Website Aims To Be Resource For Multicultural Families

Seeing as how about 15% of all marriages in the United States are between people of different races or ethnicities, and given recent Census results suggesting this trend will likely continue, now seems like a good time for an online publication talking about the issues with which multicultural families contend. Chantilly Patiño, also known as the blogger Bicultural Mom, has answered the call.

On May 30 Patiño and a group of other bloggers will launch an online magazine, Multicultural Familia. Patiño said the site will, “address multicultural and multiracial lifestyle with special emphasis on topics such as racial and cultural identity, ethnic heritage, language acquisition, interracial relationships and multiracial parenting; with an overall focus on cultural awareness and racial unity.”

Patiño talked to News Taco this week and told us that, for her, Multicultural Familia is very personal. “I met my husband, who is Mexican-American, and we just got into talking about so many different things — about language, about race, about racism, and his culture and it was very interesting for me.”

Patiño later began to look at racial issues when she pursued higher education, but these issues became much more real when her daughter was born.

“My family is all white, there has never been any racial intermarriage before in my family. I have always had a difficult time explaining to them any understanding, so that’s part of why I started Multicultural Familia,” she told News Taco. “We are going to be talking about race and ethnicity like Afro-Latino heritage and mixed families, interracial relationships, how to raise multicultural children with confidence, and give them an understanding about race.”

Check out Multicultural Familia, also on Facebook and Twitter.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD