“Are you Ecuatoriana or Mexicana?” It’s a question we ask our daughter every once in a while (her answer varies depending on whether she’s feeling more love for her Mexican mom or her Ecuadorian dad…) As a Latina parent in the U.S., I’m always looking for products or services that can help me connect my kids to their Latinx roots. I thought I’d round up a few kid-friendly Latinx businesses that do just that! After all, there’s no better time than Hispanic Heritage Month to help kids (whether Latinx or not) learn a little more about Latinx culture and heritage.

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Are you a podcast listener? I LOVE podcasts and am a total evangelist for my favorite ones (although I sadly haven’t been able to convince Josh, my partner, to get on the podcast bandwagon so maybe not such a great evangelist?). I like listening to them while I do things like sweep and tidy up the nursery because it’s nice to learn and be inspired as I put the toy school bus back in its place for the 15th time that day.

As a new mom a couple of years ago, podcasts were also my best friends as I navigated the sudden isolation that came with maternity leave and going from working in an office everyday to going hours and hours without seeing another adult.

However! When we decided that we would only speak Spanish at home with our babies, I quickly realized that pretty much all of my favorite podcasts were in English. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I always feel like it’s a nice little bonus Spanish for the girls when they hear it on the radio or on TV, so I’m constantly on the hunt for great podcasts in Spanish that I can listen to while they’re around.

Here are three great ones if you, too, need a little español in your podcast faves list:

IF YOU’RE An entrepreneur
LISTEN TO Libros para Emprendedores
WHY IT’S AWESOME There are so many great books written to inspire and educate entrepreneurs, and I want to read all of them! Really I do! But given that there are only so many hours in the day, it’s nice when you can get a summary of the biggest lessons that you can immediately apply to your business. That’s what this podcast is: a summary of some really great self-help/marketing/business books, delivered in a quick and entertaining way. Luis Ramos’ style is a bonus for me, because although he’s Spanish he lives in Mexico, and does his podcast in a way that reminds me so much of my favorite radio host in Chihuahua.

IF YOU’RE Interested in Latin American stories and storytellers
LISTEN TO Radio Ambulante
WHY IT’S AWESOME Radio Ambulante is distributed by NPR, so you know it’s quality journalism. This podcast tells Latin American stories in Spanish from all over the American continent (including the United States), and I love getting a little peek at the different accents and cultures of people from all these different countries. This one is just beautifully produced, too– the sound editing, the journalistic bent, all of it is phenomenal.

IF YOU’RE Looking for a podcast that discusses national Latino news and culture
LISTEN TO Latino USA
WHY IT’S AWESOME This podcast is on every “best podcasts for Latinx” list you’ll read, and for good reason! It’s NPR’s only radio program focusing on Latinx and it’s been around for 20 years (!). Their episodes cover everything from parenthood to Latinos in hip-hop to the origins of MS-13 (aka Mara Salvatrucha, the international criminal gang). This one TECHNICALLY isn’t in all Spanish, but guests and hosts often do speak Spanish (and Spanglish) and besides, I couldn’t leave it out of a list of my favorite podcasts because 1) I love it so much and 2) I want to be BFFs with Maria Hinojosa, the host.

I’d love to hear more suggestions because I’m always on the hunt! Any wonderful Spanish podcasts you’ve been listening to lately?

(Photo of Maria Hinojosa by Caroline Yang, via MPR News)

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It’s almost the start of the new school year for some, and maybe your kids will be taking Spanish class (or maybe they’re in a language immersion program, lucky you!). Or perhaps your kids aren’t taking any language classes, but you speak Spanish at home and are raising them bilingually. The benefits of being bilingual are phenomenal, as a quick google search will reveal. In case you need a refresher (or just want to have them all in one place to refer to when your kid [or you] needs a pep talk), this post is for you!

I e-met Sara a few months ago and loved her immediately. She’s a lawyer and fellow book-loving mami (and Sol Book Box subscriber!) who is raising her two kids trilingually (!) as English/Spanish/Slovak speakers. On her blog she shares some amazing resources for anyone raising kids multilingually, and kindly compiled a list to share here of all the ways being bilingual or multilingual will benefit your kids—read on (and maybe pat yourself on the back for giving this gift to your niños)!

Sara says:

Raising bilingual or trilingual children is incredibly easy — for the kids. Both my husband and I were lucky enough to be raised bilingually (in my case) and trilingually (in his). We thought memories of our childhoods — happy, carefree — reflected how easy it would be to raise children with multiple languages. And well, we were wrong (just as we were wrong about a lot of our other ideas surrounding parenthood, because “sleep like a baby” means they sleep a lot, right?).

Most sources I’ve found suggest that exposing your children to the target language at least 30% of their waking time is sufficient for them to learn. Though that seems like an easy threshold to meet, between school, play dates, and other activities where they are mainly exposed to English, I often get antsy that their Spanish and Slovak will suffer. For kids in the U.S., like ours, English is so easy — everyone at the park and at school speaks it, most of the books in the library or at the bookstore use it, and it’s the default for most movies, shows, songs, and videos they’re exposed to.

Though it can be difficult to maintain, the benefits of being multilingual are well-documented. And reviewing them always gives me a boost in morale. All the times I respond “que?” in feigned ignorance when my son speaks English to me will pay off (I tell myself as I Google for the hundredth time how to say raccoon or moose or snowplow in Spanish)! So for my benefit, and maybe for yours too, here’s a short list of all the ways being bilingual or multilingual will benefit your children:

• It literally rewires their brains. Multilinguals “have greater brain tissue density in the areas of the brain related to language, memory, and attention.”
• Bilingualism may ward off cognitive deterioration and dementia.
• It makes people more empathetic.
• Multilingual children have greater executive control than monolingual children, which is associated with the ability to plan, control impulses, memory recollection, and focus on tasks (and may make them smarter).
• They may be happier in school and exhibit fewer behavioral problems.
• Multilingualism is associated with high academic achievement and better mental health status.
• There is a growing demand for multilingual workers in the workforce.
• Infants raised in bilingual (and presumably multilingual) environments demonstrate cognitive benefits at a younger age than previously thought, which translates to higher executive function.
• Interestingly, though not necessarily a benefit, bilingual people experience time differently than monolingual people.
• And most importantly, our children have the added luxury of being able to communicate with their grandparents, other relatives and entire other countries in their native languages, allowing for deeper familial and cultural bonds. Our experience is further supported by several studies, which have shown that “children who speak their parents’ heritage language enjoy better relationships with their families and are less likely to be alienated from them.”

You get the point.

A lot of times it feels like we’re in this alone, but the more I speak with others who are also attempting to raise (or have already raised) multilingual children, the more it feels like it’s possible.

—

Thank you so much, Sara! My kids are still really little, but I love having all of this academically-supported motivation in my pocket for the days when it feels like everyone in the world (their little world, at least) is speaking English except us!

What do you think, dear readers of this blog? Have you experienced some of the benefits of this list and/or seen them in your kids?

A version of this post appeared on Sara’s blog http://www.onedostres.com in March 2017.

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There are a lot of things I didn’t realize before starting Sol Book Box. For example, I didn’t know that every year, the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL for short) happens. It’s the second largest book fair in the world, and is a huge deal in the Spanish-speaking world o’ books.

When I was trying to figure out how to bring books to Sol Book Box subscribers, the most important thing to me was sending books that would really be worth it for my subscribers. To me, this meant books that were phenomenally written (or well translated), books that were either new releases or classics that every bilingual kid needed in his/her library, books that were beautiful.

The first thing you should know about the FIL is that it’s ENORMOUS. The Expo Guadalajara convention center where it’s held is massive, and for nine days every year it’s filled with booth after booth, exhibitors from all over the world displaying more books than I’ve ever seen in one place in my life.

It was heaven.

It was also kind of crazy. For days I was there for hours, talking to representatives from publishing houses and distributors, picking up stacks and stacks of books to read in a corner. And when I emerged, tired but victorious, I had catalogues and notes and business cards and yes, a whole suitcase full of books.

And while not all of the books I’ve sent have been FIL finds (I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic authors and imprints based here in the U.S.!), the process is always the same: they’re chosen with love.

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Finding muchos tesoros for you all at the Feria Internacional del Libro today!

Heaven… I’m in heaven. 🙂

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When I first dreamed up the idea to bring Spanish children’s books to bilingual families, it stemmed mostly from my own passion to make sure my kid(s) were raised to be bilingual. So many of the opportunities I’ve enjoyed (career-wise and personally) have come around because of the languages I speak, and I’m grateful that my own babies have come long after the generation where immigrants thought teaching their kids another language besides English would rob them of opportunities in the United States.

I’m thrilled beyond words to have found a partner in Univision. Through all the ups and downs of starting a business (lots of downs!), my biggest break came in winning Univision’s Vendeme tu Sueño contest. I went into the auditions with my baby business idea outlined on a sheet of paper, and I came away from this Shark-Tank style competition 6-months later with an actual small business and $30,000 worth of pledged media support from Univision. I’m grateful to the judges who caught the vision of celebrating the many different cultures under the Latinx/Spanish-speaking umbrella.

So, mi gente! Look out for those book boxes coming to your doors muy pronto! Every single book is so carefully chosen, and my hope is that it’s a seed parents plant at home with their children. I believe so strongly in the power of reading, and what I want most is for parents and kids to love to read en español too, and to be able to create those moments together. And now that dream is a big step closer!

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Last night I went among a talented group of Latino entrepreneurs who all completed a week-long bootcamp at Seed Spot with me and I was one of three lucky new business owners chosen as a finalist for Univision’s Vendeme Tu Sueño competiton!

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One of the very best parts of the “Véndeme tu sueño” contest is Univision Arizona’s partnership with Seed Spot, an incubator that works hard to accelerate entrepreneurs that are solving important social problems. And one of the very best weeks of 2016, for me, was spent at Seed Spot’s Boot Camp in May with 13 other Latinx-led business ventures.

The five-day 9-5 experience was designed to give all of us– some established entrepreneurs and some aspiring– access to the education, support and mentorship that would help us bring our dreams to life.

Our community is doing such amazing things, and for me it was a blessing to be in the same room as other local ventures that are doing things I respect and admire, all of us trying hard to lift the Latinx community in the best way we know how.

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