(E-mail and RSS subscribers, click the headline link to see the videos)

Thanks to all of you who have been reading along in our archives this week as we celebrated a year of Tiki Tiki. We’re looking forward to many more years, and many more cuentos.

Below are some lovely and thoughtful video wishes sent in by friends and readers.

Thanks for partying with us!

Carrie and Marta

Angelica Perez-Litwin, aka La Comadre, whose column runs here every other Tuesday.

Liz from Thoughts of a Mommy

Yoly and Ronny from YNR Live and Cuponeando

And if you missed this one yesterday, check out Adrian, son of Dariela from Mami Talks.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Reader Birthday Wishes to the Tiki Tiki!
2. Ask La Comadre: My Husband Doesn’t Share His Feelings
3. Introducing Your New Comadre, the Family Coach

Ana from SpanglishBaby.com

Happy Saturday…You don’t usually hear from us on the weekends, but we’ve got a lot of Birthday Wishes sent in and they’re pretty awesome.

Here are two videos from Adrian, hijo de Dariela of Mami Talks. Look at what we make our kids do for our amigas! Super wonderful. The third is from the talented Señora López of Latina-ish and her two awesome boys, whom I was lucky enough to meet last week.

Thank you to those of you who sent us love and good wishes — like Ana Lilian from Spanglish Baby, above — on our First Birthday/Anniversary.

More to come tomorrow!

Off to eat a Happy Birthday/Feliz Cumpleanos cupcake. Just because.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. The Difference Between a Latino Kid Party and an Anglo Birthday Party
2. Latina Bloggers go all Tiki Tiki
3. A Year of Tiki Tiki Contributors

Who knew video blogging your crazy, silly and funny would be such a blast?

We love making videos with cuentos because we know Latinos — with all their color — just work better on video. We’re grateful too for the contributors who have let us put the Flip in their faces and offered up great stories for the Tiki Tiki.

As we celebrate a year of Tiki Tiki, here’s a look back at some of our favorites, but you can find them all on our YouTube page, where you can subscribe or join the Tiki Tiki group to add your own.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading a long with us this week as we celebrate our first year of mucho tiki tiki.

I Have a Latin Mother

Cucu and Yayo by Marta’s mom

What is Tiki Tiki?

Papi Plays by my father

Can I Call You Pepe? by Sylvia of Mama Latina Tips

Ed. Note: The Tiki Tiki Blog turned a year in May 2010. This week, we take a look back at the best of the Tiki Tiki. Please take a moment to comment and share these posts with your friends.

And, if you’re up for it, send us a photo of you with a “Happy Birthday, Tiki Tiki!” or some sort of birthday wish a tu sabor. We’ll run it this coming weekend. E-mail: info @ TikiTikiBlog.com

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. A Year of Tiki Tiki: A Week-Long Pachanga!
2. A Year of Tiki Tiki Contributors
3. A Year of Habla Habla

Please click the headline link to see Carrie pandering to Oprah Winfrey and her people.

So, Oprah Winfrey has put out a giant net and is casting for a talk  show host for her new network, OWN. Her site has had a place where you can submit video auditions. Well, I am late. Como siempre. The deadline has passed, but thanks to shamelessness and YouTube, (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) I am submitting my idea for Tiki Tiki Talk! to you, dear reader. And maybe the gods of Google Alerts and Twitter will send the message to La Oprah.

OK, so you’ll see the ideas in the video, but don’t you think America is ready for a talk show with segments such as:

• Dicho del Dia, to dissect and crack up over things like “sana, sana colita de rana” and “mango bajito.”
• Chancletaso of the Day, to point out los descarados in our culture and set them on the right path, Abuelita Style.
• Cooking with Dulce Leche (My TV kitchen would just have a deep fryer, Cuban bread and dulce leche. Only. Guests, like Salma, Pene, Javier, Juanes, Ricky! would be required to come up with creative uses for dulce leche…)
• Ask the Gringo Husband/Ask the Gringa Wife, a special segment by expert panelists who have survived and thrived in marriages to Latinos to help non-Latinos cope with the oddities and challenges of being married to one of us and out 17,000 relatives. (I have been trying to get my own husband to write this column for Tiki Tiki for a year!)

As I was putting this together, I remembered that at the beginning of my career in print journalism, one of my Tias kept telling me I was crazy to work for a newspaper, that I needed to be on TV…just like Giselle Fernandez . Well, Tia….your dream for me has kinda come true. And, imagine if Oprah really went for it? Ay!

So, enjoy my spoof and fantasy and consider adding your own TV show and segment ideas.

Dream big, gente. It’s the Web. Anything is possible.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Charo, Shaki o Sofia as New Oprah? Oh, and Free Music Downloads for You
2. Tiki Tiki video: Mi Mama invento el Cappuccino
3. Vlogiando Week at the Tiki Tiki

Rick Najera. You know that name? Probably. If you don’t, you do know his work. Te lo prometo.

He wrote the popular Latinologues, which played long on Broadway and after 15 years still plays theater stages across the country. He also wrote for Mad TV, In Living Color and he wrote the movie Nothing Like the Holidays with John Leguizamo and Debra Messing. His credits for TV, stage and film are very long.

Najera’s latest work is called Daddy Diaries: Diary of a Dad Man. It is his take on fatherhood from the Mexican-American experience.

“My children are of Mexican and Irish heritage. I thought about them not being of pure Mexican heritage. I did think that. Mexicans are very proud of their heritage,” Najera said. “I wondered what they would learn. I started to examine it and it is about them being more, not being less.”

Najera, a San Diego native, said he has thought a lot about how he was raised as he raises his own children, ages 7, 5 and 2. Their childhoods are very different than his own. His father worked five jobs, his mother worked two. Unlike his wife’s Irish-American family, his never took vacations.  And, while his family kept Mexican customs, his mother was raised in Boone, Iowa and traditional American customs and foods always were part of his life.

“I grew up on ham, corn on the cob and ambrosia salad — all wrapped up in a flour tortilla,” he said.

What Najera says he emphasizes with his children is the Spanish language. While learning Spanish was not as important to his own generation, he wants his children to speak Spanish and his oldest attends a Spanish immersion school.

“I look at my children and they are so light no one would necessarily identify them as Latino and I want to make a point that they would look like they were posessed by a Mexican for a second or navigate both cultures,” Najera said. “I sure don’t want some Mexican kid to call my kid a gringo.”

Daddy Diaries will be performed in October at the Covina Center in California. Video clip here.

In Latinologues, Najera has written about gang-bangers, Cuban prostitutes, janitors, pregnant “virgins,” traditional religious mamis and narcos. He captures the essence of people, and the funny in being Latino, so very well.

“Stereotypes do exist,” Najera said. “They are part of our culture, but I always turn it upside down and I give them a heart.”

“I think my characters are all very truthful,” Najera added. “At times even Latinos don’t like them.”

Najera says he appreciates how open people are with him in sharing their stories. He believes it is because everyone wants to be understood.

“That is why we try to keep culture alive,” he said. “We want our children to be able to relate too us too, we want them to have our shared history. Duality is very much a part of our lives.”

Look for Daddy Diaries, Latinologues and other Rick Najera projects in your city, or on TV. You also can watch two full episodes of Latinologues on YouTube. The characters are rich, touching, funny, and tragically truthful.

Here is Latinologues Vol. 1 and a link to Vol. 2. (Cubanos, be sure to watch la jinetera in Vol. 2)

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Latino Video Dichonary
2. Duality of Being Latino in the US: Open Thread
3. El Diario: Latino world domination and Esperanza Spalding

What exactly does “tiki tiki” mean?

I usually answer that question by putting my fingers and thumbs together in an “habla habla” motion. Regardless of language, culture and age, everybody gets that, si?

Last week, when Marta and I were in Miami for the relaunch of General Mills’ Que Rica Vida we were lucky enough to be in the company of Latina bloggers who also were flown in from around the country. (The lovely Jeannette Kaplun from TodoBebe.com, who you’ll see on the video, lives in Miami and joined us for a breakfast.)

Some of the bloggers we had met in person at events and conferences and some we read regularly. Some we have linked to on the Tiki Tiki Blogroll and others have contributed essays to the Tiki Tiki. Now, others are new friends.

We asked them to do a little “tiki tiki” for the camera and well, we got gold. Watch the video to see these smart, talented, funny and beautiful women in action.

A couple of years ago, most of these women were not blogging. How lucky we are that they now are.

They are sharing their lives, and breathing  energy into our culture as it is viewed online, by Latinos and non-Latinos. They are being read by both private citizens and the smart corporations who are seeking to reach Hispanics. I can imagine a non-Latino reading a Latina blog and saying something like “Yeah, me too! Maybe we’re not that different from each other, after all.”

The topics Latina bloggers write about range from budgeting to babywearing to bilingualism to bochinche…as varied as the culture that is Latino itself.

So, follow the link to our blogroll and get to know them better.

You’ll thank us.

By the way, you can watch the other Tiki Tiki-centric videos we did in Miami here and here. The second one is a must-see if you ever watched  ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Tiki Tiki video: Mi Mama invento el Cappuccino
2. Smart Latina vs. Sexy Latina
3. What is el Tiki Tiki?

If you are an e-mail or rss subscriber, click the link to see the videos

I have interviewed Rosa Parks,  Michael Stipe and the funny guy who sang (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake your Booty with K.C. & the Sunshine Band. There have also been national politicians and country singers and corporate muckety-mucks. They are footnotes in a long career as nosy reporter.

Rosa Parks was a privilege, for sure. The rest of the famous were interesting, but I am not sure meeting, or talking to, any of them made me as giddy as meeting Ana Margarita Menendez, who played Carmencita on ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?, a television program I watched as a kid in Miami. It ran from 1977 to 1980.

I met her Sunday at Cuba Nostalgia, a weekend event where the food, music and culture of Cuba de ayer is celebrated by the young and old alike.

Marta and I asked her if she would allow us to film her explaining exactly what “the tiki tiki” is to those who don’t understand it. She agreed, offered up this video, and then I hugged her. And she was gracious. (You can see the video we made at Cuba Nostalgia here.)

Thinking about why I got so excited, I can only reason that besides being supremely funny, the show offered up the first look of what it is like to live Latino in a new country. To speak two languages, to balance two cultures and move between the push and the pull of both.

As a young girl watching, it was the only time I saw myself — my experience — on television and honestly, nothing else has come close in the three decades since. At least, for me.

When my husband and I got married, I had him watch ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? so he’d get it. When he saw me laugh until the tears came, he got it. Even if he only understood half of what they were saying, he knew that the words and actions on the little screen reached me, explained me.

When my 6-year-old is old enough to get it, I will sit her down for marathons of ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? too. I think it will help her better understand the crazy, funny I come from. And maybe by then, there will be something in pop culture that truly captures her multi-cultural experience too.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Tiki Tiki video: Mi Mama invento el Cappuccino
2. What is el Tiki Tiki?
3. Vlogiando Week at the Tiki Tiki

So, Marta and I hung out at Cuba Nostalgia in Miami this weekend. She was there to hang with her fans from Babalu Blog and I was there to terrorize people with my Flip cam. I shot a lot of video all weekend, directing people to explain just what the tiki tiki is, por favor.

If you’re Cuban, you know the tiki tiki is the constant talking, the habla habla, the chisme, the bochinche, the rhythm of chatter. But, we know at the Tiki Tiki Blog that we have a lot of non-Cuban readers, so we created a few videos this week capturing the heart of the Tiki Tiki.

In the first video, you’ll see the good people we grabbed at Cuba Nostalgia and in the second, you’ll see Marta explaining the Tiki Tiki so well — and you get a first-hand look at my bossy director self.

We’ll have a few videos this week, so stay tuned. They are absolutely hilarious — shot everywhere from Miami Beach to Versailles to Cuba Nostalgia. On the videos you’ll see everyone from popular Latina bloggers we were with for a special event put on by General Mills for its revamped Que Rica Vida site to waiters whom Marta’s daring and fabulous daughter, Kikita, stalked.

One video is of Ana Margarita Menendez, aka Carmencita on ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? Ana Margo was generous and fun in creating a Tiki Tiki video for us..and I have to admit that when I walked away from filming her my knees were all shaky and I was emotional. (I was so overcome I shocked Marta, even!) That show is a touchstone of my childhood, so I am really grateful and excited about Ana Margo’s video.

So, check back to see more videos and get in on the tiki tiki!

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Tiki Tiki video: Mi Mama invento el Cappuccino
2. Vlogiando Week at the Tiki Tiki
3. Contribute to the Tiki Tiki

(Editor’s Note: Click on the post headline to view video.)

I have four children. (Well, technically, two are adults and two are teenagers, but that’s not important right now.)

All four, even though they were born here in the U.S., embrace their Cuban roots.

But my first-born, Amy, my blond haired, blue-eyed, Amy is more Cuban than I am. She is all about Cuban music and Cuban food and she speaks Spanish fluently, with a Cuban accent, of course. She calls herself Kikita, because “Amy” she says, is difficult for Spanish people to pronounce and she has a lot of Spanish speaking friends. She’s right. But, being her mother and the one who actually named her, I still call her Amy. But I digress…

Last month she accompanied my mom (the 96 year old) to Cuba so that she (my mom) could reunite with her siblings who are all in their 90′s.  Amy went to see for herself, first-hand, the beauty and heartbreak that is Cuba today. You can read about her adventures in Cuba over at my other blog, My big, fat, Cuban family.

Now that she has returned, she is more Cuban than anyone you’ll ever meet.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Coming to America – My Story
2. Running on Cuban time
3. Terms of Endearment

Ed. Note: Please click the headline to see the video

By Yolanda Mason

I still remember like it was yesterday when my now husband faxed me a copy of the tickets for our first date: It was the last NASCAR Winston Cup race at Homestead!

At that time, I had no idea what I was getting into… NASCAR and golf are the two events my husband enjoys and I have learned to like them because, after all,  marriage is a team, right?

I still enjoy watching the confused faces on my family, friends and acquaintances when I tell them I am a NASCAR fan. They look at me like I am talking about aliens. Y ni hablar when we try to watch a race while visiting Puerto Rico!

Nowadays, I know about a few stats and rules, met a few drivers, have visited a few tracks and am comfortable talking “NASCAR” although my hope is to be able to do so with many more Latinos.

I guess my husband is right, I’m getting a little country, after all.

Yoly Mason is a Latina blogger. You can find her most of the time working at her couponing blog Cuponeando or vlogging on her personal blog YNR Live, which she does with her Southerner husband.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Vlogiando: What Are You?
2. Vlogiando Week at the Tiki Tiki
3. Smart Latina vs. Sexy Latina