I often joke with my husband about how Dominican and German cultures are complete opposites! Two worlds that before felt more apart to me than anything. Now, while raising my multicultural child, I am learning to find new ways to embrace our different traditions, language, and cultures and celebrate their uniqueness.

There is nothing like being in an interracial marriage – while raising a multicultural baby abroad – that really makes you reflect and connect with all the parts of who you are. My husband’s German side and my Dominican side are now mixed together, forming part of my daughter’s multicultural identity. It is a great feeling to know that, we are part of bridging these two (sometimes opposite) worlds together.

Our hope is that, we can foster an inclusive home in order to expose our daughter to the different cultures she is connected to (including Dominican, German, and American). Side note: since moving to Germany, I have felt more “American” than I did living back in the U.S. But, that is a story/blog post for another day!

So how do we foster our different cultures and languages to build a more inclusive home? How do we expose our children to different traditions to help them connect and learn about their cultures? I have found that, raising children abroad in a multicultural home is all about exposure, building traditions, and celebrating our different cultures. I want my daughter to grow up – regardless of which country she is living in – and feel connected to her Dominican-American-German identity.

Here are some ways we are celebrating our different cultures at home while trying to raise multicultural/multilingual children abroad:

Language

Since my daughter was born, my husband and I have made a conscious effort to communicate with her in our native languages. We stay consistent with the “one-parent-one-language” method (I speak Spanish and my husband speaks German to our daughter). Then, my husband and I speak English together and read books in English to expose our daughter to a third language. Doing this since her birth has helped us stay consistent with the language we choose to communicate with. We mostly speak Spanish/German at home and not as much English as I would like. Though, we are not too worried about this as children learn English in school here in Germany as it is part of the curriculum (along with French). We are also considering a German/English school for her education which will then allow her to be more consistently exposed to a third language. In general, I believe using language as a tool when raising multicultural children is one of the easiest ways to expose children to their different cultures.

Food

You can always find bread and platanos in our home! While I usually have to plan a trip to the city to buy platanos, as they are hard to find near me – I make the effort to get to the city on a weekday afternoon in search of the best platanos. Food is an important aspect of Dominican culture and making the time to make traditional dishes that I also grew up eating, is important for the way I choose to expose my daughter to her Dominican side. We often alternate what we eat and sometimes, we result to Abendbrot to keep a balance. While I typically do not often eat “traditional” German foods, we do sometimes take the opportunity to visit a local Beer Garden to enjoy traditional foods during our trips to Bavaria when visiting friends. Because after all, my daughter should know where to find the best pretzels in Germany!

Family Visits

This might be an obvious one but, before having my daughter, I truly did not understand the importance of frequent family visits as a way to stay connected to our cultures. Family is the best way to stay connected to traditions, languages and customs. In our case, my Dominican family is far away so my daughter does not get to see them very often (aside from the yearly trip we make to the States). However, I find ways to keep my daughter connected to her “Mama ‘buela” from afar. Meanwhile, since we live not too far from my husband’s side of the family, we try to visit them every few weeks and spend holidays together. For me, raising multicultural children takes a village, and making sure that my daughter is spending valuable time and building memories with both sides of the family is important.

Traditions

I spent my first Christmas with my daughter dancing to “Mi Burrito Sabanero” while lighting our Advent candles. We continue to find creative ways – specially during the holidays – to build our own traditions that encompass Dominican-German-American cultures. Last year for the holidays, I purchased a personalized Advent’s family calendar and I hope to use this as a way to make time for fun activities that allows us to celebrate our cultures during Christmas. For example, one fun tradition for us is going to the Christmas markets every year in Germany (which is my absolute favorite thing about living here!) and then ending the day with a homemade chocolate caliente Dominicano at home. While this might sound so simple, it does help make meaningful memories for our family and is an easy way to keep connected with both our German and Dominican sides. Plus, building traditions that celebrate our different cultures while raising multicutural children are not always about the big-fancy-celebrations. Sometimes, it is just about finding joy in the small everyday activities that help remind you of home. In this case, the chocolate Dominicano does that for me.

While I am choosing to raise my child abroad in Germany, I want to find ways to help my daughter learn about and stay connected to her mixed cultures. So that when she hears bachata or merengue blasting at family parties or sees the fireworks that shine from the streets during New years, she is reminded of her home(s). While embracing our different cultures and raising conscious multicultural children, perhaps we might also teach them that, we are not so different and that our two distinct worlds can come together after all.