A Bit About Me

My name is Melissa. I am second generation Puerto Rican and first generation Ecuadorian. Essentially this means I was raised by a father from the old country and mother raised by a single mom from the old country. There was a mix of cultures, Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian being so different with just a base of sameness. And a dilution of cultures as well, as time went on and time drew us further from our roots. Being the oldest I had the most exposure to my roots, and even had the exceptional experience of spending two elementary school years in a bi-lingual school. Living the longest with my Puerto Rican grandmother in our home, I resist the most a complete divorce from what made her real and spectacular to me.

I have four children and I try to raise them as if my Abuela were still here. In the forty plus years she lived in Brooklyn, she never learned more than she absolutely needed. She’d go into any neighborhood store, make her selections, place them up on the counter and ask “How mush?” Every clerk knew what she meant and she got along just fine. Otherwise, at home, it was all Spanish all the time. And as she got older and her arthritis got worse, she would have me write the letters she would dictate to send to her sisters back home in PR. And as soon as I could, I was reading things to her also when her tired eyes needed the help. And so, my kids now speak, read and write in Spanish. And most importantly, they learn our religion in Spanish so that they could recite El Padre Nuestro as my Abuela would have taught it to them.

I’d love to know: what is your impetus for raising your children bilingual? Do you have any family members who have never, or could never learn English? Do your children communicate with them well?