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Stories about gender and identity

In Mexican homes, Three Kings' Day is like a second Christmas.

Story by Betty Chavarria
Illustrations by Dia Pacheco

Last year I wrote about recreating Mexican holiday traditions for my daughter, and while we made it to my mom's house this year for a tamale feast, there's still one more tradition that is the sweet ending to the holiday season.

Día de Reyes Magos is a second Christmas of sorts with presents, the family and the wonderfully playful Rosca De Reyes cake with a surprise inside.

This holiday, also known as Three Kings' Day, marks the arrival of the three kings who were guided by a star to Bethlehem. In Mexican homes, the holiday is celebrated with a Rosca De Reyes, or king cake. Like the New Orleans version, it's a large ring of sweet bread with dried fruit and sugar paste on top and a baby figurine baked inside.

Here's how we celebrate at our house:

After dinner, my family gets the cafecito ready and calls everyone to the table to slice the sweet bread. Each family member slices their own portion in turn, cutting slowly and methodically to see if they can get a peek at what's inside. Everyone holds their breath as the person digs into the bread to see if the baby figurine is there.

If you don't get the baby, you heave a giant sigh of relief.

If you do get the baby, the table erupts because it means you're charged with hosting the family for a tamalada, or a feast of tamales, at your home. (If you are a kid and get the baby, good luck to your parents, because the family will be coming to your house all the same.)

In many families, the cake marks the end of the holiday season. For us, Rosca De Reyes means one last slice of Christmas magic.

Three need-to-know stories

(Neil Hall/Reuters)

01.

Vivienne Westwood, the provocative British fashion designer who endured for more than half a century as a style icon and environmental activist, helping clothe the 1970s punk movement before dressing supermodels on the runways of Paris and Milan, died Thursday in southwest London. She was 81.

02.

Kathy Whitworth, who became the winningest professional golfer in history and the first female player to earn more than $1 million in prize money, died Dec. 24 in Flower Mound, Tex. She was 83. With deft putting skills and a seemingly magical touch for escaping the toughest bunkers, Ms. Whitworth won a record 88 tournament titles, including six majors.

03.

A Kansas City, Mo., woman told neighbors she escaped from a house where she had been held against her will and beaten for nearly a month by a man who picked her up from Prospect Avenue. The news came after a local minister warned of a possible "serial killer" in the area where residents believe a number of women have disappeared in recent months. The tragedy has roiled the metro area and widened the distrust between the Black community and the Kansas City Police Department.

Regram

A share from @thelilynews

Good news

A story to make you smile

(Jaime Windon)

Nancy Epley, 100, has spent the past 20 years crafting jackets by hand. To date, she's made more than 200 jackets — and no two are the same. She gives them to friends and family and, sometimes, total strangers. Over the years, Epley's custom creations have been on public display in several fashion and art shows. The most recent was held at Kendal at Lexington — the senior living community where she lives in Virginia.

It takes her roughly two months to make one jacket, which she crafts using washable cotton fabric and a sewing machine. She stitches together different fabrics to create intricate images and designs, and she also paints patterns and objects onto the material. She looks online for inspiration. The result is a deeply personal piece of clothing, which stitches together the most salient elements of a person's life. Read more from Sydney Page in The Washington Post.

Until next time

But before we part, here's someone to know.

(Courtesy of Betty Chavarria)

Betty Chavarria

Special Section Visual Editor

What inspires your creative visual storytelling?
Everything around me. My upbringing in Los Angeles, my Mexican culture, my own goofy basset hound. I tend to get most inspired by things that invoke a feeling in me, whether it's stories, illustrators or even artists I find in coffee shops or boutiques. I'm a hoarder of visuals and tend to save everything that sparks my interest.

What would you say has been your most challenging project at The Post?
One of my projects this year was on sports betting, and as someone who doesn't watch sports or engages in any sort of betting, it was a challenge to strike the right tone for a new group of readers. Since we launched four months ago though, it's been a success!

Let's say a baby figurine ends up in your slice of Rosca de Reyes. What food would you prepare for a family dinner at your home?
Definitely ceviche tostadas. It's not something my family would typically make so it feels like a treat to make it for them — with a watermelon margarita on the side.