kids

This one family has been making piñatas for 50 years (video)

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On the outskirts of Mexico City, over 50 years ago, a family began making and selling piñatas to the local community. Nowadays, the whole town is involved. The Piñata King takes a look inside the life of this town, and the head of the family who started it all.

Jesus, please! What do you mean ‘No Easter Bunny?’ (video)

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When Juanita Carmelita throws an Easter party for the kids, she’s expecting the Easter Bunny to make a guest appearance. But the costume store is out of bunny costumes, so a long-haired bearded Savior-looking guy in robes shows up instead. Dare we expect . . . . a MIRACLE? [Frankie Quiñones stars as Juanita Carmelita.]

PREVIOUSLY ON JUANITA CARMELITA:

Mas…Jesus, please! What do you mean ‘No Easter Bunny?’ (video)

Lowriders to the Center of the Earth! (graphic novel video trailer)

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Cathy Camper of PDX writes:

OK, I confess, I’m Lebanese American often mistaken for Latina, Native American, Jewish, terrorist…no one in the US knows who anyone is!

I wrote 2 graphic novels with Raúl III (Raúl Gonzalez) called Lowriders in Space (2014) and Lowriders to the Center of the Earth (just came out this summer, July 2016). Raúl illustrated them all in Bic pen, because that’s what kids draw with in school, right? The books are aimed at kids, but adults are loving them too.

Mas…Lowriders to the Center of the Earth! (graphic novel video trailer)

This is my new motto: ‘WWND? What would nana do?’

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nanaWhile advances in technology make some areas of our lives easier, good old-fashioned child rearing has become more complicated.

In our grandparent’s day, it was a simpler time. They didn’t have the luxury of worrying about play dates and preschool applications.

I have a motto that has become a guiding principle for applying “old school” methods to present day parenting.

What would nana do?

I’m barely awake, preparing breakfast while holding the baby, trying to sip on day old coffee when my toddler asks me to cut her bread into shapes.

WWND? In nana’s day, a square slice was the only shape you were going to get.

It’s 4:30 pm, the witching hour. Despite the baby screaming all day, I’ve proudly set the table and prepared a healthy dinner. My toddler takes one look at her plate and breaks down in tears because she wants ice cream for dinner.

Mas…This is my new motto: ‘WWND? What would nana do?’

What happens when young deportees get sent back? (PBS video)

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Even before the recent MIGRA raids targeting families denied asylum, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants have been deported annually. Many were kids when their parents brought them over the border.

And those who grew up in the U.S. have found themselves living in what feels like a foreign country — Mexico. It’s like a dream Los Otros Dreamers never imagined.

PBS News Hour Special Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro talked with some young people who are dealing with culture shock as they try to start over — strangers in a strange land.

Local girl crumbles under stress of learning cousins’ names

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schoolgirl(PNS reporting from EL MONTE) The pressure was too much for Marisol Cruz, a fourth grader at Fernando Valenzuela Elementary, who collapsed on the playground Friday afternoon.

Friends said Marisol was a total stressball since her mother told her to memorize all of her cousins’ names before her upcoming primera comunión fiesta.

“I have like 80 cousins!” the Penn Mar Avenue resident told PNS after she had calmed down and accepted a bag of Takis as an incentive to talk.

“It’s not my fault Mama and Papa have like 20 brothers and sisters each! I just can’t remember them all. Call me ‘Mari’ by the way.”

Mari listed the names:

Mas…Local girl crumbles under stress of learning cousins’ names

What are you doing? What am I doing? Be careful out there!

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sanclementetags“What are you doing?” I asked the teenage boy who was gleefully tagging a repainted space at Santiago Park in Santa Ana. Alarmed, he jumped down the small ledge to look up at the bridge where I was standing.

Others emerged from beneath the bridge to see where the stranger’s voice was coming from. There were probably five or ten of them altogether.

They looked so fresh-faced, ranging in age from perhaps 15 to the early 20s. A young adult with shoulder-length crimped hair appeared to be a leader. He wore a wide grin on his face.

A wave of sadness and great disappointment washed over me. These kids belonged in a boy band, or on a soccer team, or part of a visionary group that would put a person on Mars. Instead they were misusing their talents and potential to deface public property.

Mas…What are you doing? What am I doing? Be careful out there!