Comments on: Question of the week: Adressing los abuelitos

By: Pearmama

Pearmama — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:07:02 +0000

I called my grandparents Nana and Tata, which really used to frustrate me because I never knew how to relay that to my non-Latino friends. I mean, Tata does sound a little different.

I called my great-grandmother Grandma Amalia.

My kids call their great grands Nana and Tata like I do. They call my dad Tata Ray. My mom is Grandma-Mama and my stepdad is Papa. I think I will want to be called Nana.

My nephew named his grandma from his other side of the family Kika when he was a toddler. Now their entire family calls their grandma Kika. I think that is cool that he got to name her.

By: silvia

silvia — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:39:39 +0000

My family and I are from Michoacan. On my dad’s side we call them Mama y Papa…no names. On my mom’s side, all the cousins and I called them ‘buelitos like ‘buelita y ‘buelito, they loved it because it sounds more loving and sweet.

By: tin

tin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:53:12 +0000

all the cool bloger@s are in LA = (

I called my abuela Nana. I learned that that’s a form of respect for the Purepecha. I don’t know why I call her Nana, maybe cuz she took care of me?

By: oso

oso — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:38:33 +0000

LOL@ “Oh no.” Poor Orange County. I call my grandpa Gramps and my grandma Nana. We all call her Nana. I don’t know how it started, but it stuck.

By: Astrid

Astrid — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:07:57 +0000

My dad’s mom we call Grandma. His father died before we were born, but we usually refer to him as Grandpa Roland, possibly because there’s some distance and “Grandpa” is too personal. My mom’s mom and (now deceased) stepfather we call Nana and Opa (“Opa” because he was Austrian). Nana has since remarried, but we just call him Robert because anything else would feel weird.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:16:21 +0000

Ah yes, the Usted form…
I’ve always used this with my parents, aunts & uncles and friends parents, basically most if not all elders

Actually even my parents and some aunts & uncles refer to me as Usted
one day I realized that my parents spoke to my brother as “tu” and I wondered why… they didn’t know, just randomly became a habit

By: Lorena

Lorena — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:57:26 +0000

I was blessed to meet three of my great grandparents and three of my grandparents in my lifetime…all from Mexico.

On my Moms side my great grandparents were always Abuelito Luis and Abuelita Lolita when I was calling for them. If I spoke of them to others then they were Bis-abuelita/o respectively.

On my Dads side I had my Bis-Abuela, mainly because my Dad and his brothers all called her Abuela…Before she passed I had started to call her Bis-Abuelita Esperanza.

Growing up I called my Dads Mom, Abuelita Julia…On my Moms side I called her Grandma and her husband Abuelito Jesus.

Today I still have my Abuelita Julia and Grandma….Yesterday I spent an hour on the phone with my Grandma and I realized over the last few years I have taken to calling her Abuelita or Abuelita Amparo. One thing never changes, ever since I could remember we always spoke to them in the “Usted,” form. Yesterday when I momentarily switched the tense in Spanish- I stopped and apologized and Abuelita Amparo accepted. Ever since I could speak she has watched over my Spanish, corrected and guided me- I can’t imagine our relationship in any other language

By: La Chilangabacha

La Chilangabacha — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:23:56 +0000

I’m the oldest of six cousins and when I was young I always called my grandmother Delfina who was born in La Habra, Gramma Fina. Somehow by the time the younger ones came around it turned into Gramma Del. For us I think it was just a matter of what was easiest to say.
The most interesting part of the whole dynamic is that when my little sister was born with curly blond hair and blue eyes Gramma Fina used to call her Chula Madre with only a hint of sarcasm.

By: Carmen

Carmen — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:23:21 +0000

i agree this is a GREAT post….well they are all GREAT post but i especially enjoy reading your family ones, they make me smile/cry and think of mi familia too

soledadenmasa: the kissing the hand thing wasn’t unusual in my ma’ rancho but we only did it after or before my papa toquios bendicion before leaving to come home every year. My dad would always tell us to do it when meeting older relatives as a sign of respect.

I usually greeted Papa Toquio with a super big hug and he would immediately sit me on his lap and sing me a song he made for me and it always ended with a kiss on his cheek covered in stubble, until i got too big and he got really frail. My mama Lala wasn’t super affectionate so it was usually a quick hug and kiss, but we always bonded in the kitchen I liked helping her make stuff.

By: spamfriedrice

spamfriedrice — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:19:27 +0000

for a lot of us cantonese folks, we call our maternal grandmother and grandfather “pau pau” and “gung gung” respectively. on the dad’s side, it’s “mah mah” and “yah yah”. growing up around a lot of portuguese and polish kids, they all seemed to call their grandmas “nana.”