Ep. 61: Straddling Two Cultures - Interview with Maria, author of "MariVi: The Master Navigator"

Today's interview is with Maria Twena, a second-generation Latina, a bilingual children’s book author, and the creator of "MariVi: The Master Navigator". Maria tells us about what it was like growing up and straddling not only two languages but also two cultures and two opposing worldviews, one collectivist and one individualist. She only realized as an adult how challenging her experiences had been and that many bicultural children share these same experiences. She created her book series "MariVi" because she didn't see herself depicted in the general media nor in the Spanish-language media. She strongly felt the need to start a conversation about the experiences bicultural children have and her books and animated TV show do just that. She's embarking on no small feat. She plans to create a massive resource of 18 books spanning 6 years of schooling (from 1st to 6th grade, 3 books per school year) showing all the different aspects of growing up biculturally and bilingually. Her first two books are out and available on Amazon: ⁠School Crossing (Book 1)⁠ & ⁠Weekend Ways⁠, and the 1st season of MariVi the animated TV series is available exclusively on the new free streaming platform Nuestra.TV. --- Other resources mentioned: - Study about marketing to Hispanics: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2007/10/17/hispanic-search-marketing-u-s-focus-global-perspective/ If you enjoy this podcast, please do one (or more!) of the following: - follow it - follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/) - share it with a friend and on your social media - take a minute to rate it - leave a rating and review (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual) - buy me a coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual)