It all started as one of Juanito´s funny asides, "Hey guys, Javier from downstairs called me ñaño (brother) and I thought it would be nice if we called each other that..."
A few months later, the ñaño phenomenon has really caught on, we all find ourselves reffering to each other as such. I never really thought about it, what it actually meant to call each other brother and sister, until a member of our family went home...or back to the US rather.
When Jackie left for her brother´s wedding last week, we missed her. Not an hour went by without someone asking "what do you think Jackie´s doing right now?" Ok Ok, usually the answer was jogging, but in all seriousness, there was a noticeable void in our community. We were all anxiously awaiting her return last Monday. We wanted to hear all about what it was like to go back, and we wanted to get our hands on the goodies we knew she´d bring home for us :)
I sat down to make her a sign to welcome her back and as I wrote the words I found myself struggling over whether to write "welcome back" or "welcome home." I went with "home" because that´s what it´s starting to feel like. After nine months, it´s finally starting to feel like home. I never imagined it would take that long, and to be honest, after a while I let go of the notion that it was ever going to feel like home, and then, lo and behold, all it took was a wedding in Kansas City and a funny suggestion from Juanito to make me realize just how much like home this really is, and just how many more ñaños I now have.
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3 years ago
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