What to Expect in a Latin Family Gathering
“My Abuelita is celebrating her 70th birthday, you should come with me…”
The moment you receive this invitation from your Latina partner, you can expect one this: a big, grand, and fun family gathering.
She is finally ready to let you meet her family, cousins, and her Tios and Tias!
Latin family gatherings are usually a huge feast with the whole family, relatives, and even friends. You will be surprised how big a Latin family can get and how festive their gatherings can be.
Also, expect a bit of their attention to go to you. Her relatives are going to ask you some questions, you better be prepared!
So what are the things you should look forward to in Latin family gatherings? Here are some of them.
1. You’re going to be the “early bird”
There’s a fair chance that you’ll be one of the early birds in their family gathering. Although you are not too early, others will still arrive later than you.
Latin people follow the LST, or what they call the Latin Standard Time. This means that if you set a party at 6 pm, they will arrive 2 hours after 6:00. So if you are the only one at the party, don’t freak out, the others are still coming.
2. Even the dinner is late
If people are late, so is the food. Latin mothers are the ones that prepare the food, and they always take their time to make every meal special. In fact, if the party is having a Lechon (roasted pig), that would take up almost half a day to cook.
If the food is late, it doesn’t mean they prepared it late, they are just putting their hearts into it.
So when you join a little birthday fiesta, it would be better that you bring a snack with you so you won’t pass out from hunger.
3. Food! And lots of it
Another reason why the food comes a bit late is that the food that they are preparing is a LOT! You’ll be shocked the moment that you see how many tables are filled with all the food that they prepared.
Plus, they don’t just limit the food to Latin cuisines, you’ll see other types of food on the menu in their fiestas. But if it’s your first time joining, you should try all their local cuisines and not miss their specialties.
4. You’ll get close to her relatives
Her family members are extremely welcoming. Her cousins, Tias and Tios, will be talking to you like you are already one of their family members. However, you’ll also get overwhelmed by this because they will be asking you a lot of questions. But that isn’t a bad thing, it simply means that they approve of you.
The next time you join their family gatherings, you should expect that you will be the talk of the who family. You’ll be surprised how some member of the family knows about your details even if you haven’t talked to them yet.
Prepare to be part of their family.
They’ll ask you about marriage. After all, the moment when a Latina asks you to come with her to meet her family, it means that they have seriously considered you as someone they will marry. There’s even no need to explain, your Latina girlfriend has probably talked about your relationship prior to inviting you. And, yes, they already know about you and they have an idea who you are.
They won’t be beating around the bush, they’ll just go straight to asking you when you will get married. You’ll just have to answer them about how sure you are and how much you love her.
Don’t get scared if they are so enthusiastic about it. They are just excited about it since it’s going to be another round of Celebration in the future.
They just love embracing you into their family.
