Beyoncé meets Breitbart
My parents emigrated from Mexico to Minnesota more than 25 years ago. I have a big familia. I have 10 tios and tias and 23 first cousins on my mom’s side. I grew up listening to their stories. Whether I was playing with my primos, spending time with my abuelita, getting the frijoles ready for dinner, or hanging out in my tia’s living room with my warm canela in the winter or agua de Jamaica in the summer. I was surrounded by my family’s tradition of telling stories – an art form they had mastered.
Like any immigrant family, there were plenty of stories of hardship and triumph, but that’s a small part of it. There’s funny stuff too – the family myths, big fish stories that used to be true but have long since left the realm of feasibility. How my family members were forced to cross the border could be either horror or comedy, depending on who was telling the story. All my primos recall the strange look on our parents’ faces as we tried to explain to them the concept of a sleepover – why do these strangers want to take care our kids for the whole night?… Continue reading »
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