Here it is. Or at least here is the beginning of my new blog-in-progress: SpanglishGringo.com! Thank you for all of you who voted on my old blog to help me settle this out.

While I won’t reveal the final vote tally - and it was close - over half of the votes included something “gringo” in the URL. “SpanglishGringo.com” was one of my top 2 choices. Let me explain why.

I like “Spanglish Gringo” because it captures the bilingual-ish & cross-cultural nature of my world. Despite my wife’s constant encouragement, I’m more accurately fluent in spanglish than I am in Spanish, though I still hold out my dream & goal of being able to preach in Spanish, as well as our hope & plan to raise our daughter (& and future kids that Jesus gives us) to be - at the very least - bilingual in both Spanish & English. For the past 10 years or so, my world has become increasinlgy Spanglish - at home with my wife, our family, our friends, with our neighbors and church. And while several books have been written - Living in Spanglish, The Future is Mestizo, Hispanic Nation, Latino Inc., - about the Spanglish experience for Latinos, espeically in the U.S., this blog will express the Spanglish experience of a Gringo living in an increasingly multi-ethnic (and particularly Latino) world.

And though in some contexts “gringo” can be understood as a derogatory reference for White Americans, it is not inherently so. It itself is a spanglish-esque word that says many things - outsider, foreigner or white guy, but also can be used con carino to communicate about someone who is entering into Latino culture, who recognizes themselves as an outsider - and the good & the bad they bring - but who also sees enters in authentically, sincerely, genuinely looking to both learn from & invest in this new culture. That, too, will be the perspective that comes on this blog.

I’m proud to be a spanglish gringo and I’m not pretending to be anything more or less. Hope you enjoy the new blog!

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