When you understand but can’t speak, just eat pupusas

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Across the plastic table at El Comal, my grandma tells me to get the pupusas revueltas, and because she’s the woman who kept me alive during the summers of my childhood, I smile and nod and practice saying “revueltas” under my breath while she talks to my mom in rapid-fire Spanish.

Re-vuel-tas. Roll the “r.” Rrr-ev-uel-tas. The vowels are all wrong. My tongue stumbles in…