Our first trip to Burger King is lodged in my memory bank for eternity-eating American hamburgers and fries and wearing a crown on my head to boot. We spoke Spanish at home to our elders, English to the siblings, watched American TV and tried desperately to get my mom to embrace the idea of making chocolate chip cookies instead of flan. We were five siblings living at home with my parents and my grandmother (for many stretches) a typical multi-generational immigrant family. I was in the land of hopes and dreams, born of this soil, but conceived in another land, where other esperanzas and sueños had been interrupted and taken away prematurely. I guess when you are the embodiment of the exodus, both can be true. The first Americanita in the family-which was always said in such a way that I wasn’t sure if it was a positive or a negative. I was the bridge that united the old world and the new world. I was born in Miami during my parents’ exodus, then we moved to New Orleans when I was a couple of weeks old. I was the first American-born child of recent Cuban/Spanish immigrants (and by recent, I mean two weeks in). I grew up in New Orleans in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Below, she describes being both an outsider and an insider, a feeling many readers can likely relate to. The story is inspired by Maria’s own life as a first-generation Cuban/Spanish-American.
The author is marketing executive Maria Twena, also a newly minted children’s book author whose first title, School Crossing, depicts the life of MariVi, a young immigrant who is navigating two cultures at once.
#Growing up in spanish full#
With Hispanic Heritage Month in full swing (September 15 through October 15), today’s Mom Talk is right on time.
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