Category: Parenting

Family, Parenting, Travel

A Very Vegan Thanksgiving

Mona Alvarado Frazier
A Vegan Thanksgiving
A Vegan Thanksgiving

I am not a Vegan or a Vegetarian. But I’m at my kid’s apartment preparing for the Thanksgiving meal. My son is Vegan and that’s fine because for one day I can be vegan too.

Before my trip to Denver airport I slipped in a frozen container enclosed in a freezer bag into my checked luggage. It’s a vegan ‘turkey’ roll with dressing and gravy. I tried it at Trader Joe’s and it tasted so good, I had to taste it twice.

There are no TJ’s in Colorado thus the ‘turkey’ in the suitcase. I noticed an ice spot growing bigger on the side of the suitcase when the clerk tagged the bag. I prayed my ‘turkey’ wouldn’t be confiscated.

And it was difficult to find the other items for our Vegan Thanksgiving in Colorado. The main course made it through TSA but I couldn’t find fresh cranberry relish so have to make my own. There’s a cool recipe with red wine that I’ll try.

My daughter is making the pumpkin pies. I was sure I could find non-dairy pie crusts so I wouldn’t have to make them from scratch, but I couldn’t. We settled for graham cracker crusts.

And did you know there’s no wine at Whole Foods, Walmart, or Walgreen’s here?! Blew my mind. Clerks said I must be from California. We had to go out of town to find a nice Merlot at a big liquor store.

Now that all that’s done I’m just glad to be here, on a beautiful sunny crisp day in Colorado. Snow capped mountains, bare tree limbs, and Robin’s Egg blue skin surround us. The smell of pine and fireplace smoke fills the air.

This is the first year, in my entire life, that I am not with my mother and at least one sibling for Thanksgiving. This is the year all of us decided to spend time with our children who are in different parts of California and my own in Colorado.

My mom did not like our decision but we did what we felt was right for us. She made peace with it because in the end we are family. But she still can’t believe that I’m having a Vegan Thanksgiving dinner.

I hope you have a peaceful day with lots of delicious food. Hug your family and friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family, Latino culture, Latino Family Traditions, Mexican traditions, Parenting

The Importance of Cultural Traditions

Mona Alvarado Frazier
At the Baptismal Font
At the Baptismal Font

This past Sunday my family and I attended a celebration that stirred memories of our young adult lives and childhood. We attended a “Bautismo” or baptism. It is one of the seven religious sacraments of the Catholic Church where an infant is initiated into the spiritual community of the Church.

It has been many moons since our own children were babies and now that several of our extended family are not Catholic (except for my mother) we don’t attend baptism’s as often as we did in our childhood and young adulthood.

Cultural traditions remind us of who we are and where we came from. That is why we were delighted that the young couple, college graduates, third generation Mexican American’s, followed the traditions of their culture and religion.

Mexican and Mexican American baptisms have their own baptism rituals. The parents select godparents, or compadres, who traditionally have the duty of raising the child if the child’s parents were to die. This isn’t a legally binding contract, but more of a moral obligation or promise to bring up the child as a Catholic.

After the pouring of the water on the baby’s head, the priest invites the parents to light a candle from the main candle at the altar. Prayers are said, the blessing of the oil takes place, and then the baby, parents and godparents are presented to the congregation.

The next ritual is the throwing of bolos. When we were children we lived in a predominately Mexican neighborhood, so bautismo’s and the ritual of the compadres throwing bolo was frequent. This is a gift of coins thrown to all the children attending the baptism. Bolo is said to symbolize prosperity and good luck for the infant.

photographer R. Ambriz
Photographer R. Ambriz, muralized

Usually bolo was done on the steps of the church after the baptism ceremony. Pennies, nickels and dimes rained upon the heads of children scrambling for coins. In those days you could buy nickel candy bars, so bolo was quite the event. You could imagine that children from all over, and some adults, frequented the church steps on Sunday late afternoons after baptism ceremonies. In our neighborhood, everyone knew that twenty something Petra, would be at every baptism. She was mentally disabled so she was given a pass. But now bolo is thrown at the reception party.

A party takes place after the baptism, usually a backyard barbecue, for the family and friends of the parents. This is an opportunity for the extended family to get together and bring each other up to date. For us, the ‘old parents’ it was a time to reminisce about the baptismal parties we threw, how the years fly by, and how glad we are that the traditions we grew up with have not died out.