There’s really no better way to expose our children to our Latino culture than to travel with them to the place where we — or our family members — were born. We try to travel to both Peru, where I was born, and Puerto Rico, where my husband was born, at least once a year. We’ve only had the fortune to go to La Isla del Encanto once during the holidays. And, while that was almost two years ago, the experience was so full of culture that I decided to write the following post.

It’s 2:30 in the madrugada and the rooster won’t stop crowing. I thought this only happened at the break of dawn! What is going on? It was okay the first few days, but after all the late nights celebrating Año Nuevo and the first days of 2009 and just life in general – as they do on this beautiful island on a regular basis – I want to kill the stupid rooster. But then, I remember how Vanessa’s face lit up when she first heard it the morning after our first night in her father’s homeland, Puerto Rico.

“Mami, cucha! Ki-ki-ki!” — she instructed me to listen unable to contain her excitement.

For the first time in her short life, she was hearing the sound of a real rooster just outside her bedroom window. Later on, after she got dressed, we went outside to take a look at the culprit, and we were all surprised to see not only one, but two roosters, a bunch of hens, and about ten tiny chickies.

My husband’s family lives in the northwest part of the island and even though we’re staying in a recently constructed community, it’s still el campo. So — to my daughter’s delight —our next-door neighbor is somehow allowed to raise these farm birds. And even though I’m annoyed (to put it lightly) with their crowing at ungodly hours, I have to admit nothing makes my heart sing more than not having to explain to my daughter what it means to grow up en el campo.

A celebration like no other

The night before Reyes Magos — one of the biggest celebrations of Epiphany in any Spanish-speaking country I’ve ever had the fortune to experience — we were awoken in the middle of the night by a parranda at a neighbor’s house. This is basically when a group of friends armed with maracas, guitarras, güiros, palitos — among other instruments — gathers quietly in front of a friend or family member’s house late at night and when everyone’s setup they start singing and playing typical música navideña de Puerto Rico, waking up the household members to the sound of music, loud music. This goes on for a while and then the group and the members of the house move on to another house and so on, until the group is small no more and they reach the last house around 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.

The night in question, we were all startled by the festive music. Vanessa woke up and asked: “Qué eso?” To which her father responded: “Una parranda!” And she immediately started dancing! What can I say; she has it in her blood… Anyhow, a few minutes later, and because I had never heard or seen a live parranda — and since you only live this particular life once and we were already awake — we decided to check it out. So, in the middle of the night and in our pajamas, we got in the car and took Vanessa to experience her first parranda. When we got there, my husband explained that it was probably the last house because of the amount of people and the smell of asopao — a kind of typical chicken soup that has to be served by the last house to receive the parranda.

We weren’t there long — and I don’t know how much of it Vanessa will actually remember — but I’m glad we did it. It is so much better to teach our kids about our culture through actual experiences…

What are some of your favorite cultural traditions? What do you do to teach your kids about them? Why do you think it’s important to keep traditions alive?

An Emmy-award winning bilingual freelance journalist, Roxana A. Soto was born in Lima, Peru, but has lived in the U.S. most of her life. She worked in print and TV for years, but went digital after having her first child and realizing there was little information online about bilingualism. In 2009, she co-founded SpanglishBaby — the go-to site for parents raising bilingual and bi-cultural kids. Roxana is married and has two bilingual and bi-cultural children.

Photo by Kristile Cain (LittleTechGirl)

Exactly one week ago, I was in Miami Beach enjoying the always wonderful tropical breeze you just can’t get in Orlando. It reminds me so much of Puerto Rico and as soon as I enter the Broward County area on 95 South, I begin to smile. “We’re in Miami.”

I was there last weekend attending the Blogalicious Weekend conference. I had heard many great things about this conference from those who attended last year in Atlanta. But, nothing compares to experiencing it yourself. It was a jam-packed 3-day weekend full of really good sessions and content, networking, and of course, friends. I really did not want it to be over.

Our ¡Parranda! was a success and we couldn’t be happier. It was awesome seeing everyone enjoying themselves, dancing, laughing and letting go for just one night. All of the hard work that Ana, Carrie, and I put into organizing the party was absolutely worth it. Huge thanks to all the sponsors, and the Blogalicious ladies, who helped make it a reality for us.

I spoke on Sunday morning, along with Carrie Ferguson Weir and Roxana Soto on a panel sponsored by Café Media. Titled, Latina Bloggers Give You the Tiki Tiki About Marketing, we spoke about how to work with brands and PR agencies, how to turn pitches in your favor, and touched on the existing stereotypes in marketing to Latinas. As soon as I have my notes put together and the tip sheet that the 3 of us compiled available, I’ll post.

The Blogalicious 2010 conference buzz is still going for many. I’ve been reading many recap posts from a variety of bloggers that attended this year. Here are a few for you to explore.

• From Tiki Tiki Blog:
  • Blogalicious Link Love
  • Getting Our ¡Parranda! On
• James Andrews (@keyinfluencer): My Recent Presentation on #SocialTV: Relationship Between Social Media + TV
• Love That Max: The beautiful bodies of Blogalicious
• Blogs by Latinas: Blogalicious Weekend 2010 Recap
• Huffington Post: Latina Bloggers and Blogalicious
• Professor Diva Diaries: Blogalicious 2010
• Funkidivagirl: What’s So Special About Blogalicious?
• Sista Sense: Blogalicious Lessons
• Midtown Chic-a: Blogalicious Takes Over SoBe
• Parenting by Dummies: Wordful Wednesday. Blogalicious 2010.

I’m looking forward to next year’s Blogalicious conference and hopefully it’ll be hosted somewhere not too far from Florida.

If you attended, what did you most love about Blogalicious?

Disclosure: My trip to Blogalicious 2010 was sponsored by Qué Rica Vida. All experiences and opinions are my own.

In about four weeks, I’ll be heading down to Miami to attend the Blogalicious 2010 conference. I was unable to attend last year’s inaugural conference, but have heard so many good things about it: the content, the networking, the people. In case you’ve never heard of it or don’t know much about the Blogalicious conference:

“The Blogalicious Weekend conferences are aimed at celebrating the diversity of women of all ethnicities in social media. Over the course of 3 event-filled days, savvy, influential and talented women bloggers will ignite a sense of unity within the multicultural blogging community as well as educate marketers on the importance of our demographic in today’s marketplace, all while networking, building relationships, and promoting inspiration and success for each other.” ~ Blogalicious Weekend website

Looking over the agenda, I see many great sessions and speakers lined up. I’m excited to be speaking on a panel myself and that several bloggers I know are speaking as well. A few sessions I’m looking forward to:

• Building your Social Media Tribe ~ Ana Flores, Spanglish Baby; Sheila Dowd, Lookiloos, Momocrats; Jennifer James, Mommy Too! Mag, Mom Bloggers Club
• Social Media Moms ~ Jeannette Kaplun, Todo Bebe; Jennifer Hutcheson, Mami 2 Mommy
• Bloggers as Brand Ambassadors ~ Emily McKhann and Cooper Munroe, The Motherhood
• Latina Bloggers Give You the Tiki Tiki About Marketing ~ Roxana Soto, Spanglish Baby; Carrie Ferguson Weir, The Tiki Tiki Blog; Melanie Edwards, ModernMami.com – session sponsored by Cafe Media

If you’re not convinced yet that you should head down to Miami to attend the Blogalicious conference and join me in the fun, let me give you two more reasons: a party and a free conference pass.

¡Parranda! mix.mingle.baila

Along with Ana Flores and Carrie Ferguson Weir, I’m very excited to be co-hosting the first official party of the conference, kicking off right after the conference’s Welcome Reception on Friday night. It’s sure to be loads of fun – great music, food, and drinks – all con sabor Latino! It doesn’t matter if you can’t roll your rrrs, you’ll definitely have a good time at our Parranda!

Want to attend ¡Parranda! during this year’s Blogalicious Weekend conference? RSVP is now open for the party! The party is open to all, but space is limited due to the venue, so you’ll need to RSVP. Simply go to the eventbrite page to RSVP.

And, after you RSVP, be sure to grab a badge for your blog/site and let others know to join the ¡Parranda! fun! Stay tuned as more information on the location of the party will be provided very soon. In the meantime, don’t forget to follow us on twitter, join the Parranda buzz using the #ParrandaParty tag, plus connect with us on facebook to stay informed. More information about ¡Parranda!, the hostesses, and sponsors, can be found at parrandaparty.com.

Blogalicious Weekend Conference Pass Giveaway

Blogalicious would like to give one of you a free conference pass to attend the conference.

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this contest, simply leave a comment below answering one of the following questions:

1. If you’ve been to Blogalicious before, what did you most like about it?
2. If you’ve never been, then what are you looking forward to?

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: Win #blogalicious10 conf pass from @modernmami. Ends 9/15. http://bit.ly/blogalicious10pass #giveaway #contest #blogalicious @beblogalicious
3. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
4. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
5. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing why you want to attend the Blogalicious conference; make sure to link back to this contest page in your post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Wednesday, September 15 at 11:59 pm EST. 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.) Once a winner is selected, a discount code will be provided to him/her to use for free registration.

Additional Rules:

1. Winners cannot be current conference ticket holders.
2. Winner must claim pass AND register no later than Sept. 17th. After Sept. 17th the pass will go to the next winner. Ticket is non-transferable.

Good luck and see you in Miami!