Over the years, I’ve seen and heard a lot of family music albums written in foreign tongues that were unfamiliar, yet still managed to snag the interest of a young audience. Recently, news of a Ladino family music album by Sarah Aroeste hit my radar, but the first thing was that I had no idea what Ladino actually meant. Ladino is a Medieval language also known as Judaeo-Spanish – a dialect that originated by Spanish Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Along the way, this language picked up elements from neighboring vocabularies, including French, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew and more. On March 25th, Aroeste will release Ora de Despertar (Time to Wake Up), perhaps the only album of original songs in Ladino that’s geared directly toward children. The album was written with her own kids in mind, but to bring it to the masses, she’s partnered with an animator to bring the songs to life as music videos, and has plans for board books as well. Check out the video for “Las Komidas” below…
Curious to learn more about the album and the inspiration behind it? Check out Sarah’s official website and Facebook.
