even though he's not mexican

Before my brother met Fernando (Patrick was on his mission), he pictured Fernando sounding like the Hispanic general authorities sound, well not the rhetoric but the accent. When we had Fernando talk on a tape after we got engaged and sent it to Patrick, he heard the real Fernando who conjures up no comparisons to Antonio Banderas or Speedy Gonzalez when he speaks (when he does other things, well, of course he's very comparable). Patrick later admitted to being disappointed.
I have also thought it strange that even though I'm married to Fernando I don't get to go Salsa dancing once-a-month. He doesn't even like spicy food. What's up?! None of my preconceived ethnic stereotypes have panned out.
Luckily he has of late produced a talent that (although it is truly and rightfully credited to his father, Fernando Sr., for having and passing down multitudinous artistic abilities) I will attribute to his Latin heritage.

He makes pinatas.
(I can't insert the proper character for the enyay which is the "n" in pinatas so please forgive, por favor.)
And I'm not talking simple patterns or pinatas requiring the minimum amount of creativity and work, no. He is a serious pinatamaker.

I count it irrelevant that he's only made two so far. He is a pinata genius. The first was my family cat Rusty made from a Panetone box (Fernando's favorite Italian Christmas bread). The beauty in this first edition of his fine pinata work was in the details: the fur was small pieces of orange construction paper in strips cut into smaller strips curled a-la-elementary-school with a pen. It took him quite a while and BOY was it worth it. And it was difficult to hit since it was so nice.

His second quest was a whole-body Ratatoullie for Xiao Yu's birthday. He first created a skeleton (yes, I thought he was crazy) out of cut strips of a diaper box from costco, then proceeded to cover it all in newspaper, and actually spray painted the thing with the same stuff that's on our railing in our house. I was very impressed. It's nice that my spouse keeps coming up with random ways of impressing me without even trying. The end of that story is that Xiao Yu refused to break it so it's still in her room with a belly full of air heads which were leftovers from Halloween. (I didn't say that the candy was top-notch, just the craftmanship.)

This video is a bit random but it does give a nice 360 of the pinata and a good view of my son throwing a fit while I look on languidly.

So, until I convince him to quit his job and start a full-scale production online specialty art pinata company, my husband's rare and cultural gifts will only be used to express love to his family and friends on their special days. And they will say thank you by beating the expression of his love with a bat until all the hours of his precious time are busted open to reveal candy that no one wants to eat. Ay carumba.