Archive for May, 2010

Tim’s Toys

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Today I begin interviewing an African-American man who gives himself away. He teaches people to fly big radio-controlled planes. He says he was married to the greatest wife in the world…until she died six years ago. His daddy died in the 1970s, his momma died two years ago. He retired early to take care of her for 12 years. I said it must have been very hard to care for a mother with Alzheimer’s Disease, losing her a little more each month. He doesn’t see it that way at all. He says it was a blessing to return a small part of the favor she had done him during his lifetime. He said, “I look at it as returning a dime on the dollar she gave me.”

Tim is one of many interesting men and women I introduce to people who would otherwise never know them. Tim’s Toys will be a two- or three-part feature series teaching Spanish and wholesome values to students who have been through the first two batches of our video lessons. Students will be glad to meet Tim.

Cinco de Mayo–Whose Holiday?

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

A Mexican entrepreneur who attended one of the cultural sessions I conduct for small businesses said, “We adopt Cinco de Mayo when we come here.” She does not celebrate it in her homeland. She never saw it celebrated in Mexico.

Another Mexican gave an extended amount of time during her Spanish radio program last year to wonder out loud how people in this country have come to make such a big deal of Cinco de Mayo. “You go around to the cities of Mexico and nobody’s celebrating it,” she said. “It’s incredible, it’s just incredible how the people here in the U.S. make such a big deal of it!”

Only a few minutes ago I received an email telling me about a local Mexican-American woman who had to calm down a friend who wanted to decorate the woman’s car in a Cinco de Mayo theme. The woman told her friend, “It’s not even a holiday.”

Schools in the U.S. continue to think Cinco de Mayo represents a significant part of Hispanic tradition and history. The day is not on Mexico’s list of national holidays. In fact, all the hoopla here confuses a lot of Mexicans and other Hispanics, who mistake it for Mexico’s day of independence from Spain. Mexicans are forever telling fellow Mexicans in the U.S. that Cinco de Mayo is NOT their independence day. (The town of Puebla, Mexico, where the people initially overwhelmed the invading French, still celebrates May 5.)

There is nothing wrong with celebrating Cinco de Mayo. It’s just remarkable that May 5 is given the priority it has in our schools. This is what I tell my students: If you miss on something like this, imagine how much more you don’t know about our neighbors to the south.