Leaving a Bilingual Footprint

I teeter between two worlds.

By day, I’m your typical acculturated 30-something. A die-hard fan of “Sex and the City” who goes goo goo gaga for Tiffanys & Co., and savors a daily dose of vanilla latte. In many ways – pura gringa.

At night, I go to a multi generational home - one that hasn’t changed much since I was born. I was raised by my abuelo and abuela ever since my mom left the tiny country of El Salvador in search of the big American Dream. I watch “Jose Luis sin Censura,” eat platanos con crema y frijoles, and have heard “Tiempo de Vals” by Chayanne at more quinceañeras than I can count. (Don’t get me started on this one). I’m a fiery Latina – a member of a minority that will one day be the majority.

Today, I can honestly say that I’m a better person having embraced both cultures, and I wave both flags with pride. The marriage of the Salvadoran/American cultures makes me who I am today: Angelina (Angie) Valencia-Martinez, a professional. A happy wife and proud mamacita who values family and tradition more than anything in the world. A bilingual acculturated Latina who can switch from one world to the other – in both my personal and professional lives. This has had its advantages. Advantages I intend to pass along to my son – Frank.

Everyone talks about leaving a footprint, a mark in the world. Well, Frank Adam Martinez born on 2-7-07 is mine. He is a happy-go-lucky toddler who loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, soccer, and music. He lives in my two worlds too. And I’m raising him to be bilingual.

While I’m at work, Abuela Maria and Abuelo Chico talk to Frank in our native tongue: español. When they go out for walks, they point out the “avion,” plane, “ardillas,” squirrels, and “gato,” cat. Every day, I watch him have long conversations with abuelo and abuela, and I beam.
But when Frank talks to his daddy or me, he speaks English, usually in the form of “I want this!”

There are some clear benefits to Frank being bilingual: According to the Multilingual Children’s Association, multilingualism has been proven to help children develop superior reading and writing skills. Multilingual children also tend to have over-all better analytical, social, and academic skills than their monolingual peers. Good reasons to raise him bilingual. But then there’s the part about opportunity.

For me, being a bilingual journalist turned PR practitioner has opened twice as many doors as being a monolingual one would ever. I want the same opportunities for my son. President Frank Martinez? Why not?

When I graduated from California State University Northridge, I was employed by the Ventura County Star newspaper and also wrote for their Spanish publication, Mi Estrella. When I decided to cross over to public relations, I had the option of working at a firm in the general market sector or one that handled Hispanic PR. It’s nice to know there are options.

For more than a year, I’ve worked at RLPR developing programs in both English and Spanish. One minute I’m facilitating a TV segment with a Spanish speaker at Univision, the next at an ABC station. During my tenure here, I’ve met telenovela actor Juan Soler, boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao, and State Superintendent Jack O’Connell – a big deal to me since I’m a news junkie.

So today, as I sit comfortably in my desk I think back to the times when I used to help my mom clean other people’s houses for a living. She would always stress the importance of an education and how far it would one day take me. Still she urged me to never forget where I came from because that is who I am: una Latina con orgullo.

Gracias mamá por no dejarme que olvide de dónde vengo. That is a task I plan to carry on with my son.

How do you think raising your child to be bilingual makes a difference?

A Celebration of Latina Bloggers

On more than one occasion I’ve been told that I don’t appear to be a Latina. In some cases it’s because of the way I look; in others it’s the fact that I speak English with no Spanish accent. Sometimes it’s my name (Jennifer) or that I was born in Chicago to an American mother. Never mind that I was raised in Central America, my father and two younger siblings were born in El Salvador, and I speak Spanish fluently. Or that I make a mean Huevos Rancheros, would eat rice and beans daily if I could, and I love all kinds of musica latina (except maybe Rancheras). I guess you could say that I’m cursed by the stereotype of how a Latina is supposed to look and sound.

I realize that this is nothing new. But recently, I chatted on Twitter with some Latina bloggers about how the stereotype issue has extended to the blogoshphere; one of them blogged about it here http://tikitikiblog.com/your-typical-latina/. We laughed heartily as we talked about our “gringa” names and whether or not we wear the stereotypical hoop earrings (we do – silver only). But the undertone of the conversation was that, while we can laugh about it, the issue of stereotypes is a serious one. One blogger says she’s had PR people ask her to “sound more Latina” in her blog posts. And at the recent BlogHer (http://www.blogher.com/)%20conferenceconference, Latina bloggers were clearly under-represented. To be clear, I’m in no way implying that there’s any discrimination going on here. Rather I’m making the point that – to the surprise of many – a really broad community of talented Latina bloggers exists.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have met many of them over the last several months. They’re an impressive and diverse bunch of women who write about everything you’d expect ANY blogger to write about. They’re talented, funny, insightful, political, creative, and more. Yet they approach their craft with a Latina flair that makes their blogs extra special. They blog in English. Or in Spanglish. Or in Spanish. Some even keep bilingual blogs.

While these talented women are working feverishly to connect and network with each other, I can’t say they were easy to find. I found them the way you’d meet friends “IRL” (that’s online speak for “in real life”). I found one, who led me to another and so on through blog rolls, Twitter streams and old-fashioned “hey, check this out” referrals. And while I’ve only met a few of these fabulous women in person, I consider many of them my friends.

I wish more people knew about them and read their blogs. Because maybe then people would understand that being a Latina is not about your name or what you look like. It’s about a shared cultura that brings us all together. So it’s in that spirit that we’re kicking off our company’s blog roll with a list of some of the chicas fabulosas we’ve come to know and love. The list is by no means exhaustive. Rather, it’s intended to demonstrate the diversity of talent in the Latina blogging world. It’s meant to celebrate the collective force of their voices – of their words and their opinions. And we look forward to adding more.

Please support them. And I hope any of you Latina bloggers who are not on this list – or who we haven’t connected with yet – will reach out. We’d like to get to know you.

A sampling of some of the bloggers we know:

http://www.nycitymama.com/ (NY City based travel blogger and mami to 3 boys)
http://www.latinaonamission.com/ (Single mami to 2 boys enjoying NY life to its fullest – frugally)
http://www.spanglishbaby.com/ (Two Latina mamis whose site is dedicated to the subject of raising bilingual kids)
http://www.mamalatinatips.com/ (L.A.-based Latina mami whose posts are written in both English and Spanish)
http://www.bilingualintheboonies.com/ (Una Cubanita living in Tennessee!)
http://www.mamaheartsbaby.com/ (Otra Cubanita who writes about balancing living as woman and Mami in New England)
http://www.modernmami.com/ (Orlando-based Puerto Rican working mom who blogs about all things mom)
http://www.thathappenedtome.com/ (LA-based Latina whose site is a resource for women who have found themselves single as a result as a break-up, divorce or death)www.mybigfatcubanfamily.com/ (SoCal based Cuban mami blogging about living life as a Cuban-American)

Jennifer Vides is Senior Vice President at RL Public Relations. She can be reached at jennifer.vides@rlpublicrelations.com