Discovering your roots can really pay off

My big brother Rey was always a double dipper. We could take a lesson from him.

He celebrated his birthday twice — once on his birthday, Nov. 8, and again on Jan. 6, El Dia De los Reyes (The Day of the Wisemen, when presents are also exchanged).

I tried to pull it off too, but it never worked for me. Needless to say I was jealous. He got two shots at getting presents and I only had one.

My parents, following Mexican custom, named their children after saints. My brother's "real name" was Reyes, and did he ever milk his birthday for all it's worth. He claimed that El Dia de los Reyes was also the day to celebrate his birthday. I was named after San Juan (St. John), but could never pull off the same scam he had going.

In our home, the Mexican custom was to start celebrating the Holy season on Dec. 12 with the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (the patron saint of Mexico), Las Posadas (re-enactment of the Holy family trying to find shelter) and culminating with El Dia de Los Reyes (Three Wise Men) on Jan. 6.

That's when my brother cashed in on another birthday present.

By the time the Holy season was over, the straggly tree in our home had turned brown. And with a potbelly stove going in the room, it's a wonder we survived. Instead of sugarplums, we dreamed of tamales, capirotada and bunuelos.

My youngest child once had me speak to her second-grade class to tell them how her grandparents celebrated Christmas. After telling her class how Mexican families celebrated Christmas, and also day of the Three Kings, her classmates quickly figured out how they could do a little double dipping of their own. One by one, they started talking about their own heritage — Greek, Russian, Scandinavian — and how their immigrant grandparents celebrated the holy season. They all spoke in animated terms about their heritage and, I suspect, some went home proud, with a better sense of their roots and with a new scam!

I was again reminded of the value of double dipping when a young Mexican intern from south Texas told me, "I have two strikes against me because I'm Mexican and speak Spanish." To which I replied, "no mijito (no, my son) you have two strikes in your favor. You are richer because you enjoy two cultures."

It's unfortunate we think we have to make choices; that we have to choose one culture over another, that to embrace one is to betray another.

We don't.