I always enjoy celebrating my Latino culture and love hearing the music I grew up listening to, eating food I love, and seeing others celebrate the beauty of our culture. It’s not often I do this outside of our own home, but a couple weekends ago, I attended the Viva la Música festival at SeaWorld Orlando and shared in the joy of our culture with park attendees.

Viva la Música at SeaWorld Orlando is an annual event which honors Latino culture through food, music, and art, all included with park admission to SeaWorld. Isn’t that great?! Here’s more of what you can find at SeaWorld’s Viva la Música festival.

5 Reasons to Love Viva la Música at SeaWorld Orlando

1. Weekly concerts from popular Latino artists – we saw reggaeton star Daddy Yankee the day we attended.
2. Delicious Latin and Caribbean food spear-headed by SeaWorld Orlando’s Executive Chef, Héctor Colón. I love that the Executive Chef for the park has first-hand knowledge and experience with the Latin food he’s serving, having grown up eating it before becoming a professional chef.
3. Cultural art and merchandise available for purchase. There is plenty of beautiful artwork on display, plus cultural merchandise available to celebrate each individual Latin American country.
4. Domino tables set-up throughout the Viva la Música festival area, ready for you to sit down and play a fun game.
5. Lots of music! Plus, a dance area near a second stage where local bands play salsa, merengue, and bachata.

You still have time to catch the fun of Viva la Música at SeaWorld Orlando as there are two more Saturdays left before this annual festival ends for the year. This coming Saturday, April 27, you can catch merengue group Grupománia live in concert, and the following Saturday, May 4, you’ll be able to see classic salsa band El Gran Combo. I noticed that folks line up 2-3 hours before the concert begins in order to get good seats at the stadium, so you may want to consider upgrading your concert seating by purchasing VIP seating (starting at $14) or the Viva la Música VIP Package, which offers reserved seating plus a meal (starting at $24).

As I mentioned, all the fun of the Viva la Música festival at SeaWorld is included with daily park admission or if you have a Fun Card or annual pass. In fact, with a SeaWorld Fun Card, you can pay for a day and then enjoy unlimited admission to the park for the rest of 2013! That’s perfect for you and the kids to go back when Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin opens up on May 24.

What do you enjoy most at SeaWorld Orlando?

Disclosure: Our family was provided a complimentary 1-day visit to SeaWorld Orlando to experience Viva la Música. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Happy Three Kings’ Day! Feliz Dí­a de los Tres Reyes Magos!

We did it. Last year, after not celebrating, I resolved to celebrate Three Kings’ Day this year. And, though it’s a normal work day and baby girl is at preschool today, she did get her gift this morning and participated in the traditional Three Kings’ Day celebration.

It’s nice for me to share this tradition with her and remember my own childhood memories of celebrating El Día de Los Reyes. I remember making my basket with my family, filling it with grass on La Víspera de Reyes (the Eve of Three Kings’ Day), and being excited the next morning when I found the grass had been replaced with candy and the kings had also left me a gift.

There was one particular year that I remember vividly because I did something that I regret to this day. I can remember that I wanted one of those Barbie motorcycles; I think they were a hot item back then. When I opened my gift, it was a Barbie scooter instead, or maybe it was a moped. What I know is that it wasn’t the motorcycle I wanted. And I said, in my little whiny voice too, “Esto no es lo que yo queria!” (This isn’t what I wanted!) I was of course quickly reprimanded and told to appreciate what the kings had brought me because other kids may not have gotten anything. But, I can still remember my mami‘s face right before she scolded me. When I was old enough and learned that my parents were the ones that actually provided the gifts and that it wasn’t actually Los Reyes, I felt horrible. I know that I apologized to my mom at one point or another, maybe even multiple times. I will probably apologize again today and we’ll laugh it off.

So, how do we celebrate Three Kings’ Day? I believe that each Latino culture has their own special way of celebrating Three Kings’ Day. I can only tell you how we personally celebrated Los Tres Reyes in Puerto Rico and what I am passing down to my children so they can learn about the tradition.

Traditions for Celebrating Three Kings’ Day (El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos)

1. First, you will need either a plain shoebox or a basket made from a shoebox. Here are the baskets my kids will be using this weekend, made by their abuela:
   
   The basket is normally decorated with bows made out of wax paper, but we’ve had trouble finding such paper. So, in the past, we’ve also used regular wrapping paper.
2. Then, the night before Three Kings’ Day, on La Vispera de Reyes – have your child collect some grass from your yard and put it in the basket. The grass is for the kings’ camels. This is analogous to setting out milk & cookies for Santa or carrots for his reindeer.
3. The basket then goes under the bed (or next to it if it doesn’t fit).
4. In the middle of the night, after your child is sleeping, throw out the grass and replace it with candy. Place a gift next to the basket.
5. The next morning, your child will be delighted to find the gift and candy that the Three Kings left behind!
6. Don’t forget to explain that Los Tres Reyes left a gift for him/her the same way they brought gifts for baby Jesus when he was born. That is the meaning behind all this and why we celebrate the holiday.

Los Tres Reyes (Three Kings’ Day) is a fun holiday and one I plan to continue celebrating each year so my kids can create their own memories and embrace this Latino tradition.

Have you ever celebrated El Día de Los Tres Reyes? Do you think you might next year?

Top photo: Cryo Mariena/Flickr

Yesterday on Twitter, the hashtag #101HispanicWaystoDie was trending and full of tweets poking fun at Latino culture. My friend Tracy alerted me to the hashtag and also wrote about it, and how she contributed with her own light-hearted tweets. Her Vicks VapoRub tweet brought back memories and had me laughing.

But, something I noticed as I initially took a peek at the hashtag and scrolled through the tweets, was the abundant commentary about Black people. It was something Tracy and I discussed a bit after reading various tweets. As Tracy mentioned in her post, one girl wrote “say you’re going out with a moreno” and countless more retweeted and favorited her tweet. Other similar tweets included, “Bringing a Black boyfriend home,” and “Changing your parents music in the car to ‘musica de negros’.” It seems that whether in English, Spanish, or even Spanglish, and regardless of the terminology (Black, moreno, negro), the sentiment of many was the same: their parents were not accepting of Black people or culture – or at least they felt this was true.

Now admittedly, many of the tweets came from young people (teens even?), judging solely by the tiny Twitter avatar. I know young kids can be overly dramatic, but were their words a sign of something bigger in Latino culture – something we should really discuss as a community?

I’ll be super honest and share that growing up, I did observe some of this behavior. Sadly, I heard comments similar to those tweeted and that included phrases like “esos morenos,” always from the older generation. It never sat right with me, even at a young age when I didn’t truly understand.

I’ve always wondered why comments and feelings like that existed, but then I would be called “negra linda” and complimented on my beautiful trigueño skin color. It didn’t, and still doesn’t, make sense. Of course, this was all part of my personal experience growing up. I cannot say this is a general occurrence in Latino culture, but do feel it’s worth exploring. Clearly, many in the newer generation still feel it’s a problem, even if they were jokingly tweeting out their feelings of #101HispanicWaystoDie.

Photo: John Steven Fernandez/Flickr

My daughter was excited to learn that it’s time for Hispanic Heritage Month again! She enjoyed “officially” celebrating our Latino culture during the nationally recognized month last year and wondered if I’d be coming in to her class to share with her classmates, something I did last year. We celebrate our culture at home every day, whether she realizes it or not, but National Hispanic Heritage Month gives us an extra opportunity to learn.

To celebrate the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which goes from September 15 until October 15, let me share some of our past Hispanic Heritage Month activities, resources, and articles.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and Latino Culture

• 29 Hispanic Heritage Month Articles with Activities, Recipes, and More!
• Hispanic Heritage Month Kid Activities
• Resources to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Your Kids

Will you be talking about Latino culture in your home this next month? How do you teach your children about your own culture or others’ cultures?

Image copyright ModernMami.com

“Generalizations are necessary to understand the world we live in.”

The above statement was from a tweet I received the other day in response to my article about ¡Q’Viva! The Chosen. My article focused on how the show is highlighting Latinos in a positive way and I wrote that they’re sharing Latino culture on TV without the stereotypes. In response to my tweet about the article, someone wrote back that I should have specified “negative stereotypes” and then continued the tweet with the sentence above.

It took me a couple of times of reading the tweet to understand what she was saying. But, it took a bit longer for me to fully think about it, process it, and figure out how I truly felt about the statement. My initial reaction was “What? Stereotypes are inherently negative!” After thinking more about it and discussing with a friend, I realized that not all stereotypes are necessarily negative, though I still believe that the act of stereotyping is a negative thing. Did you get all that?

What I mean to say is that stereotypical statements such as, “Latinas are good dancers,” (to use an example my friend gave me) may not be negative in and of themselves since they are not saying anything bad about the group. This is not the same type of stereotype as saying “Puerto Ricans are drug dealers,” which is saying something negative about a group. However, the fact that a group is being generalized about in the first place is a negative thing. So, even saying that Latinas are good dancers is still a negative thing, in my opinion. Also, think of those poor Latinas who may not, in fact, be good dancers!

To address the second part of the tweet I received, which is the quote at the beginning of this post – why exactly are generalizations necessary? Are we not able to live without them? Must we have generalizations in order to get along with each other and coexist? I really don’t believe that.

We’ve become so accustomed to labels that perhaps it feels as if they’re necessary. But, are they really? I’m guilty of it myself and know that I feed into some stereotypes too. I’m not saying I’m without fault. But, I truly don’t believe that generalizations, or stereotypes, are necessary for our society.

I invite you to join this discussion and share your thoughts with me in the comments below. Are generalizations/stereotypes necessary to understand our world? Please keep it civilized and do not take this as an opportunity to bash others. I will be closely monitoring the discussion and will not allow any statements that are not necessary for the discussion.

Photo: David Childers/Flickr

Hispanic (Latino) Heritage Month comes to an end in about a week, on October 15. This past week, we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month and shared several posts on the topic, including a bilingual children’s show DVD giveaway. In case you missed any of our posts, here they all are:

Kid Activities for Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

My daughter and I learned more about Latino history and heritage through a Hispanic Heritage Month kid-friendly project.

Sharing Heritage By Keeping Memories Alive and Creating New Ones

I shared how my father’s memories of growing up in Puerto Rico are kept alive despite him having dementia and reflected on how this helps in sharing Latino heritage with a younger generation.

Bilingual Learning with El Perro y El Gato {Giveaway}

We enjoy the bilingual children’s cartoon, El Perro y El Gato, in our home and now you can enjoy this fun show with your family as well. Enter this giveaway for a 4-DVD set of El Perro y El Gato! (P.S. There are a low number of entries on this one, so your chances are good!)

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Find out how this whole week of Latino heritage began and why I feel it’s important to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

In addition to the articles I’ve shared this week, plenty of other sites celebrate Latino heritage and share their own stories, tips, and ideas for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Through the links below, you can find lots of great information for more Hispanic Heritage Month fun!

Hispanic Heritage Month For Kids

Resources to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Your Kids

Kids TV Programming for Hispanic Heritage Month

Latino-Themed Children’s Books

Craft Activities for Hispanic Heritage Month

10 Ways to Educate Kids About Hispanic Heritage Month

Tradiciones latinas divertidas para tus hijos (Fun Latino Traditions for Kids) – Spanish Article

Cómo incentivar la cultura en nuestros niños (How to Encourage Culture with Kids) – Spanish Article

Latino-Inspired Recipes for Hispanic Heritage Month

Puerto Rican Carne Guisada Meal

Puerto Rican Arroz con Gandules

Tortilla Española – Egg and Potato Omelette

Mexican Chicken Pasilla Tamales

Mexican Rice and Bean Salad

Chicken and Vegan Cheese Enchiladas

Barbacoa Using Cachete de Res

Prickly Pear Margarita

General Information on Hispanic Heritage Month

Resources for Learning More About Hispanic Heritage Month

¿Celebras nuestra Herencia Hispana? (Do You Celebrate Your Hispanic Heritage?) – Spanish Article

Hispanic Heritage Month Facts

Photo: Jose Oquendo

Latino Arts, Culture, and Inspiration

What Does Being Latina Mean to Me?

Latino Quinceañero (Quinceañera) Tradition

Aprender la cultura Latina a través de la música (Learning About Latino Culture Through Music) – Spanish Article

Remembering a Revolutionary Writer: Gloria Anzaldúa

Interview with Guatemalan Artist Jessica Lagunas

Latino Heritage in the City

Campaign to Help Open A Book Store In El Barrio (East Harlem, NY)

Latinos Across the U.S.: City Guides with Best Latino Spots

I hope you enjoy some of these articles and take the time to learn a bit more about Latino culture and history, in order to celebrate Latino heritage. Do you have a Hispanic (Latino) Heritage story to share?

All photos © ModernMami.com, except where noted

This year, in order to expose my daughter to Latino heritage more in-depth, I decided to do a small Hispanic Heritage Month project with her. My idea was that it would be fun, informative, and would allow her to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and learn about different aspects of her Latino heritage. She has heard of Hispanic Heritage Month in past years, but it’s been a more casual approach of general awareness. With her being in Kindergarten now, I thought this would take it up a level and go beyond just knowing she is half Latina.

There are many ways you can expose your children to Latino history, música Latina (Latin music), Latino food, and of course, the Spanish language. I decided to explore famous Latinos in history, the various Latin American countries, and reinforce Spanish skills. With that in mind, I knew I could find a few supplies at Walmart, since our local store carries a lot of Hispanic food products, Spanish movies, música Latina, and even Spanish books. They used to carry a lot more children’s products in Spanish, as well, but seem to have cut back.

Below I share some ideas for you based on what my daughter and I did for our Latino heritage project.

Kid Activities for Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Making Up Stories with Spanish Flashcards

You can find Spanish flashcards in many places; I bought these at Walmart. They include basic Spanish vocabulary, colors, numbers, and popular phrases. Using these flashcards, my daughter and I like to randomly pick out a couple of cards and make up stories using the words/phrases on the cards. For example, using the cards in the photo above, we can say, “Ella se puso la camisa, los pantalones y los zapatos antes de ir a la escuela.” (She put on her shirt, pants, and shoes before going to school.) Since making up stories is something many children love to do anyway, this is a fun game that helps with practicing Spanish words.

Exploring Latinos in History

Many Latinos have contributed to society in many areas, such as the arts, science, sports, politics, and entertainment. Since baby girl is only five years old and just starting Kindergarten, I didn’t want to overwhelm her with information. I found some great printables on the Nick Jr. website with information on famous Latinos in the arts, science, and sports. They had a coloring page packet and “Hispanic Hero” cards highlighting notable Latinos such as Tito Puente, Dara Torres, Ellen Ochoa, Celia Cruz, Rita Moreno, and Roberto Clemente, among others.

We took these printables, read the information on each person, and discussed their roles a bit. Baby girl wanted to know what each person looked like in “real life” as opposed to the drawings on the coloring pages so she could color them accurately. So, we looked each one up as well. The next day, she told her daddy and abuela all about Ellen Ochoa being the first Latina in space and said, “She’s my favorite. I liked her astronaut suit.”

Learning About Latin American Countries

In order to learn a bit more about the different countries that make up Latin America (actually, we sneaked Spain in, but I thought it was only fitting), baby girl and I decided to print out some flag coloring pages for her to color, cut out, and use to make posters. We picked a few countries, since doing them all would have been too much for her. As we did with the Latino historical figures, we looked up images of the flags for her to reference as she did her coloring. She was quite proud of her finished product!

I hope these ideas get you thinking of how you can talk about Latino history with your children, this Hispanic Heritage Month, or at any point.

What other kid activities help you to bring Latino heritage and history alive in your home?

Disclosure: Though this Hispanic Heritage project was an original idea, as a member of the Walmart Moms program, I was compensated for this post.

All photos © ModernMami.com

As I’ve mentioned before, my father has dementia. He was diagnosed with it about three years ago, but began to show symptoms close to six years now. His dementia manifests itself in many forms and shows in various things my dad says and does. Forgetting things is not all it’s about, but it does play a part, of course.

Two things my father holds on to very dearly are memories of Puerto Rico and music. He spends much of his day listening to the radio, old CDs and cassette tapes. He’s particularly fond of music he grew up with, especially boleros and other love songs sung by Trios Puertorriqueños, a popular grouping of three musicians. These songs remind him of his childhood in Puerto Rico, and those formative years we all cherish. He sings along and recounts memories that amazingly his mind refuses to let go.

Photo: Molly Stevens

These memories sometimes get mixed up, but overall, he has a vivid picture in his mind of Puerto Rico back then. The Puerto Rico he mostly remembers is that of his life in Aguadilla, the city he was born in, and the city he lived in until his late teenage years. His memory of Puerto Rico dates back to the late 1940s through right around 1960, before his family moved to New York City. Of course, this is not the same Puerto Rico he saw when we last visited in 2009. Though we tried to show him the areas where he grew up and played, it was not recognizable to him, since his vision of Aguadilla is not what it currently looks like.

When I received a complimentary copy of the DVD, Una Mirada a Puerto Rico, from Vme, a former sponsor of ModernMami.com, I knew right away that it was a documentary my father would enjoy. Sure enough, when I first showed him the film, he immediately began to say things like, “Mira que bella…mi isla.” (Look at how beautiful my island is.) He sang along to the background music used in the film, recognized many sights, and quizzed me on my knowledge of various historical facts. He also continually expressed his wish of wanting to go back to Puerto Rico and visit the area where he grew up, forgetting he saw much of it just two years ago. In fact, every time he watches this documentary, he has the same reactions, since to him, each time is the first time he’s seen it.

Documentaries like these help people like my father keep memories alive. But, they also help create new memories when shared with a new generation. This film will allow my children to see imagery of and hear music from La Isla del Encanto (The Island of Enchantment), the island their mother was born in and that makes up half of their heritage. For that, I thank Vme.

How do you share your heritage and keep memories alive?

Custom Hispanic Heritage Banner by Justin Edwards
and © ModernMami.com

As you know, I try my best to raise my children in a bilingual environment. I speak Spanish to them as much as possible, as do my parents, we sing songs in Spanish, read Spanish or bilingual books, and sometimes, we also watch cartoons in Spanish. My husband is very supportive in this effort and will point out new Spanish shows to us when he finds out about them and tries his best to repeat the Spanish spoken. It was actually him, who first introduced our daughter to El Perro y El Gato.

If I remember correctly, we were staying at a hotel and as he was browsing the channels, he stumbled upon HBO Latino, which was showing cartoons that morning. As I walk out of the shower, my baby girl screams out to me, “Mami, look! Perro y Gato! In Spanish!” She loves to point out when music, shows, books, etc., use Spanish. We watched the rest of the show wishing that we were HBO subscribers at home, since we had just found a new, funny, cute, bilingual show. Check out this behind-the-scenes look to hear from the show’s creators, animators, and even the voices of El Perro y El Gato.

El Perro y El Gato premiered a new episode titled, “Sigue Soñando / Keep On Dreaming,” on Thursday, September 15, the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month. We were sent a sneak peek DVD of the new episode, which of course, was enjoyed by all. The main characters of El Perro y El Gato are an overexcited orange dog (El Perro) and his laid-back, always hungry friend, a purple cat (El Gato). To keep our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month going, today we have a 4-DVD set of El Perro y El Gato to give away to you!

ModernMami™.com Reader Giveaway

We want you to enjoy El Perro y El Gato with your children, so we’re giving away a 4-DVD set of the show, as pictured above!

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this contest for a 4-DVD set of El Perro y El Gato, simply leave a comment below sharing why watching bilingual shows is important to you and your family.

Extra entries (optional):
Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on Twitter.
2. Tweet the following: Encourage #bilingual learning at home. Enter to win El Perro y El Gato DVDs from @modernmami! http://bit.ly/mPSylQ #giveaway #contest
3. Receive post updates by subscribing to our RSS feed. You can do so either via email or through a RSS reader. Leave a comment saying you did so or are already a subscriber.
4. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
5. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing the details of this contest. Be sure to include a link back to this post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Friday, October 14, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. You must be 18 or older and a U.S. resident. No purchase necessary. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.) Winner will have 48 hours to respond and claim prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

El Perro y El Gato Photos and Video Provided and Used with Permission

Custom Hispanic Heritage Banner by Justin Edwards
and © ModernMami.com

Photo: Jose Oquendo

Having been born in Puerto Rico and growing up in a Latino household with parents that maintained our culture alive, celebrating our culture wasn’t something that was on our minds. We sort of lived it and “celebrated” every day. Now that my culture has blended with that of my husband’s and we have children with three cultures to celebrate, I do point out their Latino heritage. Of course, they are also seeing many aspects of Latino culture on a daily basis – the food we eat, the music we listen to, the language I speak to them – so, they are not without their culture.

Still, with our lives being a blend of cultures, the exposure my children have to their Latino culture is still a minor aspect of their lives. So, it’s important to me to incorporate Puerto Rican customs into my parenting and teach them about their heritage. Any opportunity is a good one, of course, which is why I take advantage of Hispanic Heritage Month as another chance to talk about our Latino heritage.

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15 and has been celebrated nationally each year since 1988. It starts mid-month because September 15 is a significant day to many Latin American countries who celebrate their independence on that date. This week, we’ll be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at ModernMami.com, in addition to regular content, and a couple of giveaways. Look for posts on celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with your kids, a bilingual DVD giveaway, keeping memories alive and creating new ones, plus a round-up of Hispanic Heritage Month posts from other bloggers.

Have you ever celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month?

Custom Hispanic Heritage banner by Justin Edwards