Tag Archives: hot chocolate

Free Hot Cocoa!

Age: 19

Story: “There’s this tradition my family and I started doing a couple of years ago during Christmas time, and it’s something that involves the entire neighborhood back home, so it’s super sweet. But essentially, there’s this one house that lives down the street and they have this little window on their front porch, and every night of the week before Christmas, they leave their window open and put up a sign that says “Free Hot Cocoa!” So, one day, my dad and I were walking our dog, we passed the sign, and we thought we oughta take advantage of this free hot chocolate situation. We ended up bringing our entire family back, and now every year, we go back to this house and we get some hot chocolate. We actually even started to create a relationship with the older man and woman that live there, and my dad mows their lawn in the summer.”

Analysis: This person’s experience reflects how everyday spaces, like a neighbor’s front porch, can be transformed into the most memorable and special of places. The tradition started just from a casual walk, but it grew into an annual outing that now holds a lot of value for this person’s family and reinforces a sense of belonging within their community. What I really love here is the evolving relationship between this person’s family and the couple who offers the cocoa. It’s so cool to see how a simple act of kindness, like giving out free hot chocolate around the holidays, can evolve into a beautiful relationship, where this person’s dad now mows their lawn. 

Birthday Pan Dulce

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 43
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: San Jose, CA
Performance Date: March 28, 2014
Primary Language: English

My mother told me about this piece of Mexican birthday folklore from her family. Her father is from Mexico (Zacatecas specifically), and her mother is Caucasian, so she learned this tradition from her father (who learned it from his parents) This folklore is very important to my mother, because it’s a connection to her father’s heritage and is also a fun family tradition.

Every birthday, the birthday person is woken up by the other family members in the household by playing the song “Las Mananitas” (the morning song) The family members start the music while entering the birthday person’s room with a bed tray of Mexican sweet bread (pan dulce), Mexican hot chocolate, and presents. The pan dulce can be purchased from a local bakery (panaderia) or made at home, although the process of making it can take a long time, because the bread dough has to rise twice. So, having homemade pan dulce was always a very special occasion.

Because this only takes place within the family, it has become one way to indicate who belongs in the family. For example, after my cousin got married to her husband, when it was his birthday, my cousin’s family came into his room playing the song and holding pan dulce. It was surprising to him, but it was also an unofficial way of welcoming him into the family.