Hispanic culture stems from a lot of history, and with that history comes an emotional connection to the traditions that come out of it. Quinceaneras. When you go over to your Abuela’s house and her having warm homemade tortillas for you with her side of beans. It could be listening to Tejano music every Sunday morning while you clean or going on long car rides to go see that cousin that knows how to throw the best parties. Or it could be the way you know you better run when your mom or tia reach for her chancla because you said something you shouldn’t have. 

I remember my Abuela always giving me her signature advice “Mantente fuerte, hija” or “stay strong daughter” which I try to live by every day now that she’s not here. When she passed it took a toll on everyone in the family because growing up in a Hispanic household it seemed to be what Abuela said went. So naturally, she became our emotional support system and her way of making us happy was by making her amazing homemade tortillas. 

“I loved them, especially the smell,” my sister cadence said. There’s something that just has you feeling all these homey emotions.

“I liked how she would, like, make it from her hands,” Madre said. My madre has always held our culture close and she makes sure that we experience it and never forget it. 

“ It’s like pride and a big family, beautiful, and hard workers,” Madre said. She always put being a hard worker above everything else because she said that’s what she grew up seeing. 

“Like stories of like my grandpa coming over here and busting his butt off trying to become a US citizen, building a home that he and my grandma lived in all their life, and learning how to cook from having nothing, ” Madre said thinking about her father. 

Then my mom was excited to show me the well-known tradition of having my quinceanera. My right of passage to becoming a woman she would say. The big celebration is when everyone in your family tree comes down and you’re given gifts, but before you go have your fun you go to your mass. My favorite part will be dancing with my parents and then dancing with my abuela’s portrait because we all know how important it was to her that I stuck it out even if she wasn’t there to physically see. 

“ I think the stress was worth it, because during it – it was just really fun to be together with family and friends and just overall see everything come together that you worked for, for like months,” Andrea Rios stated about her own quinceanera. 

So Hispanic culture is everything going from tradition to just having a family. It brings you pride and happiness. But overall you seem to have a passion for everything you become a part of as soon as you’re born into it.