La Rosa

Pink Saturday

 

Pink in Spanish is "Rosa".  Pink is a color of my heritage and my youth.   "La Rosa" is the name of a card in the Mexican Bingo game called Loteria.  When I was a child we used to gather around the kitchen table to play bingo. The color pink also reminds me of a soft pastry we call "conchas" (shells).  On weekends my mother would go to the local bakery to buy freshly made delicious sweet bread.  Pink tissue paper flowers, oh how I remember making those in school.  They are so easy to make and we had so much fun.  Every year we would make paper pink carnations for to take home to our mom for Mother's Day.  A "Quinceanera" is a 15th birthday celebration for young ladies in the Mexican culture.  It is a huge celebration and it was a custom for the birthday girl to wear a pink dress.  The party was festive with lots of decorations like streams of cut-out paper.  We used to cut-out paper banners for school functions too.  If you go into a Hispanic neighborhood you will probably find a house with the exterior painted pink.  I don't know what it is about color but many houses are brightly painted.   Bougambilias are viney plants that are common in deep south Texas where I grew up.  They have beautiful thin flowers in different shades of pink and grow tall and wide. They look gorgeous when they're full grown. Thinking about all of these pink things brings a smile to my heart.  There are so many special memories and I'm glad I was able to share them with you.