Dear IF readers,

he month of July at International Family Magazine www.internationalfamilymag.com celebrates the “Multi-Cultural Family”.  We also spend another month in Latin America on our World Tour stop.  The Multi-Cultural Family Spectrum is large. It can be the Third Culture Kids (TCK) that spent part of their lives away from their native country. It could be an extended, global community of family and friends. It could be a family of the same race but different cultures mixed together under the same roof.  My own family is 5 non-biologically related persons from many countries and cultures, but as we are all white no one has ever referred to us as “multi-cultural”.  Now that a rainbow of colors in one family is a growing trend, “multi-cultural” has become a family term.  IF mag, celebrates all kinds of “Multi-Cultural Families” everywhere and every which way.

Migration and travel of peoples and cultures over the ages has brought about the “Multi-Cultural Family”.  Some of my favorite stories of a “Multi-Cultural Family” occur after a war has waged.  During the fighting, someone has broken the rules and fallen in love with a person from the  “so-called-enemy“ camp.  Ain’t that merciful justice?  Or another comic-tragedy? Those love stories during or after battle bring such balance to the world of war. Our writer Kent Converse is a Vietnam Vet and Rotarian that has spent much time in Vietnam working on service projects with Rotary International after the War. In 1999-2000 Kent and his family hosted the first Rotary Exchange Student from Vietnam in the history of the two countries (www.rotary.org).  His life dreams of a better world and reads as a great story.  Read Kent’s July story, “My Multi-Cultural Extended Family”.  Wonderful.

In the course of history in the U.S., Africa, and Germany, multi-racial couples and families were illegal for a time.  And the rest of the world has participated in carrying out brutal punishments for the social taboos of mixing cultures together.  Even the British playwright Shakespeare dedicated an entire play to the subject of bi-racial love in his tragedy of Othello.  Now that there is no legal restriction to inter-racial marriages, family life is changing. Our writer Cheryl Paley who heads up our New Global Family column adopted her daughter Zoe from Guatemala and their color difference and the world around them has been a profound tale to tell.  Read Cheryl’s story this month and laugh, cry and beat against your heart in victory with her.  Her stories are a triumph.  Brava Cheryl, Brava.

In our celebration of Latin America, we celebrate Tess Almendarez Lojacono.  Tess was found where all great storytellers are found, telling her stories. We met on the beach last summer while our children played side by side.  As mothers watching our brood, we began to talk and share.  Tess was a profound and articulate speaker, and as it happened, wrote stories.  I asked her to send me some, and she has been a gift to us at IF mag ever since.  Tess was born of a Mexican father, and German/Irish mother.  A lot of her stories are about the Mendez family, a Mexican-American immigrant family.  Tess stories are passionate, tender and tough.  As readers, we can find ourselves in every single word.  Welcome Tess as our new, Latin Family Editor.   May she take us far and wide and bring us home again.

There is so much more in IF mag this month.  Please welcome Bethany Rule as a new writer, and member of our partners at Hot Moms Club (www.hotmomsclub.com).  Brooke Allen delights us with his fables that he writes for his two sons and shares with us at IF mag.  Brooke dazzles us with heart, conviction and originality.  Grandma Ellen is always imaginative, and exciting as a grandma, mother, and active community member.  And on, and on. 

I am sure what seems the trend of multi-cultural families today will become centuries old tomorrow. If we could only be patient enough to hear the story through.   International Family Magazine hopes to collect all family stories from around the world from the oldest of family archetypes to the newest – silver and gold.  Let us share your stories.

Cat Wayland