Family Chat: Growing Up With Parents Who Are Immigrants with Thalia Romina
In this episode Thalia Romina @thethaliaromina and I talk about what it is like having parents who are immigrants. Her family is from Argentina and Dominican Republic while mine is from Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.
Summary
In a family chat, Taylor Rae and her friend Thalia share their experiences of being children of immigrant parents. They discuss the influence of their parents' cultures on their upbringing, their parents' efforts to assimilate into American culture, and the impact this had on their lives. Topics covered include food, language, and cultural norms. They talk about cultural practices associated with their immigrant backgrounds, such as reusing containers and diluting dish soap, and express a desire to maintain these practices for future generations. They conclude by discussing their cooking habits, influenced by their cultural backgrounds, and express appreciation for their immigrant roots and their families' progress.
Transcription
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Hello, friend. Welcome back. It's me Taylor Rae. And this is another family chat on on the outside. Welcome back. We have another family chat today back with my BFF Talia. You got to meet her last week. You got to hear a little bit about her story. And today we're talking about our experience with parents who are immigrants. We talked about that just a touch.
Last week, my parents came when they were kids, my dad was seven but my mom was only a few months old. Thalia’s parents came when they were in their twenties and thirties. While we have some overlap, we definitely have some differences in our experience and that's what we're getting into today. Let's do it. Ok. Girly, you're back. Hi week. Number two.
Thalia Romina
Boom, boom. Pow. I wish we had a video to go with that because I was like I was doing, I was loving the arm. I know that people couldn't see it. OK, so you're here. We're talking about growing up with parents who are immigrants, which we have a lot of similarities. Like I know there are so many, I feel like we just, you just made a tiktok about this that I just saw, I love when you come up on just my regular tiktok feed because I'm like, oh, I know her.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
She's a celebrity and like that. but you were talking about all the words that you say that don't make any sense because you grew up with parents was like, I guess English was neither one of their first languages. English was neither one of my parents first languages, but they also learned it. I mean, my dad didn't really learn English until he was like seven. But my mom learned English like kind of alongside Spanish.
Thalia Romina
I also feel like there's so many times where I will tell you, I'll be like, you get it and you'd be like, yeah, I know, I'll be like, remember that thing or like, you know, and I'll, I'll translate it in Spanish.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Taylor's bugging because like, you know, so much, you know, so much of what I say and you act like you don't, I know, I feel I've actually never talked about this on the show.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But I, yeah, both my parents first languages are Spanish and they didn't teach me Spanish like fluently. So it was always around me. All of my cousins speak Spanish fluently. Yeah, it's always been around me. We studied abroad together, me and Salia in Puerto Rico for like, I don't know, I think it's only a month or two months. It was only like a month. but she forced me to speak Spanish. She was like, guess you're not eating unless you order this food in Spanish.
Thalia Romina
But it's fine. Your accent is perfect and you speak it fine.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Like she's bugging, you speak Spanish beautifully.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So every single person I also don't speak English.
Thalia Romina
Well, I don't even, I don't make any sense when I speak English.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Every person that hears you speaking Spanish is like, oh my God, you speak Spanish so beautifully. And I'm like, wow, so she tells me that my accent's OK. That makes me feel so grateful. I, you remember when we actually, I don't think you remember this because I've mentioned it to you. When we studied abroad in Puerto Rico, we went to a museum and the tour which this is so weird because I've been going to Puerto Rico my entire life. My mom was born there.
I'm going to my entire life. So many people speak English. We went to a museum, the tour guide only spoke Spanish, which is like the one of five people that only speak Spanish or Puerto Rico because it is like because of colonization, it is mandatory that they have school in English. So I was like, I'm really confused but you translated our entire tour from English from Spanish. I have no recollection of that.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I believe you, you weren't even a tour guide because they don't know this.
Thalia Romina
I became a tour guide before I became an actor full time by the way.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
And you were not even in your tour guide era, you were just in your regular college, college girly and you translated this entire tour of a T you know, museum. And I remember everything about that tour. I'm like, I know so many t you know, facts because Talia taught me at this museum. But yeah, so that's the whole long story short of that. I don't speak Spanish fluently, but Talia speaks Spanish beautifully.
Thalia Romina
So they say so they say even though my family, my brother makes fun of me all the time because my brother was born and raised in Argentina. And he's like he said, he'll be like Jesus, what happened to you? Your Spanish is terrible.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
He say that to me is that because you mostly speak with a Dominican accent.
Thalia Romina
No, although that is definitely there is like being a bi you can relate to being bi ethnic. At least there's a lot of similarities in Dr and pr being bi ethnic by having a mother who is Caribbean and a father who's South American. There's other. Yeah, there's nobody who hates each other more than Latin people. Puerto Ricans don't like the Dominicans.
You know what I mean? The Colombians don't like the Ecuadorians, et cetera, et cetera. But no, not necessarily. There are certain things that are colloquially or there's regionalism that maybe they can't relate to kind of like how we say I'm good and you as opposed to I'm well, which is actually the chromatic, correct way to say it. There'll be things like that. But there's just things that if, if I'm thinking English, I can't necessarily argue or I can't like say so like I argue in
English better. But I feel my emotions, I, I feel in Spanish and that's because of my growing up with like being so family oriented and growing up with my emotions, I feel like the same goes for you too. I act better in Spanish too when I'm performing. It's way better in Spanish than it is in English. In my opinion. That's so interesting. But I can articulate myself because my higher education is in English. I can articulate myself way better in English.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So I think that's really interesting, like your academic whole career and your higher education is in English. So, yeah, that makes sense.
Thalia Romina
Yeah, I, and I think that having immigrant parents, my parents inculcated in me so many things. I mean, I mean, I remember being made fun of on the outside for saying things in English that don't make sense due to having immigrant parents.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
And for me, it's cockroach cock, you say cockroach, right?
Thalia Romina
I say cockroach and I have to think about it twice. I said salmon, salmon until I was like a sophomore in college. I said supply instead of subtly because it's not, it's spelled subtly. So what?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
And that is it?
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Wait now you're making subtly, it's subtly but I say subtly until like I got made fun of junior year of high school because I remember specifically I said pass support until this kid made fun of me in social studies.
Thalia Romina
Bullying sometimes is good guys. I also didn't get an audition once because I kept saying education instead of education. And the director was like, that's not how you say it. And then I never got, I mean, couldn't you just tell me how to say it?
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Well, he did and I just couldn't do it because you're not used to it.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Like my mom, she says kindergarten and I'm like mom, you're a kindergarten teacher, please, please mom. Amazing. And I bullied her. I did, I'm sorry, mom, I did.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I bullied her and she's saying it, you also, there are things that both you and me say that don't make sense that we're both like that's how we say it right?
You know, and your husband, her husband will be like, no, you know what?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so Latin is I tell you this calling any jacket a sweater that kills every time. It's a denim jacket and you're like my sweater. I'm like this is fully only a cardigan to me is a sweater or like this is a sweater, but it's just like any, any second layer. You're like my sweater and this is not a sweater girl. Oh, that's so funny.
but I think because my parents came when they were so young, one thing is them not teaching me really, like speaking to me in Spanish because they wanted me to be fully integrated and not have to, you know, especially my dad coming when he was seven or eight. He remembers not knowing English, like being in school and not knowing English and not being hard and like not wanting me to experience that especially he was in school and remembers that and my cousins that all speak Spanish grew up in a community that spoke Spanish like it was in New Jersey. But like other people spoke Spanish just like in their home where I grew up, no one else was speaking Spanish. Like if I went to school and I only spoke Spanish, no one was going to help me.
Thalia Romina
They were to put me in A L and my parents were like, no, she'll be fine but they almost put me in ac because the school was like, you don't speak English. They were like this kid does not. And I had a really heavy accent when I spoke English. Like I remember being a kid and saying three instead of three and being like, and there's like videos of me being like, like talking like that, it's crazy but it wore off.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But I think that was one thing my parents coming as kids, them having me like assimilate and integrate a bit more quickly. Versus you spoke a lot of Spanish at home and like you still speak, that's all we spoke at home. Do you still speak Spanish to your parents most of the time?
Thalia Romina
Yeah, I would say 8020 when we're having discussions then yes, we will switch to English at this point. But yeah, for the most part we, we are having and by discussions, I don't mean arguments. I don't, it's like a euphemism. I mean discussions, like things about politics or life, whatever we will, we will kind of go back and forth. But for the most part, it's in Spanish.
I also think that being a Latin being the child of Latin immigrants, that the ideology permeates in our day to day, like the way we view the world, which is like, no shit but like the way we view the world, certain things that like kind of a general distrust about people's, I think ideas or like, or like corruption or things like that I think also permit in our day to day that I feel like you and me agree on like it was just so interesting, like a general distrust of people's motives, like
people positions in power because that's how our parents were raised and how, what they had to deal with in their home country like dictator. Yeah, literally Dictatorships. Like people dying, like people being paid off, that kind of stuff. I think we, we also that is carried into our Americanism.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I this is different between for sure, between Argentina and Dominican Republic because like Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, like you said, there are so many similarities overlap, like culturally, music wise, food wise, like all the food pretty much the same, like basically the same Puerto Ricans are better. Mofongo for sure. Thank you so much. Well, it's an insult and a compliment because I'm both. So to me, you hurt one time you our culture though is better than because I mean, in Puerto Rico, I don't really think we even have some culture we just have as Paul, which is, I mean, I think Aso Pao just has rice in it. That's the only difference. But I would say Caribbean people eat all their meat very well done and Argentinian don't, but Dominicans do if it's not, that steak is going to be charred girl because if it's not a leather soul, I want it, I don't want it. And I, I think it's also just like the quality of meat that you're going to get in.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
The Caribbean is not like you're not going to eat like a raw steak unless it's goat that's been marinating like under 20 years.
Thalia Romina
Literally. Then it's, yeah, it's whack.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But in Argentinian culture, do you eat like every part of the animal like the hoof the snout? Like all that.
Thalia Romina
Yes, you do. That's very Caribbean. That is very Caribbean. You do in Argentina, it's just cooked differently. There is no perfect Argentine restaurant in New York. But there's some that are like, like if I could just take all seven of them that are prominent and put them in one place, that'd be great.
But yeah, the way definitely eating food I think is so important. Like even when my mom would make me lunch in high school, people are like, why is she a chef? People ask me she's a chef. And I was like, no, that's just what people eat. That's like a sandwich with peanut butter and jelly. Like what is that?
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Like my mom learned that that was a thing you could make me and my father, what would your parents make you for lunch?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Dude?
Thalia Romina
It was like, it was like I'll translate like chicken rice with like, you know the rice that's like with vegetables. It's like a poo.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Oh Yeah. And when you said chicken rice, I felt confused.
Thalia Romina
Yeah, that was weird. And I was like trying to translate and I was like a they'll live like they can Google that shit. Pollo. My mother would make oh Also OK, independent quick non secu. Do you feel like when you say certain things in Spanish? Do you sound more Dominican or more Puerto Rican? Because I like legit code switch.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I'm speaking in Spanish.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Pretty much always Dominican because my mom, I think at least from like, what she has a Rican accent though, when she speaks in Spanish, but you feel like being married to your father.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Yeah, I know that a lot of times people would say she sounded like a Dominican. And so I think that that was potentially just how I heard Spanish most in my life. Also, the Puerto Rican side never really spoke Spanish. My grandma did obviously, but like my aunts and uncles never really did.
And my grandma lived in Puerto Rico. So if I'm going to see my grandma in Puerto Rico, that's twice a year because my Dominican family, I'm around all the time. They lived in New Jersey. And so I mostly heard Dominican Spanish.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So that's kind of like, I think where I go, I feel like you do sound more Dominican.
Thalia Romina
But I'm like, well, she's with me and like, she's going to sound more Dominican. Maybe if she's with her Puerto Rican side, she doesn't, I sound 100%. I mean, there's certain things I say that don't make sense that people like my Dominican sounds like what? And I'm like, oh, it's an Argentinian word and then vice versa. But I, I definitely code straight up code switch because it's like the words are so different. Sometimes in Argentina we have a word for slang.
It's called Lard. And it's a, it's like its own, it's almost like a dialect like, like the way and my family is from the city. They're from Buenos Aires. So it's very much very centric to what to, how we talk. And then there's also the two versus vos when you say Tu and vos that Argentinians use, I say too though, I don't say vo but yeah, the food that I ate growing up was so mixed. Like my mom learned to cook Argentine food.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
but you always had like food, food for lunch and you didn, it was rare that my mom made a sandwich.
Thalia Romina
It was like, it was always like legit food. Like the salad, the chicken, the rice. Like it was crazy. I, I didn't have like a steak though.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
She didn't make me like rare, a rare steak.
She didn't give me like a churrasco or, and like, no, no, of course, I did have like a lunch.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I had like turkey sandwich. That's crazy. But if I wanted to bring, yeah, then my parents were like, yeah, ok. Like I definitely did bring some culture like in a thermos like a few times. But it just wasn't the norm. Like, I would have like turkey sandwich, like chips a cookie. Yeah. Like I would have like Americanized lunch. Your parents cooked?
Yeah. Always both my parents cooked. yeah, both my parents cooked a lot. Like my, what I, what I think is the most like my parents had, we, we ate a lot of like Puerto Rican Dominican food, which like we were saying is very similar. But every once in a while, when my mom would make like Americanized kind of food, like, for example, like pasta, right? You're Argentinian. So you have like a bit more of that influence. We don't like, I, we like, we're not really eating pasta, like culturally, but my mom would like make pasta. And my dad would be like, where's the rice and beans? And once you do that and when we would go to, like, my grandma's house in Puerto Rico, she would make pasta on the side with rice and bean. That's nuts. Like, it was pasta, rice and beans and, like, like, I don't know how I got there. Yeah. Like, it just like, what, like, so strange.
Thalia Romina
but would you eat leftovers?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Oh, yeah. Would you eat leftovers?
Thalia Romina
That, that was like a later thing that my mom and dad eventually evolved because it's a hot country. So they, like, the leftovers aren't really, is not a thing.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So interesting. Yeah. No, we did leftovers all day. Like, it was not really, not for dinner really. But I would have leftovers. I come home from school, like, eat the leftovers. Oh, ok.
Thalia Romina
I feel like it was less of a thing. It became more of a thing as we got older. but I definitely wasn't a thing as much just because, like, in Argentina leftovers, it's because it's a colder country. It's a little bit more acceptable.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But in dr leftovers are like, not a, not a vibe because the light is like electricity goes out all the time.
Thalia Romina
You see the light, I just like, because in Spanish you like really also animals outside the house, outside the house. I never understood the concept of having a pet. You hated pets until you're well into adult life.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But also you do have a family dog that is in your house. You're not in Queens with your dog tied outside because it's cold.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But I feel like in summer you don't put your dog outside.
Thalia Romina
No, but I do have that mentality though.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
The idea of the family dog was so American to me, my grandma's dog Rocky lived under the house, he just went out back and had a little den and like lived under the house.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
My dog has blankets, my dog has jackets. Like what your dog is a human. My dog has jackets and I don't really like to call him a dog. It makes me feel like that's disrespectful. That's so crazy. Like I call him by his name. Like I don't call him like my dog like that feels so mean.
Thalia Romina
Like, yeah, no, that, that's us assimilating into American culture are post adult.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Well, my mom for the first time, last time when she was here, she was like, I kind of want a dog and I was like, oh my God. I was like, wow, I'm influencing her so hard.
Thalia Romina
I think what's so interesting about me and you is that, I mean, obviously a little bit less for you, but we saw our parents assimilate into American culture. The older we got like, be having immigrant parents and seeing them like accept things like being an actor. My parents are sort of starting to accept it now that even though this is like, this is my job, guys, I can pay my bills with this.
Like, it's not like I'm like, this is like my job. It's not like a pipe dream. Like I'm literally living it. I made these TK tok so long ago, but I always think about it because I'm obsessed with myself. I, I always think about it how I'm like, oh that my parents are like, you have to do this and this and this. Like, we didn't come to America like the whole I ran over a river like I avoided alligators like that. My mom used to tell me because she was one of 14 that she had to like when they would get pencils, she would have to break them in half. And my mom didn't celebrate birthdays like they would make like, ok, your favorite food. But there wasn't like a birthday celebration. She was like too many kids. And so she was like, I would break a pencil and that's how we did it. And I remember one time I needed to do my homework and there wasn't a puzzle sharpener.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So instead of going to buy one, she grabbed a knife and started my dad, my dad used to do that.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
He was like, what do you need?
Thalia Romina
You don't need anything else we worked with.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So little my dad used to use a box cutter to sharpen my pencils for me. Isn't that great? I love that though. I thought that was so cool. I used to like it more. I'd be like, dad, can you hate it? Cut my pencils with your knife?
Thalia Romina
I hated it. I was like, that's insane. I'm like, what? This is like the life that you live. And I'm like, well, I'm living the American dream. Me being spoiled, a spoiled American is what you wanted for me.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
You're welcome. You're welcome.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Why else did you come here to eat?
Thalia Romina
I'm eating,
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
something because you do it too. I always really notice it with my dad when he is speaking Spanish because my dad is speaking Spanish a lot more often. and he, like, especially my little brother and sister. Pretty much. They speak English a bit, but they mostly speak Spanish. And so when my dad is talking to me, even if it's in English, the sounds that he make makes are in Spanish like you just did it before.
So you'll be like, instead of like, you or you'll be like, ah, it's like more there than like, yeah. You know what I mean? And I, we do it too. Yes. When I, when I, OK, so when we were in Vermont, the guy there's like, ok, this is very interesting. We were in ST, in Vermont skiing. Me and Richard don't know how to ski or snowboard, but we, like, really gave you the vibes that we did because we had like great outfits anyway.
So we were talking to the people that work there and they all have their name tags and then it says the country that they're, and most of them are from South America, which is so interesting. Like you come from South America to Vermont to like work at the ski resort. That's very interesting in South America. So I was like, OK, interesting. So this guy, he had his name tag. He was from somewhere in South America. I don't remember because they were all from different countries and he's
talking to us and I can very much hear like Spanish is his first language. Like he has an accent and he's talking to me and I'm like a and he was like about to bust out in Spanish and I was like, don't you dare, I don't know how to speak Spanish to you. I can just make you feel more like we're on the same vibe I can give you the sound effects. But do you guys start speaking Spanish to me? And I thought that was so funny because he looked at me like, are you, are you trying to speak Spanish?
Thalia Romina
Do you, do you want, do you? Oh my God. When you like, go to somewhere and you're like, oh, can I have the tacos? So like, and they're like, they look at you and they're like, OK, are we switching to Spanish or are we not? I hate when I'd be speaking in Spanish and they switched to English. You told me that? Yeah, I'm like, dude, I'm speaking to you in Spanish. Like, what are you ashamed?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But that was like to me, I used to get so embarrassed growing up now, me and my mom joke about it, but she would like, we'd go to Taco Bell and she'd be like, can I have the quesadillas mom call them quesadillas? Like we're at Taco Bell girl. Like, oh my God, I see that. I'm like, this is so embarrassing.
Thalia Romina
It's like unnecessary.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Like she'd be like, hi. Yeah. So can I just get two guests out of you? Jazz?
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
And I was like, oh my God, that's bad.
Thalia Romina
But I think what's worse because I do think because my parents are immigrants, they thought it was like they get a pass. I'm like, you don't get a pass to do this. When I studied abroad in Italy. They were both speaking Spanish but with an Italian accent and it sounded like Mario Kart and I was like, please stop. This is offensive. This is straight up offensive to Italian people.
Like, please stop doing it. And they were like, it's fine. It's like, similar to Spanish. So it's fine. I'm like, no, you're not saying the right words. Like you're just doing like a du da da da. It was so embarrassing. And I was like, so, and I think it's like, I'm an immigrant, I'm in a foreign, like, it's fine. I grew up in a foreign country. This is a foreign country.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I'm like, we're on the same page. Wait, that's so funny that the containers using a container. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. But you know what's so crazy? There is so much cross between Latin culture and Asian culture. Like Richard, so much stuff. I'm like, I'm like same girl.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Yeah, we're living the shame if you don't do what your parents have.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But that's the kind of a difference between I think my parents being more Americanized. My parents were like live your free spirit. No yelling, no hitting like live your truth.
Thalia Romina
Beat the fuck out of it. I deserved it. I'm not going to hold you.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I know it's like super bad but like I 100% deserve every, every hit I got like, no, OK, we're gonna have to pack that but at another time.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But off air but no, my parents were like, we love you. Live your truth, love your heart, live your spirit. You're the best. You're the one live, your dreams. Girl. That there's a difference.
Thalia Romina
Yeah, that's crazy.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
but, yeah, like Richard's grandma. Like, you know, there's going to be a container you're going to, it's one thing, it is fully something different.
Thalia Romina
Also, something that I think I've changed about myself. My parents would never, the dish soap would last, like, so much longer because we've always put water and I don't do that anymore. I don't do that. And I used to like, and then I grew out of it and I was like, OK, you can pay for the whole dish. So it's not that deep. I just bought a huge thing of Donny or whatever is it?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
And it's just dawn.
Thalia Romina
It's probably Dawie. Eventually, this podcast has been like two more minutes. This is gonna be all Spanish speaking in Spanish. So I, I think that's changed also. So there are little things that like were out of necessity that, that then became cultural norms that I think we have the luxury of choosing whether or not to subscribe to those norms.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Yeah, something I really think about and especially me and Richard think about with like he doesn't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. I don't speak Spanish fluently. We don't want to raise a future child that is like so Americanized and so like distant from their culture. So it's like we already make a lot of like cultural food that's super important to me. But also like some of those things, like, how's my kid going to know that like, for generations we were using like containers for
other things to like store leftovers and like, I want my kid to know that. So I think that's, I do feel like that's hard. I do feel like that's like that makes me a little sad because I don't want to do that. I don't want to use. It feels almost like a, I don't want to use the margarine butter container to store, to store something. You know what I mean?
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Your grandparents, you know that blue cookie tin.
Thalia Romina
Yeah, that shit. Never had cookies in it.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Never, never, I don't want to use the blue cookie tin to store shit.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But I want my kids to know that that is what it means.
Thalia Romina
It's a struggle. I think it's also, I think about that too and I think about it, but I think about how my great grandparents wouldn't dream where I am today.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
No, it's so true. So we could cry right now. So right now it's so true though. It's so true. I feel like my, yeah, my great grandparents, I mean my grandma definitely was like, yeah, you're going to kill it. You're going to do everything. You're a celebrity. But my great grandma, my great great grandmother like, yeah, they couldn't have imagined. So it's like I do want to the life that I get to have, but I also don't want to lose, you know, I don't want to lose all that stuff.
Thalia Romina
I think it's about teetering on the edge and knowing what good things to pick and then what spices and I'm never, I always say oregano instead of oregano and people are like what? And I put cilantro or oregano or parsley be in everything. I be putting that shit in. Do you use bay leaves?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I don't use bay. I feel like I should, I don't know, I don't use bay leaves. My mom never used bay leaves. I think I should whip those out.
Thalia Romina
I do. I do. But that's just because they're just the vibes.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I don't really think they make anything taste like they do. They do. You have to take them out though. But you know, I started cooking my beans from scratch so I feel like doing it. I'm doing it. OK? We got to end this episode, bro. Well, thank you for listening.
Thalia Romina
I feel like if you have immigrant parents, you can relate it.
Thalia Romina, Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
If you don't, you might not be able to relate, but you might have hated this episode.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
No, I think you, you learned something. All right. That's it. Girl, I'll see you next week on the pod. See you out there.
