THE MUM BEHIND MIS RAÍCES

It started
with Lucas.

When I became a mum, I began thinking about the world my son, Lucas, would grow up in.

Australia is his home. He will think in English, learn in English, and experience much of his childhood through English. But Spanish carries another part of who he is. It is the language of his abuelos, family lunches, songs, comforting words, jokes, and expressions that don’t quite translate.

I looked for bilingual books that could help him connect with that part of himself, but many felt more like translations than cuentos. The same sentence appeared twice, once in each language, and the joy of the story was often lost.

Children don’t fall in love with translations. They fall in love with characters, aventuras, sounds, sorpresas, and the feeling of asking for the same story one more time.

¡PUM!I had an idea.

That is how Mis Raíces began: English-first stories filled with meaningful Spanish treasures, created to help children like Lucas grow up knowing that they can belong to more than one place, speak in more than one way, and feel proud of every part of who they are.

Mis Raíces is my love letter to Latino children growing up around the world and those kids from different backgrounds that are curious and willing to learn about other cultures and languages.

I’m Daniela: journalist, writer, marketer and Lucas’s mum. Mis Raíces brings those parts of my life together, one carefully researched story at a time.