Pt2: In my personal experience, bilingual households have a lot of code-switching. It’s not that you speak one language for a period of years then another, but a baby grows up speaking&learning both at the same time. Marco’s Spanglish is a marvel. Peter tried to keep up with the Spanish after Eva died but he was never as fluent and heart broken besides. Marco can’t remember the last time Eva had spoken Spanish. Sometimes he wonders if that was a cry for help. Later he knows it was the Yeerk.

UGGGGGHHH.  This is painful and beautiful and perfect.

As someone who is also living basically on my own with my family overseas from me, and as someone who is bicultural and proud of her ability to navigate her two cultures, who thinks of that free passage from one culture to another as a blessing, I think this whole situation is a travesty. 

What is truly unconscionable is just how pointless the first shot of this political standoff was, how utterly avoidable it was. Existing statistics showed that America’s ban against these Middle Eastern countries would be effectively useless. Objectively, we knew that it would cause more problems than it could ever dream to solve. And yet, here we are.

ICYMI, NBCUniversal is launching its first ever total-market series, “Latinx Now!” The weekly talk show, produced in both English and Spanish, will focus on news, entertainment, style, fashion, beauty and more, airing across some of the biggest players in the game…including Telemundo, Universo and E! News. The show comes as part of NBCUniversal’s effort to reach a younger audience, one they know is diverse, multicultural and has Hispanics at the forefront.

Capitalizing on the hottest beer trends around, Constellation has recently acquired Four Corners, a Texas brewery inspired by bicultural flavors and imagery, most famous for their “El Chingón” IPA. Considering that Constellation already owns Corona, Modelo and Pacífico, we’d say this is a pretty BIG DEAL. This means that these whimsical brews will potentially be available nationally for not only Latinx to enjoy, but for everyone else who loves to kick back and sip on a cold one.

Pan dulce (n): Mexican pastries made of sweet bread and heavenly goodness that are the absolute best start to any day, hands down. And the star of the pan dulce show: conchas. Major shout out to Millennial Mexican-Americans who created ConchaCon, a festival of insta-worthy Conchas and Concha-inspired twists, but more importantly a celebration of Mexican culture in the U.S.

There’s a new kid on the craft beer block and it’s taking on a new direction. Appropriately called SouthNorte, the San Diego Brewery was born at the crossroads of cultures (if a C was as good as an A, they’d get a C for Clever on our grade scale).  Their aim is to bring authentic sabor Mexicano to American craft beer and to blend influences from each side to give the locals a bit of home no matter where they are. Who wouldn’t want that? They currently brew 3 beers with names that are pretty good, too. Their Mexican-style lager “SEA SEÑOR!”, the agave lager “AGAVEMENTE” (brewed with agave and hibiscus), and their Mango IPA called “NO GÜEY”.  Not like they needed extra clever points, but hey, güey.

We know one thing for sure: Hispanics are significantly more engaged with soccer than non-Hispanics. We’re known to be a chatty bunch, so it’s not a surprise when Spanish-speaking segments are more likely to talk about it offline, and the occurrence of such activities declines with English proficiency. The circle of life. Not to rub it in, but a significantly larger proportion of Hispanics consider themselves soccer fans, compared to non-Hispanics. We’re also known to be a passionate bunch, and the pasión for fútbol decreases as Spanish-language proficiency decreases. Get ready for it: English dominant Hispanics report nearly identical fandom as non-Hispanics.