc., etc., when you look into your child’s eyes your reflection is always strong, courageous and beautiful. Learn to see yourself through their eyes. And then hold on to that reflection because it won’t be there forever.
The petty things in life aren’t really all that important I’ve learned.
And you’ll actually be grateful for all the times they yelled at you, pointed out your mistakes, made you cry, and forbade you from doing something you really wanted to do. You’ll aspire to do half the job your parents did, if you’re lucky.
You’ll understand the mistakes. You will make your own mistakes and see things through a new light.
Eventually, if you’re lucky, you will find it in your heart to forgive the mistakes that were made during your childhood. It’s good for your soul.
Making this realization is probably one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned. Although that doesn’t mean we should strive for mediocracy. You live and you learn. And then you try harder.
Contrary to what we might have been told, letting out a couple of tears doesn’t make us any less men. Los hombres tambiėn lloran. I learned that from my own father.
Much more than we ever imagined when our parents used to tell us “it’s the principle of the matter.” FYI: values are pretty important too.
My mother used to sell tortillas, tamales, tacos, whatever she could get her hands on, in order to put food on the table. My dad spent hours, days, months, years, working in the hot sun, earning minimum wage or less sometimes to make sure we never went without. We are capable of the same trabajando honradamente.
Time is the single most important thing you can give a child. The big gifts and toys al rato están tirados por ahí. Name brands are pretty inconsequential too.
And when you cry happy tears your heart and soul rejoice.
I’ve learned that hugs are the universal language for showing you care. Especially when you can’t find the right words to express what you really want to say.
There’s a dicho for this - se atrapan más moscas con miel que con vinagre. Yup, basically. That sums it up.
You’re never too old to have a little fun. Life gets in the way a lot of times with work, responsibilities, bills, bills and more bills, but don’t ever stop embracing your inner dork. He becomes more and more important as the years go by. Be a payaso and be proud.
I skipped a lot of my catechism classes as a teenager. I was expelled from my confirmation classes. I would think about how much my knees were hurting when my mother would make us rezar el rosario with her. But now, I am a man of faith. I believe in a higher power. I pray. I ask for guidance. And in darkest hours, I hope that my faith is strong enough to pull me through.
My mother used to always say con que ustedes tengan que comer yo estoy bien. I’m almost certain there were times her and my father’s stomachs were hungry and growling with desperation, but they never let us know. At some point you decide that you will volunteer for pain, heartache, discomfort, danger, and so many other things so long as your kids don’t have to experience the same.
“Because I said so!” will only take you so far. Humility, patience, and more patience, are much more effective tools for dealing with difficult situations.
Love has a funny way of catching up to you. It will make you grow as a person. It will make you stronger. It will make you more confident. It will make you appreciate and accept yourself as you are. And eventually it will make you wiser.
And finally the biggest lesson I have learned so far is that your child’s love is unconditional. Regardless of how many mistakes you make along the way, they will always see you as their parent. And love you. They will always be your children in your own eyes and heart.
I know. I know. So you must be thinking this is another one of those posts where he just sings praises to JLO for the sake of being JLO. I mean you need not go any further than the search box above and type those three letters to know how much of this website has been consumed with the very important subject of who is La Lopez… and why I am one of her most …err… obsessed fans 
But, this time, in this case, you’d actually be wrong. See while this post is about Ms. Jennifer Lopez. It is less about her the celebrity and diva per se, and much more about the rising empire that is and exists only because of one very singular and business savvy Latina. JLO of course.
And you see, the other thing is, in this new virtual world where so many of us are seeking to establish and leave our own virtual footprint no matter how small or large, usually the latter, it is impossible not to take note of someone – a Latina at that – who has managed to master personal branding and marketing so well. Social media after all is founded and exists almost solely based on the principles of personal branding. We could all argue, of course, that we don’t want that kind of success. That we do not want to be as calculated and strategic as Ms. Lopez about everything involving our name and likeness, but then again who the hell are we kidding?
There’s a reason brands and bloggers have meshed so well. It’s the same formula basically. They want our audience and we want the perks and credibility their partnership garners. Not to mention the compensation when we’re lucky. At least almost all of us do at one point or another. It’s basic marketing and public relations at its best. Because after all, let us not kid ourselves, social as much as any other industry is a business. A new and innovative one at that. And yes, the doors of opportunity are still kind of wide open for all of us.
That’s where La Lopez comes in! If there’s anyone who we can better learn from how to do marketing, pr and most importantly business, the right way, that would be her. Who else but Jenny from the Block owns clothing lines, accessory lines, perfume after perfume, a television and film production house, a major stake in new media companies, and now even a chain of wireless companies. Not to mention the amount of sponsorship deals that the woman has going at any given time. Seriously. Watch one of her videos and see how many product placements are not in there!
One could even pose the question, would JLO exist without the sponsorships or would the sponsorships exist without her? Although more than likely one would and could exist without the other. The true test then would be how successful either could be without the other.
But that’s the beauty of her entrepreneurial savvy. She does it so well that it almost seems her personal brand belongs right alongside any and all of the major brands she works with.
As someone who has done sponsorships, product reviews and placements only pretty poorly as a blogger, I can definitely admire JLO making it look so easy.
And already there are others following suit. At varying degrees, on their own terms, adjusting brands to their unique voices and spaces instead of the other way around. Dulce Candy and Crafty Chica are only a few of the names that immediately come to mind. They’re redefining what it is to work with a brand, because at the end of the day it is our own personal brand and reputation that is at stake. Not the multimillion dollar enterprises seeking to partner with the “right influencers” for their campaigns. Once those campaigns are over we still have to face you, our readers, and hope that you are still willing to give us the time of day.
It’s a tough business really. It’s so easy to lose yourself and your voice.
Here’s to remembering who we are and why we started doing what we love to begin with. The rest is all icing on the cake.
I’m trying to get back to square one myself.
We learn a lot from television and one of the things I definitely remember watching as a kid were shows about American teenage girls bringing their dates home to meet the parents. Usually the father would welcome the boy inside and then proceed to interrogate him about his intentions with his daughter. He would almost always make it absolutely clear that he COULD and WOULD hurt the boy if he did anything to his little girl, or if he tried getting to any bases with her… regardless of how much she might have wanted him to too. The problem I had with these scenes as I grew older was that they never actually came true for me. I don’t know about other Latinas, but for me this dating scenario just never really fit the bill of my reality!
It could also have something to do with the fact that I didn’t really do a lot of dating as a teenager. Make that zilch! Though if I had, I don’t know that my parents would have expected any of my dates to just come knocking at our door. What’s more. I don’t think they would have appreciated it. To me it seemed they were only willing or interested in meeting a guy once things started getting serious. Other than that, having ALL these guys – you know, had there been any – in and out of their lives didn’t really interest them.
I did make me wonder back then… “what if the guys I was dating were actually crazies or something? were my parents not worried about this stuff?” But I guess they trusted my good judgement enough to know that I would be safe. Then again, had I dated as a teenager things might have been completely different.
Now in college, I did do some dating! Of course by then we don’t really expect our parents to be meeting any of our dates at all. Which they didn’t by the way. In this new digital age, getting dates for me didn’t only happen in person or through blind dates. I actually met a couple of people online as well. And thank goodness for that, because I wasn’t ever very good at meeting people in person.
So yup, I got me some dates online. Chat rooms were very popular in those days, and instant messaging was a good source too. I should make the clarification that online dating can be very dangerous, but I did always tell my family where I was going and made it a point to meet my dates in very public places.
I actually met some very nice guys like this, but it was always a “very nice to meet you, and buh bye” kind of situation. Until I met THE ONE that is. I didn’t know he was THE ONE immediately, of course. But as time progressed I was so happy I took the time to actually get to know him better. He was totally worth it.
Now how and when I knew he was THE ONE, that is a whole other story for another blog post entirely. Basically, I knew we had something special because we had the best communication possible. It felt like I could talk to him about anything and everything and we just clicked! Not only that, his smile was also oh so… *sigh*
In the end, my parents did meet my boyfriend, now husband, when we started getting serious.
I don’t know about your parents, but I think mine felt like they didn’t need to meet every guy I dated, not even the ones who would’ve lasted a while. I think many Hispanic parents are more traditional and they want us to first decide whether our dates are worthwhile before bringing them home for dinner. Remember, we got lots of familia who tend to talk and if we are bringing different boys home all the time, well, let’s just say that would give people LOTS to talk about.
Sybil Monciváis Sánchez has worked for a local Spanish television station since 2003, in the Community Affairs Department. She is a wife and proud mother of three. You can follow her on Twitter at @sybil_sanchez.
So a lot has been made and said about Eva Longoria’s latest project, the television series Devious Maids. The show hasn’t even aired and already the consensus seems to be that either people hate it or they are bracing for the best considering the subject matter. That subject matter being the fact that Devious Maids is a show produced by a Latina about Latinas who just so happen to be cast as housemaids on the show. ¡Ay Dios mio! I know!
I’m being sarcastic here on purpose.
It’s not that I am trying to make any less of the argument that Latinos should be cast in other roles besides the help. I agree. Or of the one that maybe Longoria as an A- or B-listed actress and producer should have reneged any offers to have any of her projects green-light that would have required any Latino actors and/or actresses to play any roles lesser than that of a lawyer or a doctor. I forget, what is the threshold of acceptable blue and/or white collar jobs for Latinos to play on screen these days? ¿Cómo que se me fue la onda? And who knows, maybe she should have. She could have probably saved herself a lot of headaches and bad press. Only last year she seemed to be the darling of so many in the Latino community for encouraging our comunidad to vote for Obama.
That was SO 2012, I guess.
The thing is, as someone who actually grew up with parents and siblings who were “the help,” and who still has family members and friends who “play this role” in their everyday lives I can’t quite wrap my head around the level of indignation being expressed about anyone producing a primetime show about Latina maids. Why? Why is it so insulting for us to consider that maybe giving these roles more than simply a one dimensional glance over on-and-off-screen between non-Lationo lead characters on a non-Latino show could maybe, just maybe, not be so awful… or the end of Latinos on mainstream entertainment projects forever? Why not at least give the show a chance?
Could a well developed three dimensional character – or four of them in the case of Devious Maids - be so entirely devastating to our entire community? I don’t know for sure. But I think not.
I would have loved to have had a show like this to watch as a kid growing up. How cool would it not have been to have been exposed to humor and lighthearted entertainment about the humdrum life of being a roofer, or say a nanny, or a maintenance worker? Oh wait, I was exposed to that humor and lighthearted entertainment. Only it happened in my family at barbecues and fiestas when everyone was just hanging around having a good time with one another. We never looked at my parent’s jobs or their friend’s jobs as subservient or undeserving of any attention at all. Those jobs paid the bills, put us through school, clothed us, fed us, and even kept the lights on for us to be able to catch snippets of ourselves and our lifestyle on poorly executed and short lived television series like South Central. Paul Rodriguez did a way better job of representing who we were and where we were in life back then. And he did it by talking about the many things that just happened to be realities in our culture.
Are we missing something? Do Latinos no longer accept jobs beneath a certain level? And those who do, are they any less representative of our community than those of us who happen to have a college degree or who are Ms. Eva Longoria?
I’ve yet to see any pilot episodes or to receive any advance screening invitations from anyone. I’m not interested in getting them either. And once the show actually starts airing, it could be that I may hate it too. I’m just not ready to jump to any conclusions about how awful or insulting it might be. About Longoria, I’m not a fan. I never watched her on Desperate Housewives and none of the projects she has done since then have really captured my attention. Beside the fact that she recently earned her master’s degree in Chicano studies from Cal State Northridge.
Kudos to you for that, Eva!
Still. As a son, a brother, a cousin, a nephew, an in law, and a friend to people who just so happen not to be doctors and lawyers in life I want to at least root for this show in the hopes that it will finally breathe some new air into the old stigma of being cast in these roles. Call me stupid, but I’m hoping Longoria can make us all proud.
RSS
Twitter
Tumblr
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
