Terms of Endearment
What do you call your Cuban mother? (or your mother of any nationality for that matter…)
I started wondering about this earlier when I noticed that my sisters and I call my mom by different names.
Her given name is Luz Aurora and her first precocious granddaughter, Annette, liked the sound of that and so christened her Luza. The name stuck. Now practically everyone she knows, including her other 15 grandchildren call her Luza. In fact, my parents were often known as Papi and Luza.
Ironically, Annette (the name giver) calls her Abuela. My children call her that, too.
My sisters and I refer to her as Luza or when talking to one another, “your mama” (sounding more like ‘yo mama’ but that’s not important right now), but call her Mami to her face. She called her own mother, Mamá.
Do my own kids do this? Sort of. It depends on their level of need.
Adam calls me Mo-o-o-m-m. The way he says it sounds like it has multiple syllables. Amy does too, I noticed, but only when she is sick and wants attention. Otherwise, she calls me Mami.
Lucy calls me Mamacita when she thinks I need cheering.
To Jon I’m Mom. He says it quickly. In a short burst. He’s efficient that way.
My kids: “Mom, do we have Luza this weekend?”
My niece: “Is the Grandma going to be at your house this weekend?”
My sister: “Your mama wants to be at your house this weekend.”
Three iterations of the same thing: My mom (how I always refer to her when I’m writing about her) will be spending this coming weekend here at our house.
But it got me thinking….
What do you call your mom?
What do your kids call you?
Mom? Mama? La Vieja? Mima? Mother?
I’m just curious.
(Originally posted at My big, fat, Cuban family)
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Hi there, happy to have found your blog, great stuff! I am a “wannabe” Latina, “casi Mexicana”, a Canadian living in Mexico for the last six years. My son was born here and we are raising him bilingually. So, I have two names. When he is speaking English to me, I am “Mommy”. When he is talking about me in Spanish to someone else, I am “Mama” (or “frijolera”, his dad is really pushing that one). His Canadian grandmother is “Grandma”, Mexican grandmother “Abuelita Lulu”.
Nice post, thanks!
Hi, I called my mother Mami, but my mother and her sisters called my grandmother Mima and our grandfather Pipo and so did I and the rest of the grandchildren. My kids just call me mom. Glad I found this because I was also curious as to what others called their parents.
I am also Cuban <3