Discovering Ecuador with Kids: Espumillas Ecuadorian Street Food

Every country has it's own traditional sweet treat, and Ecuador has espumillas!  Espumilla is a guava meringue cream and a very popular Ecuadorian street food.  

Our Son's Heritage Board

When we found out we were pregnant with our son I knew in my heart that he would face many challenges because he would be multiracial. Once he came into this world, I wanted him to celebrate his diversity and be proud of it.   However, I wasn't sure how to address it. He was barely 3 1/2 yrs. old when I started talking to him of where he came from.

So I came up with the idea of creating a “heritage board" for him.  We went on from where he was born, where Mami and Papi were born; we put pics of us up, and glued some other pics of maps, and things typical to the region (flags, mango from PR, Tainos, Palmetto tree from SC, etc.)

When explaining to him that Mami was Latina and that Papi was Black… making him Black and Latin, he laughs and says “Momma, my shirt has black lines not me!” I laughed too, and left it there. This just comes to show that my child is “color blind” in the sense that he doesn’t see Black, White, or any other color in people.  Now, I was at a crossroads as to "how else" can I talk to my son about race? I had been following Multicultural Familia and I decided to reach out to Chantilly Patiño by sending her a message via Facebook.  She featured my question on her "Reader Q&A Series."  I loved her answer,  and you can read more about it here. 

I also posted the picture on my personal Facebook page, and received some encouraging comments. 

His heritage board hangs proudly on the wall of his room, and we often go over it.  We will both looking forward to adding fun things about his culture and heritage on his board as he gets older.