I don\u2019t have a lot of regrets about how I raised my kids when they were little.<\/p>\n
I did all the things: I strapped them to my body for \u201cattachment,\u201d joined Mommy and Me classes to find our \u201cvillage,\u201d and signed them up for Little League, dance, STEM programs and soccer. We played chess and board games, built obstacle courses around the house, and wrote letters (and songs) to grandparents who lived far away.<\/p>\n
And every night, I read to them \u2014 stories that taught kindness, inclusion, and the importance of seeing beyond our little bubble.<\/p>\n
But \u2026 somehow, in all those DIY lessons and bedtime stories, I never taught them another language.<\/p>\n
All the books we read together were in English. Not a single bilingual book in the bunch.<\/p>\n
Manhattan Beach mom Maritere Rodriguez Bellas, however, wants to make sure other parents don\u2019t miss that boat.<\/p>\n
Sixty-eight-year-old Bellas \u2014 who was born and raised in Puerto Rico but raised her (now adult) son and daughter in the South Bay \u2014 has made it her mission to help other parents raise bilingual children.<\/p>\n
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Maritere R. Bellas and her bilingual children\u2019s picture book \u2018T\u00edo Ricky Doesn\u2019t Speak English \/ no habla ingl\u00e9s.\u2019 (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)\n<\/p>\n
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Maritere R. Bellas speaking about her bilingual children\u2019s picture book \u2018T\u00edo Ricky Doesn\u2019t Speak English \/ no habla ingl\u00e9s\u2019 to a crowd at Pages bookstore in Manhattan Beach. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Book](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TBR-L-FAGC-COL-1016-01_453c00.jpg\")
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Book cover for Maritere R. Bellas bilingual children\u2019s picture book \u2018T\u00edo Ricky Doesn\u2019t Speak English \/ no habla ingl\u00e9s,\u2019 and illustrated by Jayri G\u00f3mez. (Photo courtesy of Maritere R. Bellas \/ Lil\u2019 Libros)\n<\/p>\n
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Maritere R. Bellas and her bilingual children\u2019s picture book \u2018T\u00edo Ricky Doesn\u2019t Speak English \/ no habla ingl\u00e9s.\u2019 (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)\n<\/p>\n
Expand<\/a><\/p>\n A longtime writer, she\u2019s bringing that mission to life in her third bilingual children\u2019s picture book (and fifth overall), released this week through the Los Angeles publisher Lil\u2019 Libros.<\/p>\n \u201cT\u00edo Ricky Doesn\u2019t Speak English\/no habla ingl\u00e9s\u201d is a brightly illustrated story about a boy who must translate for his Spanish-speaking uncle, a task he resists until it leads to heroic consequences.<\/p>\n The book is written in English, with Spanish translations just below.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a story that touched my heart because I used to translate for my grandmother all the time,\u201d Bellas said. \u201cWe need this story.\u201d<\/p>\n Bellas has become somewhat of a guru when it comes to bilingual parenting. She co-created and hosts \u201cMam\u00e1s 411,\u201d a podcast heard in 27 countries, and co-hosts the Instagram Live series \u201cThe Hablemos Bilingual.\u201d Both are resources for parents raising bilingual kids.<\/p>\n For 12 years, she wrote a weekly parenting column for La Opini\u00f3n, one of the nation\u2019s largest Spanish-language newspapers.<\/p>\n She was also instrumental in launching the Spanish-language program at American Martyrs School, which her two children attended.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dream is to see Spanish in every single school in the whole country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She\u2019s since written two more bilingual picture books, including \u201cI Have a Secret\/\u00a1Tengo un Secreto!,\u201d which received an honorable mention for Best Children\u2019s Fiction Picture Book at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards.<\/p>\n That story follows a child embarrassed to admit to his classmates that he speaks Spanish \u2014 a struggle many immigrant families share.<\/p>\n \u201cMany (immigrant) parents struggled with kids who didn\u2019t want to speak Spanish anymore when they started school, and often parents would give up,\u201d Bellas said. \u201cKids were afraid of speaking Spanish because they would get criticized.\u201d<\/p>\n For Bellas, bilingualism and multiculturalism are simply part of who she is. She grew up in Puerto Rico speaking Spanish and English, then studied in Switzerland \u2014 where she learned French, Portuguese and Italian before coming to California to earn her master\u2019s degree in communications from Pepperdine University.<\/p>\n In Southern California, she found herself surrounded by even more languages and cultures: friends from Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and her husband, Peter Bellas, a Greek American who worked for the Spanish-language television network Univision.<\/p>\n With her background, you\u2019d think raising bilingual kids would come naturally. But when Bellas became a mother, she discovered there weren\u2019t many resources to help her.<\/p>\n So she created them herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to empower parents,\u201d Bellas said. \u201cMy whole life here has been in English. Keeping the Spanish has been super important.\u201d<\/p>\n The benefits of learning another language \u2014 especially for children \u2014 are well documented, with research showing it strengthens the brain\u2019s ability to focus, solve problems and understand others.<\/p>\n A 2024 study<\/a> published in the journal \u201cNature,\u201d for instance, found that bilingual children develop stronger connections between brain regions tied to focus and problem-solving, while research from the National Institutes of Health<\/a> found they consistently outperform monolingual peers on attention and cognitive flexibility tests.<\/p>\n