Today's lesson in Cuban culture comes to you directly from Miami from my friend, Elena Santayana. Last year Elena was kind enough to share her family's "coming to America" story here on My Big, Fat, Cuban Family. Her family owns the beautiful jewelry store of the same name. Santayana Jewelers in Miami.
The azabache is a black onyx stone. Cleaned and polished and attached to a pin of some sort. The unassuming azabache is the grand protector of all Cuban babies from untold evils.
There were two things that every Cuban child was practically born with: Violetas cologne and an azabache.
The Violetas is a light cologne scented with violets. I am venturing to guess that there is not one Cuban child in my family who was deprived of smelling deliciously of violets, but that's not important right now.
Also mandatory for every Cuban kid, was the azabache. It's the only thing that can protect from jealousy, the evil eye, and all sorts of untold calamaties brought on by strangers glancing sideways at you as they pass by.
As Santayana says, "The azabache...keeping you safe on the playground since 1978..."
Today's very Cuban offering for MBFCF Giveaway Week is generously sponsored by Santayana Jewelers.
And it is.....you guessed it - An azabache!
Not just any pedestrian azabache, either. It's a Santayana exclusive design - an authentic silver azabache pendant on a leather and silver Chamilia bracelet.
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win this gorgeous Leather Bracelet and Azabache charm from Santayana Jewelers and please answer one or both of the following questions:
Did you have an azabache pinned to you as a baby?
Did you pin one on your own kids - por si acaso? (I know you did. Confess.)
NOTE: Even if you're not Cuban and don't have the fantastic superstitions that we grew up with as part of your emotional baggage, please feel free to enter to win this beautiful bracelet. Just tell me anything about yourself as a child.
For an extra entry,, please go "like" Santayana Jewelers on Facebook and come back and leave me another comment telling me:
"I like Santayana Jewelers!"
So that's not one, but two chances to win.
I'll choose a winner at the end of MBFCF Blogiversary Giveaway Week on Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 at 11 am, so you have all week to enter.
If you absolutely can't wait for a winner to be drawn next week and you want to go ahead and order your own Azabache Bracelet
immediately (take no chances with your health, people!), Santayana Jewelers is very graciously offering an online
promotion for My big, fat, Cuban family readers.*
*Santayana & MBFCF Promotion: $40 off your $150 purchase with the promo code MARTASENTME. (I feel sooo accidentally cool.)
When I was very small, maybe about 5 years old, my parents took me to Santiago de Cuba to visit "El Cobre."
Santiago de Cuba is about five hundred plus miles from the city of Havana. I remember it being a long and dusty car trip. But we got to stay in a hotel and eat at restaurants. This is pretty much all I can recall about the travel itself, but that's not important right now.
In the hills above the city sits a beautiful basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Charity, so named because she was found bone dry on a wild, stormy sea by some fishermen. On her was a sign that read, "Yo soy La Virgen de La Caridad." (Translated: "I am the Virgin of Charity.")
Of course, Cubans always seem to familiarize the things they love. We call her "Cachita." This particular version of Our Lady of Charity is the Patron Saint of Cuba and she has a presence in pretty much every Catholic Cuban home.
From our trip to El Cobre, we brought pieces of copper from the mines as souvenirs. And my mom got a little statue of Cachita to put up in our home. Since that point in time, Cachita has always lived in our family home in some iteration.
On September 8, 1961, having been in this country for just a few short months, our family went to pray at a mass alongside 30,oo0 other Cuban exiles for the peace of our homeland. The image of all those displaced families remains with me to this day. In Miami there's a beautiful chapel dedicated to her and I know she still lives in lots of Cuban homes.
Here is my mom's altar to Cachita.
I'm no longer a practicing Catholic (I'm an Evangelical Christian), so I don't usually subscribe to Catholic images of saints. But there's something about our Cuban Cachita.
What do I love more than Cubaneo*? I can't think of anything off the top of my head. (I know. However, the "husband and kids" answer is way too easy, but that's not important right now.)
(*Cubaneo is when a bunch of Cubans are together and trying to talk over each other. It's an amazing thing.)
We're going to the Cuban Heritage Day at Dodger Stadium on Sunday and I couldn't be more excited.
And we're taking a lucky MBFCF reader with us!
The winner of the Two Cuban Heritage Day Dodger Tickets is:
Congratulations, Ileana! I look forward to having you join My Big, Fat, Cuban Family for all the Cubaneo and Dodger baseball.
Please send me an email with HEY MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line so that I don't accidentally delete it. Then I can connect with you and we can make plans. And we can wipe away tears together as Arturo Sandoval plays the National Anthem.
Okay, maybe you're not as sappy as I am, but still...
I promise I will most definitely buy you a Dodger Dog.
Go Dodger Blue!
If you are still interested in going to the game on Sunday, September 1st, but haven't gotten tickets yet, go to www.Dodgers.com/Cuba and use the promo code 13CUBA for exclusive savings.
I didn't get to go to Miami for Cuba Nostalgia this year. And I'm feeling a little sorry for myself.
It's the 15th anniversary of Cuba Nostalgia and the brilliant Tony Mendoza did the poster for the event which I'm totally in love with.
Get it? 15 years. The Quinceañera. Genius.
I already put out the word to my people on the ground in Miami (I'm looking at you, Amanda from Brandon's Puppy) that I must have this poster, but that's not important right now.
I have lots of friends who will be at the Fair Expo Center in Miami this weekend.
Of course, Babalú Blog will represent. It's their 10th Anniversary in the Blogosphere telling the truth about Cuba. Congratulations, guys! So proud to be a part of the Babalú Family.
I lamented my inability to be present to my friends at Santayana Jewelers, who always have a wonderful presence there.
They're running a Cuba Nostalgia Special this weekend:
If you buy 4 of the Cuban Charms for your Habana Collection Bead Charm Bracelet, they'll throw in a 5th charm for free. Awesome, right?
1) I don't have to tell you this, but if you're Cuban or love all things Cuban, you must have a Cuban Charm bracelet. (Duh.)
2) If you already have the bracelet, you will want as many Cuban charms as you can fit on it, right?
Wait! It gets better...
3) If you're a MBFCF (which, obviously, you are if you're reading this now...)
"The first 5 people to come over and say Marta Sent Me get a free "cafecito"charm."
What are you waiting for, people? Go! Get yourselves over to the Santayana Jewelers booth at Cuba Nostalgia this weekend and say, Marta Sent Me! (I'll expect a full report from the lucky 5.)
I probably shouldn't make such a big deal about it, but I do. Family Dinners are super important to me.
It has nothing to do with surveys or statistics. Although statistics are on the side of regular family dinners for keeping families connected and eating well.
Family Dinners are kind of sacred around here.
Confession: I don't always cook Cuban. But I do cook a lot. And there are always vegetables and salads and lots of variety in the main dishes, although we're mostly unapologetic carnivores.
My rules are that 1) dinner must be delicious and 2) phones must be off. The exception to the turning-off-phone rule is that you may take photos of your food, and you may even Instagram it, which everyone knows is why God gave us smart phones.
I know the Family Dinner thing is hopelessly old-fashioned. But as everyone has gotten busier, it seems to be the only place where we consistently connect and share as a family. I miss not having my older kids here as much, as they've gotten on with their busy lives. But when they are here we make it a point to have a feast.
In the interest of full disclosure, we also order pizza and take out Chinese food. But even then, we sit at our places and slow down enough to spend time together. Did I tell you that everyone has their own place at the table? (I know. Shut up.)
Ironically, yesterday, as I was working on this post, I had a terrible fibro episode. I did not even make dinner and every man was on his own. Those times make me glad that we have so many everybody-sit-down-together type meals. The free-for-all is much more the exception, rather than the rule.
I think the need to feed people and have them around the table comes from my happiest memories of my Cuban childhood. The Family Table was sacred. There was always lively conversation and delicious food. I wish we had more moments like this in our lives. This is why I've become so intentional in making Dinner Time so important.
In the Movie of My Life, most of the scenes and family exchanges will take place around the dinner table. In that silver-screen-fantasy there will also be someone else who cleans up after the meal, but that's not important right now.
When I see the faces of the ones I love best as they laugh and share and we listen to the stories about who said what and how their days went, there's no question that this is a good and solid tradition.
Go and grab yourself a nice, hot cafecito and make yourself comfortable. This post is going to be long and newsy. I'm about to seriously dish about the new TV sitcom, Wassup En LA? with lots of details and tons of photos about the project. (This is why you love me, right?)
I promised you a few weeks ago that I would write about the making of Wassup En LA? in great detail. I have so much to share with you about why I think this show is going to be fantastic and why I believe it's going to be must-see TV, but let me back up a bit.
Here I am with Wassup En LA? creators, Rudolpho Zalez and Carlos de la Vega. At Porto's, of course.
The co-creators of Wassup, Rudolpho Zalez and Carlos de la Vega envisioned a good, old-fashioned TV sitcom. In their vision, they wanted to follow in the footsteps of old-school, family-themed TV classics, such as "I Love Lucy," "The Cosby Show, "Chico and the Man," and "¿Que Pasa, U.S.A.?"
Family friendly TV? Yes, please.
The premise is already hilarious:
Manolito Diaz has dreams of making it big as a Hollywood actor. His Cuban family is extremely supportive. In typical Cuban style, his mom and dad show their support by moving the family from Miami to Los Angeles to help their son reach his dream. They bring along his reluctant-to-leave-Miami sister and, of course the very deliciously Cuban abuelos.
Meet the fictional Diaz family:
From left to right: Oscar Torre as Pepe Diaz, Jean Paul San Pedro as
Manolito Diaz, Nicole Garcia as Teresita Diaz, Nelida Ponce as Eufemia
Olga Diaz, Gerardo Riverón as Alfredo Figueroa Diaz, and Jezabel Montero
as Rosa Maria Diaz.
As I understand it, the entire first season has already been written. The taping we attended on March 23rd involved the shooting of the pilot episode and also a few scenes from various key moments from the rest of the season.
So, for those of you asking where you can see it, there's no good answer for that....yet. The show is still in the works. The scenes that were filmed on the 23rd are still in the post-production phase. It's quite an exciting (and nerve-wracking) time for all involved.
Preparation
You'll recall that the producers called and asked if I had any Cuban-looking props for the set. Of course, I was happy to oblige. My kids and I willingly drove up to L.A. to deliver the goods. (I'm willing to drive to any area code where a Porto's can be found. I know. Shut up.)
Much to our everlasting delight, we got to visit the studio where the live taping was going to happen.
Jonathan, Lucy, and I dropping off our Cuban props (Hey! That works on two levels!) at CML Studios.
We got to watch the beautiful set being built.
And we got to sit in on one of the rehearsals.
Director Rudolpho Zalez getting the perfect reaction from Jezabel Montero (Rosa Maria Diaz).
Let me stop right here and tell you about the cast.
The Cast
The first members of the cast that we met were Gerardo Riverón and Nelida Ponce, who play the abuelos, Alfredo and Eufemia. For me, it was love at first sight. Both accomplished actors, in their own right, they brought the "Cubaneo" from Miami to the Diaz dinner table. I love that even as they delivered lines in Spanish and Spanglish and broken English, they were always translated beautifully as part of the family dialogue, which is not easy to do.
Kudos to the writers for making them completely Cuban and perfectly accessible to the American audience. Or as we Cubans say, "Se la comieron." Which translates literally to "They ate it." It's a Cuban idiom that means they fantastically exceeded all expectations. (See what I mean? Not easy.)
Here's Nelida (Abuela) showing the next generation how it's done:
Jezabel Montero (daughter of the iconic telenovela beauty, Zully Montero) plays Rosa Maria, the mom. She's an absolute joy to watch as she effortlessly portrays everyone's Cuban American mami. I'd like to interject here that she is a lovely, blond haired, blue-eyed beauty, which is so very typically Cuban (believe it). Smart, funny and oh, so approachable. She's exactly who you would want for a next door neighbor, co-worker, or best friend.
MBFCF, meet the lovely and talented, Jezabel Montero and the fabulously versatile, Oscar Torre. That's me in the center of this look-at-all-this-Cuban-talent sandwich.
Oscar Torre plays Pepe Diaz. He is the quintessential Cuban dad. All Cuban perfection in his tone and delivery. The ideal blend of seriousness and tenderness. There's a particularly beautiful scene in which Pepe reminds his son, Manolito (Jean Paul San Pedro) what a family is truly all about. I may or may not have cried a little during that scene. (Also, please notice my Cuban souvenir mini-conga set on Manolito's dresser, but that's not important right now.)
"No family is perfect. But be thankful you
have one that loves and supports you."
Nicole Garcia plays the smart-alecky sister, Teresita, who hates that they left their lives in Miami to help Manolito chase his dream. She plays the role with a perfect balance of snark and sweetness that's almost breathtaking. I know Teresita. She's all the Cuban friends I grew up with.
And, of course, the one who brings them all to L.A. as he chases his dreams of stardom, Manolito, expertly brought to you by Jean Paul San Pedro. Watch the following video and fall in love with Manolito.
You're totally pulling for him already, aren't you? I know.
The Taping
The taping went on for the entire day. We arrived around 1:00 PM for the 3:30 PM taping, which was sort of happening on "Cuban time" which was more like 4-ish.
I expected to enjoy the show. Hello? A Cuban family. On TV. What's not to like? I often felt growing up, that our everyday family interactions were worthy of a sitcom. I think most of us who grew up Cuban felt that way. I think that's why many of you relate to me here on MBFCF, and why we Cubans all so passionately love ¿Que Pasa, USA? These are our people. Our stories. Our lives.
Seriously, I have to say it again: Se la comieron. (Just to review: "They ate it." In other words, they fantastically exceeded all expectations.)
Both Eric and I were floored by what great chemistry the cast had with each other. Did I already mention that the entire cast consists of real Cuban Americans? (As God intended.) They were truly believable as a family. As a Cuban family.
My favorite moment of Cubanity (<--that should sooo be a word) happened as the family was gathered at the dinner table.
The director's cue was: "El Cubaneo. Go!"
The family starts talking all at once and over each other. Genius. That's dinner every night at our house, people. I know you know what I'm talking about.
Pepe, the dad prays before the meal. Mostly for patience on the 405. LOVE.
The script was beautifully written. The comedic timing of the actors dead on. The actors were there from 6:00 AM to almost 10:00 PM. And for every take they were both fresh and funny. Every. Time. Seriously.
I'd like to interject here that obviously the appeal to me, personally, was that the hilarity all takes place in a Cuban family. And while that was both familiar and priceless, let me reassure you, the family interactions are of the every day variety. Bickering was balanced by caring. Misunderstanding complemented by tenderness. The only difference being that they were a little bit louder. And they rolled their R's.
I want to know these people in my real life. Yeah. That, right there? Makes this sitcom a total winner in my book.
The shooting of the pilot took about 7 hours. We were entertained in between the hurry-up-and-waiting by live Cuban music, the awesome comedy of Fernando Duran and "snacks" from Porto's Bakery.
Pastelitos de carne. Pastelitos de guayaba. From Porto's Bakery. Amen.
The shooting of the pilot wrapped up around 9:00 PM and we stuck around to watch them film a few scenes from other episodes.
From the episode: "One quality plate is better than a buffet," Pepe gives Manolito and his friends dating guidelines. I must reiterate that Oscar Torre gives the perfect Cuban papi performance. He is the Cuban "Everyman."
The best friends, Allen, played by Pritesh Shah, and Judd, played by Aaron Kuban.
The supporting cast of friends, Pritesh Shah, Aaron Kuban, and Keila Hamilton (as Teresita's friend, Tawana) were all superb as complementary characters to the Diaz family. (I think I'm running out of superlatives here.) Oh, how I wish this show were on the air already!
I encourage all of you, my friends, to support the effort to get this brilliant sitcom on TV. You can help in the following ways:
Go love them on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter. Subscribe to their YouTube Channel (be prepared to get hooked on these characters). Share with your friends. Get the word out. We need their kind of magic on TV.
The show is not only family-friendly, but beautifully written and the performances were all fantastic. So entertaining. So fun to watch. So positive and frankly, uplifting. Just like the shows I grew up watching and loving as a kid. I promise to keep you informed as soon as I know anything about where and when it can be seen.
The fabulously talented Oscar Torre and Jean Paul San Pedro with a very star-struck and satisfied Cuban blogger.
Thank you, again, Rudolpho and Carlos and the beautiful cast and hard working crew for your tireless energy, perseverance, and faith to see this thing through. I'm waiting, rather impatiently, to see what happens next with Wassup En LA?
Last summer, I came across a Kickstarter Campaign for a not-yet-produced TV show called "Wassup en LA?" The theme was that a young Cuban American actor from Miami goes to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune. And his Cuban family, abuelos and all, follow and support him.
I clicked on the link, read the synopsis and and fell in love. You will recall that I wrote about it here.
If you know how Kickstarter works, you know that the project has to meet your fundraising goal by a pre-determined date to get the funds. Sadly, they did not meet their goal.
But something else magical and serendipitous happened. A faithful reader and follower of MBFCF in Sugarland, Texas (of all places!) stepped up and became the Executive Producer. Her production company is called Sugar Cube Productions. (Get it? Cuban? From Sugarland? Sugar Cube. Genius.)
After four years of sweat and toil and script writing and casting decisions, the day came when the pilot of Wassup En LA? got a green light for filming on March 23rd.
A few weeks before The Filming Day, I had a fabulous lunch (at Porto's Bakery, of course!) with the co-creators of the show, Rudolpho Zalez and Carlos de la Vega.
They gifted me some cool Wassup gear. I gave them autographed copies of my cookbook. Win-Win.
During lunch they asked me: Did I have any Cuban-looking props they could use on the set?
Hello? My (freakishly small) house is one Big Cuban Prop. "Help yourselves."
Which is how a few of our household items ended up on the set of the TV home of the Diaz Family. How cool is that?
I have so much more to tell you about the show and how fabulous it was to watch the live taping and being part of a mostly Cuban studio audience. I promise I WILL BLOG ABOUT IT IN NAUSEATING DETAIL, but today's not that day.
For now, I just want you to just appreciate how accidentally awesome it is that a blogging Cuban mom in Mission Viejo wrote about a project that was seen by the movers and shakers in Texas (hello, Sugarland!) who actually brought the thing to fruition. Mind. Blown.
Makes me think that God's hand was in it somehow. And that makes me feel completely humbled, and sooo accidentally cool.
I have been taking a hiatus to get myself well again from being sick for the first part of this year. (Thank you, Vicks VaPoRub for your constant support.)
I'm 100% better and I'm ready to jump back into blog-world. I had a feeling-sorry-for-myself-emotionally-fragile moment of "I wonder if anyone even remembers me?"
This morning I wake up to this in my Facebook news feed, which was like a shot of adrenaline.
Wait! Is that my face? Shut. UP. I feel sooo accidentally cool!
I may or may not have shed a quick tear. Gracias, Wassup En LA?I'm back. Pastelitos and all.
When we first moved into our present home eleven years ago, I had a vision of what I wanted along the wall of the stairwell. I wanted a sepia toned collection of family photos, old and new.
The black and white photos and the brown sepia tones would be the unifying factor between the Now and Then look.
It all started with a photo of my dad. A self-portrait he had taken sitting perfectly still playing with a long exposure. He was working on what was then known as the Isle of Pines (Isla de Pino) and had grown a beard and wanted to document this momentous occasion for my mom to see.
I always loved the photo of Papi. He looked so young and so "Indiana Jonesy." So, I had it framed years before and it hung in my parents' home for years. My mom gave it to me as a gift when I moved into this house and I still treasure it.
Also, I found a poster of an old photo of my sisters and me on the beach in Varadero Beach in Cuba, circa 1958. I had that blown up back in the early 70's and had it mounted on a plaque and so I get to enjoy it every single day.
So, I had my idea and I added to it photos of family and some vinyl lettering with the year we got married. And I added a scripture that I felt added to the feel. I had a custom stencil made and painted it directly on the wall.
From the book of Job 5:25, it says in Spanish:
“Sabras que tu descendencia es mucha, y tu prole como la hierba de la tierra.”
In English:
“You will know also that your descendants will be many, and your offspring as the grass of the Earth.”
I truly love the way the wall came together and expresses the "old timey" feel I wanted. When I come down the stairs I remember my dad, who passed away 13 years ago. He was pretty brilliant and had a delicious sense of humor. I love the photo of him and picture the moment of him, so many years ago, doing his painstaking self-portrait.
This past New Year's Eve, we had a party and there were fake mustaches involved, but that's not important right now.
You know how you see something every single day so that it gets to a point that you don't really "see" it? Yes. That's me. All the time.
Imagine my surprise when I came down the stairs and noticed this:
I laughed out loud and thought, "Papi would have loved this."
There's so much that I love about the holidays. My earliest Christmas memories are all filled with abundance and magic.
I think one of my favorites happened as we were learning the language and the customs of our new adopted country. Our default greeting was always "Feliz Navidad." But here in the U.S. things were a little different.
Our Cuban tongues that could so easily roll R's into oblivion were a challenged by the Christmas greetings we heard around us.
Merry Christmas came out sounding more like, "Meri Cree-mah," all Cuban accented, broken and abrubt syllables. And then there were the new songs we were learning in school. (I started 1st grade here in the U.S. without speaking a word of English.)
Our favorite was something we called, "El Wiwichu."
That's right. It goes something like this:
"Wiwichu ah Meri Chree-mah, Wiwichu ah Meri Cree-mah, Wiwichu ah Meri Cree-mah. Ana hapi niu yiah."
As I send out my Christmas cards, I can't help but think of El Wiwichu.
And it makes me smile.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
My Big Fat Cuban Family: A Cuban-American Blog
My Big Fat Cuban Family is all about my Cuban American life. Enjoy my ramblings on my blog about my Cuban family, Cuban heritage, Cuban culture, Cuban life. And some decent Cuban recipes with pictures, too.
