Be Thankful For What You've Got ...

Life and love are precious commodities, I hope you are enjoying a very happy thanksgiving with your family & friends. In honor of the day, I wanted to share this piece of retro goodness, the song is by William DeVaughn from the mid 70's - Enjoy!

Dysfunctional Family Thanksgiving Humor

If you know me well, you probably won't be surprised why I can laugh at this =)



I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Recycled Fabric Ball Ornament ...

I got crafty with the girls yesterday. We made several of these and they are really fun and easy to do. You can check out my tutorial on the Make Something Day site.

Hope you have a great week being grateful with your family and friends!

Brown is the new black ...

In case you didn't know, Latinos are now facing the same kind of discrimination that historically African Americans have been faced with. Apparently membership in the KKK has risen due to a lot of anti-immigration fear & anxiety with the immigrants coming from Mexico rather than other countries.

I also read an article this past week in the New York Times about 7 teenagers in Long Island, NY who went out looking for a "Mexican"to beat up. They found Marcelo Lucero, an legal immigrant from Ecuador who had lived in the US for 16 years. They beat him, stabbed and killed him. It's a horrible reminder of how racism is alive and well in the U.S.

According to government statistics, racism against Mexicans in the US is escalating steeply. The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos rose almost 40 percent between 2003 and 2006. And it's getting worse.

All this reminds me about an incident that happened to me about 2 years ago. I was shopping at my local grocery store in Orange County (before our move here to San Diego), and I was wearing an Aztec calendar medalion around my neck. While I'm standing at the checkout stand the latino guy bagging my groceries says to me in spanish, "Are you sure you want to be advertising that you're a Mexican, it's not a good idea". I guess he had the inside scoop about what was to come.

Growing up, my mother put a lot of effort into making me fit in. I suppose she was trying to protect me from the racism she received for being a latino. Her theory was that if I dressed the part and looked the part, maybe people wouldn't find out that I was a Mexican. When I was 12 she took me to get my hair dyed auburn red, I continued doing that until I was 18. The plan was to present myself as a "white" person. So whenever I went to a new school (lots of schools, 2 jr highs and 6 high schools), my mom told me when asked about my ethnicity I should say Greek, Italian or even Jewish, but never say "I'm Mexican". The other thing that she would always say is "make sure you say your name is Padilla like Vanilla". It should have been pronounced "pu-dee-ya", but if I did that then they might figure out I was a Mexican. I'm actually thinking of publishing all the creative tips used to assimilate me, or maybe I'll just call it "100 Ways to Pretend Your Not A Mexican" =)

The good news was that once I became an adult I realized I had the freedom to be myself and I stared to embrace my heritage, no matter what the reaction or consequence might be.

So, back to they story of Marcelo. Like many Latino immigrants, he came here to work hard, even for meager wages, and just wanted to make a living. It's a tradgedy that most American's don't understand what life is like on the other side of the border and that's why there's so little compassion about the issue.

During last weekend's Project Mexico trip, we took several groups of the home-building volunteers over to meet Marisol, my friend that lives in Colonia San Bernardo. I've observed that by spending some time with her and seeing her family and hearing a bit of her story opinions on this whole immigration issue can really be shaped, in a positive way.

So my hope for you, is that you get to know a hispanic, and you get extra points if they are undocumented. I know for a fact that it's an awesome experience to love someone that doesn't fit into your comfort zone.

On the roof ...

We just got back from another great weekend of home building in Colonia de San Bernardo. Our Terra Nova Church team finished the home just in the nick of time before the rain hit. I'll soon have more to tell you about this past weekend in Tijuana, but just wanted to share this picture of Jon & the girls on the roof of the home ... we all had such a fun and rewarding experience. Hope you can join us on the next trip in Spring 2009!

Mankind Is No Island ...

I thought you might appreciate this. It's beautiful and sad at the same time.

Halloween & Dia de los Muertos ...

Halloween in Golden Hill last night was quite a surprise! This little corner of San Diego sure came to life. I bought 2 jumbo bags of candy and that certainly didn't last long. The streets came alive and it was so fun to see two diverse cultures mixing it up and having so much fun. The girls had a good time, and so did Jon and I. It was a great introduction to the neighborhood.

So after we got home last night, Jon and I started getting our stuff together for a Dia de los Muertos event we are attending this evening. We'll be decorating sugar skulls, walking the streets of Sherman Heights to visit some homes that are decorated for Dia de los Muertos, we'll also be decorating an altar/shrine and enjoying posole with friends. It's good to be celebrating my cultural heritage and traditions with the girls.

These two holidays in particular were taboo while I was growing up. It's good to able to make my own choices and share my values with my own family now. So we took the girls out last night to explore and connect with our new little neighborhood. I feel that Halloween is a PERFECT opportunity to walk around your block, peek into peoples homes and actually talk to your neighbors.

For me, my belief is that above all else we are commanded by God to show love to our neighbors, and not to judge them. And in the immortal words of Forest Gump ... "that's all I have to say about that".

Now for the really good stuff, this is a painting that Jon made for me last night. He hasn't painted anything in over 20 years, so it's good to see him get back into painting, he's got such amazing talent. So, we'll use it for a decoration tonight for the Dia de los Muertos fiesta. But it's certainly coming back home with me, I can't wait to hang it up above my computer table so that I can see it all the time, I just love it!!!