Parranda Time!

"¡Saludos, saludos, vengo a saludar!"

 

Parrandas are Puerto Rico's version of Christmas caroling, but non-religious and a lot of fun! Friends gather late at night to go from house to house playing instruments and singing. The plan is to  surprise the homeowners with a benevolent "asalto", that is, by waking them up in the middle of the night to the beat of traditional holiday music. If the family is home and willing to receive the parranda, they will turn on the lights. The parranderos will then be invited into the house, where they are offered something to eat and drink. After a while, the homeowners join the group and move on the next house... ¡hasta que amanezca!  

"Quítale, quítale, quítale, quí... quítale el tapón pon-pon-pon..."

My first book, Mimí's Parranda, tells the story of a young girl who dreams of a parranda of her own, even after learning her family won't be traveling to Puerto Rico for the holidays.

I shared the story with the children of Aurora's Montessori del Mundo and they surprised me with a mini-parranda. You can see photos and a video here.

Earlier this month, a group of Puerto Ricans in Colorado Springs were gathered for a parranda and caught the attention of the local police.  Unable to explain exactly what they were doing, they decided to take out their instruments and play their parranda songs for the officers. Priceless! Here's a clip.

"Vámonos, vámonos, vámonos que la parranda se acabó..."

 Label Me Latina/o

CALL FOR SCHOLARLY ESSAYS AND CREATIVE WORKS

Label Me Latina/o is an online, refereed international e-journal that focuses on Latino Literary Production in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The journal invites scholarly essays focusing on these writers for its biannual publication. Label Me Latina/o also publishes creative literary pieces whose authors self-define as Latina or Latino regardless of thematic content. Interviews of Latino or Latina authors will also be considered. The Co-Directors will publish creative works and interviews in English, Spanish or Spanglish whereas analytical essays should be written in English or Spanish.
Scholarly submissions should be between 12-30 pages, double-spaced, 12 point font and should follow the MLA Style Manual. Please use End Notes rather than Footnotes and place page numbers in the upper right hand corner. Original, unpublished submissions in Microsoft Word (PC compatible format) should be sent electronically to both of the co-directors: Kathryn Quinn-Sánchez ksanchez@georgian.edu and Michele Shaul shaulm@queens.edu
We do accept simultaneous submissions of creative works. Scholarly articles under consideration should not be submitted elsewhere.
Creative poetry, essays and short fiction should not exceed 30 pages, 12 point font, double-spaced.
Deadline for the Spring 2016 issue: January 15, 2016.
Please include the following information in the body of the email:

• Full name
• Institutional Affiliation
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Regular mail address
• Title of the submission
• A brief biography to be included with publication should your submission be selected.

Please make sure that the actual manuscript bears no reference to the author’s name or institution.
Label Me Latina/o is an academic journal and as such follows the parameters of definitions set by the academic community. In that community when we refer to Latina/o Literature, we are referring to writers of Latin American heritage that live and write in the United States. These can be first generation Latino or fifth but they live and work here in the U.S. Some of these writers write in Spanish, others write in Spanglish like the Nuyorican poets and many of them write in English with a little Spanish thrown in (or not). Scholarly essays should address the work of these writers. The authors of these scholarly essays may be of any ethnicity or nationality. Creative works should be authored by writers who self-define as Latino and live and write in the United States.
Label Me Latina/o is indexed by the MLA International Bibliography, is listed in the MLA Directory of Periodicals and is a member of Latinoamericana: Asociación de revistas académicas en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. ISSN 2333-4584