The Education of Mi Hijita by John Phillip Santos

This is awesome. By the author of the brilliant memoir,

Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.  The education of a Tejanita (meaning a baby Texas Mexican girl). Hats off to John Phillip Santos for this tender account in the September issue of the TEXAS MONTHLY.  Our children really need to grow up and learn about their rich, empowering Tejano heritage.

-Angela

Preview Feature from September 2012

The Education of Mi Hijita

Photograph by Sarah Lim

My daughter is only two, but I’m already planning to teach her what it means to be a Texan—and a Tejana.

by John Phillip Santos

Her Texas story began with relámpagos de calor.
The night I learned I would become a father, I was getting ready for a dinner party. It was August 2009, in the midst of a historic South Texas drought and a mounting global economic collapse, so some mood leavening was in order. Since our dinner companions were all buoyantly childless, the revels would begin at twilight, go on for hours, and be relatively carefree. I’d finished dressing and was sending a few last emails when my wife, Frances, came to show me the wand of her pregnancy test, from which a blinking indigo plus sign shot forth like the beacon of some superhero.
I hadn’t ever really planned on becoming a father. It had always seemed vaguely presumptuous to take on imperial authority over the formation of offspring. Like many of my closest friends, I didn’t become a parent ...

Feature articles from the most recent two issues are available to magazine subscribers only.

To Read More...

Subscribe online now.
If you know you are a subscriber, please log in again to update your subscriber status.