Mother’s Day Celebrating Success Stories

Ernesto Villalobos, Aaron Sanchez, Marissa Sanchez and me in between

tToday I learned that the idiotic, bigoted and pathetically uninformed policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation, who coauthored an article blasting the new immigration reform proposal stating that immigrants have lower IQs  than native white citizens has resigned. I had to laugh. I had just spent  a most wonderful Mother’s Day with some of the most talented, intelligent, innovative and successful Mexican-born young adults whom I mentor to some degree.  I won’t count my super-star son Aaron Sanchez because he was born in the US though I wasn’t  and I would be bragging but I’ll tell you a little bit about the other guests.

First on my list is  the adorable, I-want-to pinch-her-cheeks  Fany Gerson of Lanewyorkina, Mexican Ice and Sweets who has created this exciting and successful  business based on Mexican sweets such as polvorones (sand tarts), cocadas (coconut candies) and mazapanes, my favorite ground pecan sweet, and popsicles which she  peddles on the Highline from her little cart. She has written two wonderful cookbooks My Sweet Mexico that brings traditional but updated  Mexican sweets to your home and Paletas, a guide to making popsicles at home.  She lost her equipment and location to Hurricane Sandy but was able to raise enough money on Kickstarter to buy a popsicle-making machine good enough to keep her in business but that is not her dream machine. She’s a winner!

I loved the Villalobos Brothers from the moment I met them. I liked their sound, their energy, their engaging  presence, their emerging style and matinee idol looks.  This group consists of three classical violinists who are brothers (Ernesto, Alberto and Luis Villalobos) and one  classical guitarist, Humberto Flores who has been like a brother to them since they were children  and is now the musical director of the group.  (Humberto accompanied me on the guitar and sang harmony with me when I debuted Zarela/Act 7 , part performance art/part cooking lesson/part inspirational memoir.)

Alberto Villalobos

They are all extraordinarily talented so much so that they were able to get visas because they are “aliens of extraordinary ability”, a category usually reserved for nuclear scientists and the like and that is , in fact, the name of their latest album that showcases traditional sones veracruzanos such as the San Lorenzo sometimes combining them with blues such as the Sam Cooke song Nothing can Change or classical music.  They are competing in WNYC’s Battle of the Burroughs Talent Quest 2013 on June 7th. Tickets are sold out but you can tune in and vote.

I’ve “adopted” these young men as my “other sons” and they celebrated Mother’s Day  (link to flickr) with me. I cooked, they played and we sang and had a ball.  I predict that they will be huge stars and some smart agent/manager should run to sign them.