Café crazed 1st Gen Cuban-American raised in Miami. 62 and starting anew!! Spanglish speaking Mother of 3, Abuela of 6; a human shot of espresso and earnest in my extremism. An adventurer, dancer of life; loving its’ locuras and celebrating the "humanness" of all people. The binding ties of family, being female, getting older and day to day life while hopefully enlightening and entertaining- this is the reason for Babushka and her dance.
♪A BAILAR SE HA DICHO!!♪
Febrero is the month of Amor, and BB just loves it when the stars align for loved ones. Amigos de years, Cynthia Rose y Stan Johnson have followed their dreams y made them into reality. Their love of art, in all forms, is being shared with the publico and we are in for such a treat!
Their appreciation of all art forms and all peoples is evident in their offerings. Being a poquito biased tal vez, BB's eyes watered and felt both kinship, pain and belonging in the Cuba exhibit. Souvenirs, Cositas y Caras de Cuba cut through the corazon sharing what is there and what has always been. Stan's photos once again grabbing the soul.
Considering the artful compositions and heartfelt union of words and photos of their prior collaboration, the art gallery was the natural follow.
BB can hear y’all now. “Hispanic Heritage Month was finished over a month ago. What do you mean it’s the same as Thanksgiving?” Dear Beautifuls, they’re both about being with familia and saying Gracias, no?? Also, if we go far enough in history, we were probably the first Europeans to have celebrated a “Thanksgiving” here in the US. Pero Babushka is getting ahead of herself, primero let’s talk about this festival given by Hola Tallahasseee.
According to the US Census, in 2020 there were 13.2 thousand Hispanics in Tallahassee.
Wow and Woah. Betcha didn't think there were that many did you? Most are of Mexican descent, but there are many groups represented here, and being proud of our common language we wanted to share our heritage with everyone. First, the history of Hispanics in the US.
The pilgrims arrived on their rock in 1620, long after the 1539 arrival of Spain's
Hernando de Soto visit to La Florida. De Soto's visit was an early documented presence of Europeans to the US, one piece of history shared to visitors of the festival. Facts of Hispanic contributions to this country was highlighted throughout the festival. Here are some posters shown:
Just some of the history and adversity of the Hispanic peoples.
Nice posters verdad? Pero even nicer was the in persona representation at the festival.
It took 5 years to have this festival again, and though we weren't many, we were there for each other. Not a big comunidad, pero definitivamente big hearted.
Thankful for where we live, and each other.
Y realmente, isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?
Those that have followed Babushka and know her. will understand her circular way of thought. Being CubanAmerican, the celebration of Dia de los Muertos was not known to BB, we tend to have our daily altar, but the events of the day coincided with the holiday- in Babushka's mind.
No insulto intended to anyone on this or any other day.
HolaHolaHola Beautifuls!
Dia de los Muertos isn't celebrated directly in Casa BB. Being of Cuban descent, altars are a daily thing and no particular days set aside for loved ones, unless you're name is Barbara, or another celebrated saint. That being said, Babushka loves the premise behind the Dia de los Muertos celebration and realized that in her own way she did celebrate. Here then are the events del dia:
Started a madre/daughter afternoon having lunch at the Social Vegan, a new vegetarian foodspot in Tallahassee. We went there porque Little One doesn't eat meat, because BB vegetarian??
Ni Muerta! (This is why it clicks with the day. Si, that's how Babushka's cerebro calibrates.) Anyway, the food was delicioso!! But BB should have known that when she saw the available literature.
And BB thought she was a collector!! Wow and Woah. Don't let the nombre fool you Beautifuls, there is much more in the museum than just cars. Tienen pianos, knives, dolls, toys, sports memorabilia, Star Wars, Star Trek, Tractors, mejor dicho, what don't they have??? Aqui, a little video from an amiga who works at the museum,Debbie Potter.
Some highlights:
Batman, with the actual cars used in the movies and series.
Elvis, definitivamente a BB favorite.
Since this museum honors the past, Babushka thought it very apropo to visit on this dia.
Y for this too...
The actual Presidential Hearse that carried Abraham Lincoln's body to burial.
Our last stop, after all that walking, we crossed the street and had pedicures at Elegant Nails.
And why was this part of this post? Think like BB and guess.
Dead Skin.
Que?? Thought there were only Dad jokes?? JU SO FONII!!
Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead ala BB.
A dia to reflect and celebrate.
Babushka Besos a Todos.
Cuidensen.
P.S. Halloween finds a bag of "the good stuff" for tri-co-treaters que never come.
So, Sweetie and BB are left with the task of sacrificial munching.
The Bohemian Babushka – BB for short – is a cross-cultural sensation. She is the Cuban-American creation of Florida’s own Sonia Guerra, whose wry, wise insights into what it means to be a Hispanic woman living in an Anglo world have won her more than 30,000 followers on “Feibu,” “IGrammy,” and “Tweety.”
You can meet her everywhere. In addition to her monthly column in Conexión and her blog “Babushka’s Baile,” BB has been known to appear – cloche hat on her head, iridescent-blue eyeshadow on her eyelids, and “JU SO FONI!!!” on her lips – at conventions in Miami (she has an international following at Hispanicize), tourism conferences in Orlando, historical reenactments in St. Augustine, press conferences in Tallahassee, and tour buses guiding folks through a pilgrimage to Hispanic heritage sites statewide.
This month, Babushka is making a new departure. She is Zooming into 1615, starring in TWAM Virtual’s Ark of Wonders.
A new translation of a snappy satire that was written in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes just over 400 years ago, Ark of Wonders tells the juicy story of what happens when a tiny troupe of actors arrive in a little country town on the same day that the local bigwigs are celebrating a high-society wedding. The actors sell the bigwigs one performance of “miraculous and spectacular sights” for the wedding reception – sights that only people whose bloodlines are perfectly pure and whose parents were properly married will be able to see.
Babushka plays Chirinos in the Ark of Wonders, the “autora” who takes care of business for the actors who dream up the show. As Chirinos, Babushka sells the town council on the idea of buying a performance of this magically exclusive play, collects payment for the performance in advance, and produces most of the wonders that the bigwigs “see,” ranging from a charging bull fresh from Salamanca, to a “mischief of mice” right off of Noah’s ark, “two dozen raging lions and huge, fanged bears,” and a dancing lady from the holy land, “the one they call Herodias, whose dancing placed the head of John the Baptist on a plate.”
Theater with a Mission (TWAM) selected Ark of Wonders for TWAM Virtual because the play offers a vibrant invitation to visit Spanish La Florida. By bringing us face to face with how our Spanish-speaking ancestors laughed and worried about purity in our bloodlines, security in our status, and living up to what the neighbors think, Cervantes’ sparkling satire functions like a time machine. This half-hour play, breezy as a BB blogpost, tells us secrets about our past that the history books miss.
TWAM asked BB to play Chirinos because she is “a human shot of espresso” who is completely “upbeat but keeping it real.” Her patented sense of fun with a serious purpose is perfect for the role. Don’t miss Bohemian Babushka’s history-making performance.
If you visit www.comedias.org, you can see BB play La Chirinos for an international audience of theater aficionados who live in towns that stretch from California to Spain, during the Association for Classical Hispanic Theatre’s first online conference on July 17. If you visit www.theaterwithamission.com, you can catch BB in Cervantes’ Ark of Wonders, newly translated by Kathleen Costales and Ian Borden, any time you please. For more information, and for future installments of TWAM Virtual, follow Theater with a Mission (TWAM) on Feibu, IGrammy, and Tweety.
This July, Zoom back into Spanish Florida with the Bohemian Babushka! As BB says, “HolaHolaHola Beautifuls – there’s no time like the present for getting up close and personal with our pasts… (and don’t miss my grandson EO playing Sobrino)!”
#TBT A repost from a wonderful staycation Tallahassee Tour. So wonderful in fact, that BB took 3 of her Bunch on a Segway Tour to celebrate their Cumples! If you follow Babushka on IG, Feibu or Tweety, you would have seen the fotos. Y just like BB, THEY LOVED IT!! Knew they would and glad to have gifted this to them. NonSponsored this time and worth every dime.
This tour was sponsored by +visittally . Opinions and totally great time are all BB's.
HolaHolaHola Beautifuls!
So another full day of activities were planned for us, and Babushka's beginning to understand why she so loves living UpNorthInTheSouth. They eat as much as Cubanos!! Es mas, I'd say for breakfast they even beat us. De veras. Don't think that's possible? Look at this menu- a whole side dedicated to desayuno. AND ALL OF IT GOOD!!! No wonder they have more than one location.
Si, Babushka tried all those pictured and gives them a definiteESO!!!
A video posted by Bohemian Babushka (@bbabushka) on
One of the treasures of Tallahassee, The LeMoyne Center for Visual Arts was founded in 1963 to be a gallery of fine arts and to be a place for art education activities in North Florida. Turns out, it's one of the top 100 art festivals in the nation! Housed in an 1854 Antebellum home, it houses a gallery, sculpture garden, and year long art classes. PLUS members of BB's beloved TWAM have portrayed Jacques LeMoyne, the artist the center is named after. On the day we visited we enjoyed the "Side By Side" exhibit byDebby and Randy Brienen.
Listen to museum Director Ann Kozeliski as she shares the history and the current activities the center has, and how it's goal is "to get art into the hands of the people". The growing popularity and fama LeMoyne is having attests that they're doing it right!
Recognize the place in the painting? Wakulla Spgs Lodge, de BB's home town.
Not only did she ride it Beautifuls, but was zipping all through Tallahassee turning heads! This was one of the best tours, because not only did we see sights, we were quite the sight ourselves. We covered a lot of ground in an hour. The Capitol, Railroad Square, College Town, and many other points of interest, all with fascinating facts shared by third generation Tallahassee Tim.
Though it isn't strenuous, Babushka will stress that it's strictly a straight standing stance and you will feel it once you dismount. Would BB ride a Segway again? JU SO FONII!!! She's looking forward to it and is even organizing a publicity tour for TWAM on Segways. They're fun, "get you around town" attention getters that everyone should try at least once.
Babushka was gifted tickets to this years festival. After the wonderful time last year, teatro/comida, 2 of BB's loves, had to say a definite Si & Eso! 👍
HolaHolaHola Beautifuls!
Hispanic Theater is alive and well in Florida's capitol, Tallahassee. Quee?? Ju So Fonii!! Ok si, not in Spanish. Excepto for a few words in BB's Beloved TWAM, Tally isn't quite ready pa' eso, but en English, plays written by Hispanic playwrights, are the reason for the Tallahassee Hispanic Theater . They perform throughout the year, both for adults and children, showing the richness and talents of nuestra gente. Last year they started doing a showcase of short plays, in one venue, pero it's the audience who moves to view the show. BB wrote about the Premiere Microtheater experience,thoroughly enjoying the mexcla of theater, community y comida.
Now, you know BB, she doesn't work harder than she has to, especially when the original is excelente. Here is their press release:
"Following the success of its Micro Theater Festival in July 2018, the Tallahassee Hispanic Theater will present the Second Annual Micro Theater Festival on June 21-22,2019 at 7:30pm at the Carriage House at Goodwood Museum. The Second Annual Micro Theater Festival will present a series of short, 15 to 20-minute plays written by Hispanic playwrights. In addition to the plays, the audience will have the opportunity to enjoy drinks and Hispanic food provided by Tally Arepas (available for purchase), and live Hispanic music throughout the event.
The Festival will be a presented on the historic grounds of the Goodwood Museum and Gardens. The audience will be able to enjoy the setting, music, food, and performances (presented all in the same open space) while moving freely around the space and mingling with others. The plays will be performed in English.
This year the Tallahassee Hispanic Theater will present five short plays as part of the Festival.
Mother Love by Almúdena Grandes: this fiercely parodic monologue (originally a short story) tells, from the perspective of an apparently exemplary mother, a black tale about the disintegrating relationship between a mother and a daughter.
A Mommy and a Daddy by Ignacio del Moral’s is a lively, and somewhat melancholic dialogue through which two people, a man and a woman, find each other and express their longings while they take their respective babies for a stroll.
A Night in the subway by Paloma Pedrero: Late at night, in a deserted subway station, a man and woman meet and have a conversation. “Sometimes, random encounters with a stranger can surprise us, and we learn as much about them as we do about ourselves.”
Castings by Cristina Colmena: An actor and an actress meet at a casting where both of them are auditioning for the same part. “This comedy plays with the old metaphor of Life/Theater just like Pirandello did but with a comic undertone.”
Capricho by Nilo Cruz: a forgotten understudy waits in vain for his call, still in his costume for some long-ago Lope de Vega play. “Foolish and forlorn, he’s a leftover trouper, and old-world soul doing a ten-minute vaudeville turns on the virtues of standing by.”
Tickets are available for purchase in advance from the Tallahassee Hispanic Theater website, www.tallahasseehispanictheater.org. Festival Tickets are $15 (adults) and $12 (students, seniors and Goodwood members). For additional information, contact tallahasseehispanictheater@gmail.com."
Sounds interesante verdad? Some preshow pics to help you envision...
Ya estamos en Junio, half a year already. BB running on Cubantime on her posts, but this is a cause and occasion too dear to let go by sin a mention and a hug. Este mes is Pride Month, and if you think Babushka is pasandolo without a post, JU SO FONII!!! Este post is dedicated to all the LGBT amigos del pasado, presente y futuro and a todos who love them.
The Tallahassee PrideFest took place in April, bold y bello, just like the Beautifuls who organized and participated in it. Naturalmente BB was too busy enjoying the festival to take many fotos, pero aqui are some of the highlights.
Feliz that the importance of self care, health in all aspects, was stressed. Kudos to local organizations and government for having booths, especially in a community with so many young adults. Only thing missing was the info in Spanish. Hopefully BB's suggestion on this will be implemented.
Pero of course, el "FanMan" has to be highlighted.
To continue in this vein, let BB add the religious/spiritual tambien. Having attended services where homosexuality was criticized, it brought relief and tears to the ojos to see churches believe and broadcast universal love.
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