Ladinos are characterized by very leafy plants 8 to 12 inches tall that spread by stolons (runners) and form shallow roots at nodes. Leaves are smooth (not hairy) and usually marked with a white “V”. White flowers are clustered into heads and seed are extremely small.

Ladino, Westernized Central American person of predominantly mixed Spanish and indigenous descent. In that sense, ladino is synonymous with mestizo. The word ladino is Spanish (meaning “Latin”), and the ladinos of Central America are not to be confused with those Sephardic Jews who speak the Ladino language.

Ladino preserves many words and grammatical usages that have been lost in modern Spanish. It also has a more conservative sound system—for example, f and g sounds still occur where modern Spanish has an h (not pronounced), as in Ladino fijo, fablar versus Spanish hijo, hablar, and Ladino agora versus Spanish ahora.

It’s called Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, and it’s a beautiful mix of Castilian Spanish and Hebrew, with a smidgen of Arabic, Greek, Turkish and French thrown in for good measure. If Yiddish is the language of Ashkenazi Jews, then Ladino is the language of Sephardic Jews.

Already in 1690, the chronicler Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán described the ‘Ladinos’ as ‘mestizos, mulatos and negros’. There is extensive historical documentation indicating trend in Guatemala to marriages between different ethnic groups [1].

Many Guatemalans wear blue jeans, T-shirts, and Nikes. In some towns, only the women continue to wear their traditional Indian dress. The men, who go to the city to work, often stop wearing their traditional trajes. They begin to dress in American-style clothing like the Ladinos.

Afro-Guatemalans are Guatemalans of African descent. Afro-Guatemalans comprise 1-2% of the population. They are of mainly English-speaking West Indian (Antillean) and Garifuna origin. They are found in the Caribbean coast, in Livingston (a Garifuna settlement), Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomas.

Women usually greet men and each other with air kisses. Men will greet friends with a handshake different from the standard business handshake. Other greetings include “buenos días” (good morning), “buenas tardes” (good afternoon), and “buenas noches” (good evening).

“The ladino population has been characterized as a heterogeneous population which expresses itself in the Spanish language as a maternal language, which possesses specific cultural traits of Hispanic origin mixed with indigenous cultural elements, and dresses in a style commonly considered as western.”

Ladino is an important tool for transmitting Sephardic culture and connecting generations of displaced (and now settled) people with their painful yet impressive history. Ladino is an important facet of Sephardic culture, but the threats to Ladino do not translate into threats of Sephardic cultural continuity at large.

Alternative Titles: mestiza, mestizos. Mestizo, plural mestizos, feminine mestiza, any person of mixed blood. In Central and South America it denotes a person of combined Indian and European extraction.

Judeo-Spanish Sephardic (“Ladino”) songs have been sung, remembered, composed, and adapted around the Mediterranean, from the late-fifteenth-century expulsions from Iberian lands to festivals of new Ladino songs.

“Ashkenaz” in Hebrew refers to Germany, and Ashkenazi Jews are those who originated in Eastern Europe. (Sephardic Jews, by contrast, are from the areas around the Mediterranean Sea, including Portugal, Spain, the Middle East and Northern Africa.)

Sephardic music has its roots in the musical traditions of the Jewish communities in medieval Spain and medieval Portugal.

Deceased (1923–2021)

Jan

1983

eight

The menorah (/məˈnɔːrə/; Hebrew: מְנוֹרָה‎ Hebrew pronunciation: [menoˈʁa]) is described in the Bible as the seven-lamp (six branches) ancient Hebrew lampstand made of pure gold and used in the tabernacle set up by Moses in the wilderness and later in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Judaism

Light the Menorah The centerpiece of the Hanukkah celebration is the hanukkiah or menorah, a candelabra that holds nine candles. Eight candles symbolize the number of days that the Temple lantern blazed; the ninth, the shamash, is a helper candle used to light the others.

The seven-branched menorah was originally found in the wilderness sanctuary and then later in the Temple in Jerusalem and was a popular motif of religious art in antiquity. An eight-branched menorah modeled after the Temple menorah is used by Jews in rites during the eight-day festival of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah means “dedication” in Hebrew. The eight-day holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after it was retaken by the Maccabees, a group of Jewish warriors, from the Greeks in the 2nd century BCE, as explained by Tablet magazine.

Star of David, Hebrew Magen David (“Shield of David”), Magen also spelled Mogen, Jewish symbol composed of two overlaid equilateral triangles that form a six-pointed star. The yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi-occupied Europe invested the Star of David with a symbolism indicating martyrdom and heroism.

Menorahs come in a variety of materials: metal (think silver, brass, and bronze), ceramic, and even glass.

The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee.

Remove stubborn wax buildup with hot water. “For heavy wax buildup, I fill up the kitchen sink with very hot water and let the menorah soak in it for fifteen minutes. After this, most of the wax comes off quite easily, and I use my fingernails to scrape off the most stubborn wax deposits.”

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b-mitzvotav, v-tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah. Blessed are you, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, who makes us holy through Your commandments, and commands us to light the Hanukkah lights.

1. Begin by placing the candelabrum on a table and stand up to clean it.
2. Carefully take the candelabrum apart, removing each of the sconces and branches, one by one, from the main stem.
3. Wash in warm soapy water and dry thoroughly – this will usually remove tarnish as well as dust.