“AGUIRRE!” we shout as we drive by the Aguirre Roden building on Central Expressway.
Sometimes I am not paying attention when we drive past it and jump in my seat when they scream it from the back of the car.
“AGUIRRE!”
Family rituals.
I don’t personally know Pedro or Peter Aguirre yet from the Aguirre Roden company (however one of them is a LinkedIn connection) but we don’t care.
This just allows me to instill pride in our family and in our name.
It’s a cold cruel world that will beat you down if you let it. -Rocky
In our name we can find strength and unity. I want my daughters to always be able to go back to their roots and remember that our family is a point of strength and pride.
I insist on pronouncing our name with a strong Spanish inflection and insist on rolling the “Double R’s” in our surname: AGUIRRE! And they do.
They are American and proud. Yet I want them to always remember their Mexican heritage even if it is simply in the way they pronounce their names when they introduce themselves to the world.
For the last several years when it is time to go to bed, we do our family chant. Yes, we are corny. I insist on this as well. We do this every night. Sometimes I forget and they remind me.
We all place our hands in the center, one on top of the other.
We shout: 1, 2, 3! FAMILIA!
Then we proceed to tickling each other or just pretending to tickle each other. They lay down their little heads and away they go to sleep with a smile on their faces (although my little baby takes a few more minutes to roll around).
They love these little things we do. I love them because little by little I feel that I am instilling (and installing) the importance of family pride and unity in their little minds.
“Real life” may shake them and try to break them, but regardless of how tough life may get, they can come back to home.
As I talk to my friends over drinks, I am always amazed to hear the stories of their childhoods. I hear stories of the most mundane and insignificant moments that in fact were FAR from mundane and very SIGNIFICANT.
In fact, I find it rare when I am having a conversation with a friend and we don’t talk about our childhood and how it has shaped us today.
In these conversations I draw pride in our corny family rituals.
If nothing else, a smile will come over my girls’ precious faces when they recall their childhood.
AGUIRRE!
