Las pecheras de Apá

I think I have mentioned before that Spanish was my first language.  Everyone in my mom's family was bilingual in English and Spanish, but Amá, my grandmother, spoke only Spanish, and since she watched me while my mom worked, that was what I learned.  I didn't learn English until I was about 4-years-old.
I have always been able to write in Spanish also, but I never knew where and when to add the accent, so I ignorantly never used them.  I also knew of the upside down question mark and exclamation point but didn't know when to apply those either.  I seriously knew very little about grammatical "rules" for Spanish, but I was very interested in learning it and felt this was important because a) I am a journalism major, and b) more importantly, that is who and what I am.
I really wanted to perfect both my English and Spanish writing skills, so I decided that a Spanish minor would complement my major precisely.


Well, a couple semesters ago I took my first Spanish class and I learned a lot about these "rules."  But after that semester, I never really had a reason to use these new skills I learned.

Until this semester.

One of the classes I took this last semester was an advanced Spanish writing class.  I was pretty nervous about it because, well, like I said, I have never written much in Spanish, other than the occasional item on the grocery list when my husband would go to the store for me, or a random text here and there, but never anything beyond that.

Anyway, this advanced writing class really took me out of my comfort zone because it required, well, a lot of writing.  Imagine that (!)

I remember working very hard on my stories and feeling proud of them, turning them in and getting them right back with instructions to "polish it up."  So I would.  It would be frustrating, but the beauty of it is, is that I learned so much.  
      
I put a lot of work into these stories and I am proud of all of them; however, one that I am most proud of is titled "Las pecheras de Apá."   It is written about a couple of childhood memories I have of him.
I've written on this blog before about Apá and how I literally spent my entire childhood around this great man.  I remember having to read this particular story to the class and I actually choked up as I read it because it made me miss him so much.
Well, a couple months ago, I submitted a couple of my stories, including the one about Apá, to "Cadencias," which is an upcoming Spanish magazine at my university.  I didn't think much of it since then because of my lack of experience in writing in Spanish.  Well, imagine my surprise last week when I received an email informing me that "Las pecheras de Apá" was chosen for publication! My story will appear in the very first edition coming out this summer.  As soon as it is published, I will post the story on here on my blog.

To say I am excited is such an understatement.  My level of excitement is off-the-charts!  I am so happy because it was truly a labor of love on my part.
I was blessed to have grown up knowing and loving him, and it makes me sad that my children were denied the privilege.   I can't think of a greater way to honor him than to have his story published and have my future grandchildren read it someday and know what an amazing ancestor they have and be able to actually take a peek into "a day in the life" of Apá.
To me, that is priceless.