If you've been around this blog enough to see my personal work, you know that being in tune with your heritage and culture is a big part of my life. It is an intangible heirloom of sorts, a legacy, that I learned from my grandparents, Humberto + Sara Flores, parents, and my tías and tíos. While it has morphed into our family's own sort of awesome Mexican American micro-culture centered around Corpus Christi, Texas, I'm always up to experiencing it wherever I can find it.

Early this year, my mom started a traditional Mexican dance group with at-risk Hispanic youth in Goldsboro, Ballet Folklorico De Colores. These awesome kids, aged from preschool to high school, get the opportunity to embrace their heritage like my mom and I did. She passes along the lessons from her parents about being proud of who you are + where you came from, about having confidence about your abilities, and being able to tell the story of your people to others through dance. In Goldsboro, the Hispanic population has boomed, so it's great to see what I know as "everyday life" in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and other parts of South Texas and the Southwest, making its way to North Carolina. De Colores is installing the confidence in these kids and allowing them to realize that they are strong, Hispanic youth with bright futures.

How do you connect with your culture when you're not actively living it?

'Merica! What's better to celebrate America than with family, fire, and food? Nothing. Nothing is better than family, fire, and food, and if you can't celebrate with family, fire, and food on the fourth, celebrate with family, fire, and food on the fifth! Jerry and I drove to Goldsboro after oohing and aahing at Chapel Hill's fireworks, apparently a top 10 in the nation firework show according to Travel & Leisure Magazine, to have a small little celebration with family and friends. Of course, none of this would be complete without mini American flags, American Flag themed desserts, tasty cheese trays + fruit salsa, and of course, fire on a stick. This was Warner's first time with sparklers and poppers. The wonderment a child, and even adults, have with sparkly fire is just mesmerizing. However, a note to the wise: if you hand a three-year-old a sparkler, you better know how to run fast!

I hope you had a fabulous Fourth of July celebration full of family, food, and fire, too!