There were so many people that I have to acknowledge and give thanks to for making this book possible, that there was no room to mention everybody in the actual book. So I’m doing it here on the website.
 
Dedication: a Mami y Papi
 
Of course I dedicate this book to my parents. Papi would always sign and date his books when he finished reading them. I guess just to keep track for himself and check off with a certain pride that he had devoured another so many pages. He loved to read. Y aunque me apene mucho que él no pueda adornar con su firma una copia del primer libro de su hijo, quisiera creer que de alguna manera su orgullo paternal aún le está brotando en espíritu.  Meanwhile, el sueño de Mami es que mi libro se convierta en un bestseller fenomenal so that I can build her that house in Puerto Rico con una vista al Mar Caribe. She’s already got the spot picked out. So please don’t let her down. A los dos les declaro mi agradecimiento eterno y una reverencia de inestimable profundidad.
 
Acknowledgments
 
Laura Dail – she’s my literary agent/guardian angel. She said to me recently, “Bill, you care about the book most, and I care about it second most.” And it is such a wonderful thing to have such a true ally and friend on your side, looking out for every possible opportunity to help, way beyond the call of her contractual obligations. And she’s been that way from the moment I met her.
 
Mindy Brown – she was my editor on this project at Quirk Books, and it was her own love of Yiddish, mixed with just enough high-school Spanish, that allowed her to guide me patiently with an understanding and appreciation of what I was going for. As a first-time author, I was truly fortunate to be in her capable, knowing and respectful hands.
 
Doogie Horner – this guy designed the cover. ¡Aplauso Aplauso! I owe him big time for finding the right concept and the right look, and putting those little animation marks around my head so it looks like there’s actually something going on up there. By the way, he deserves a raise.
 
David Borgenicht – Hey, he owns the publishing company, Quirk Books. If I don’t mention him, what kind of jerk am I? He took a chance on me and I hope I make him a million dollars. Porque because that’s the best kind of agradecimiento.
 
Lacey Soslow and Melissa Monachello – They’re in charge of marketing and publicity, respectively, at Quirk, and so I am thanking them advance for putting up with what a pain in the butt I am going to be for them until I get on Oprah.
 
María de Los Ángeles Corral – I couldn’t have written this book without her. Not only did she spend hours reviewing and proof-reading the manuscript, she inspired much of it with her own glorious Spanglish. She even speaks Spanglish in her sleep, and I know because I happen to sleep with her. But that’s not what I’m thanking her for here. Although, certainly I’m grateful for that as well. I loved her before I started the book, but now I love her, and I am eternally in her debt for all her help. Which doesn’t give me a lot of leverage cuando estamos teniendo un argument.
 
Amy Mueller – She’s a superbly keen director in San Francisco with whom I collaborated when I was first getting my “Spanglish 101” show off the ground. Her ability to guide me through spontaneous riffs helped me immensely to build the critical mass of the material that became the Comedy Central special, that became the book, “Pardon My Spanglish”
 
La Peña – This is a one of a kind performance venue and cultural center in Berkeley, California, that has supported my work, especially my Latino-themed shows for years. I am so thankful, especially to Sylvia Sherman and Paul Chin, who run the place, for allowing me to develop so much of my Spanglish work live in front of their loyal and loving audiences. It’s a great place and you should check it out: www.lapena.org.
 
Danny Cruz – He’s a comic himself and a promoter who would book me for shows at a restaurant in San Jose, called Mexico Lindo. He’s also a union guy with the phone company or something, so the place was always packed with the people he was “in solidarity” with, meaning they owed him favors. And the audiences were fully bi-lingual, and so receptive to my Latino material. They would go nuts for the Spanglish! It was at those shows where I first had the “ah, ha” realization that Spanglish and I were going places. When I get to tape my “Pardon my Spanglish” HBO special, I’ll just have to pretend I’m back at Mexico Lindo, so I don’t get nervous.
 
San Francisco Arts Commission, Theatre Bay Area, National Performance Network – all three of these organizations supported my work on the Spanglish shows with generous grants. Dinero makes the Spanglish go round, and their rounds of funding were critical to the shows that led to the book.
 
Juliana Mojica – She is an arts promoter and publicist in San Francisco, and I just got off the phone with her. I am always just getting off the phone with her because we are in constant communication about what to do next, about getting the word out, landing another interview, taking one of my shows to another venue, and connecting me with someone who can help my career. And now she’s producing my latest project, “The Funny of (Latin) Dance.” And she just hooked up all of the book readings I have in California for my book tour.
 
Todd Barry – Look, Todd was the guy who got me the Comedy Central Presents special. We were performing one night on the same show. He said he thought I was definitely ready. Made a call. I sent a tape and it was a done deal, the fastest gig I have ever booked. It’s a special thing when another comedian goes so out of his way, without being asked, to make something happen for you. Doesn’t happen every day and you never forget it.
 
JoAnn Grigioni – She’s the person who called me up one day from Comedy Central and said, “We’d like to offer you the Presents special.” Well, I was already in a good mood because I had just gotten a haircut. So you can imagine how happy I was to hear the good news. She made the decision, without which there would be no book now!
 
Delilah Ramos – She owns and runs a club in the Lower East Side of New York called The Laugh Lounge. I knew her before she opened it because she had booked me previously at another club. But from the very moment her own club got going, she’s welcomed me there, as if it were a second home. And all the sets there have helped me hone my Spanglish standup chops. All that support, plus the wine and chicken wings are hard to beat.
 
Carla Esposito-Barresi – is an Argentine translator in Maryland, who read the manuscript in the final stages, applying a fresh pair of skilled eyes to the text, to look for errors and make sure the damn thing was making sense. Her proofing skills were invaluable, and most importantly, she really loved the book. So much so, that she is now on a crusade to promote it to Latino organizations nationwide… and Argentina.
 
Aaron Ilika – is a Spanglishista comrade at the University of Pennsylvania, working on his PhD in the department of Romance Languages and Literatures. He put aside his dissertation to lend a hand at proofing the book for Quirk, and may actually be considering a second PhD now in Spanglish, so impressed was he by how far my book pushes the envelope of the habla, or rather, the hablalope.
 
Martha Zlatar – works out of the Small Business Administration in San Francisco, as an art business consultant. And she keeps me on track, not only so that everything on my to do list gets done, but so that I am constantly reviewing and revising my vision and game plan for what I want out of this crazy business of show, which now includes putting out a book. In other words, she calms me down when I’m totally freaking out, and convinces me it’s going all going to be OK.
 
Anthony DiNapoli – He’s the owner of a club in Times Square, New York, called “Ha.” As the name of the club attests, he’s a very direct fellow. Whenever I’m in town, I can stop in and he’ll let me do three, four, five shows a night if I want, so that I can work out whatever I have to workout on stage (some new Spanglish bit, for example), because he likes me. Of all the things people have said about my standup, what still makes me laugh the most is the time he summed up my act like this: “A Hispanic who uses big words. I love it!”
 
Tony Sparks – is a comic in San Francisco, whom I met when first got to the city to get my standup off the ground. When stage time was scarce, Tony always made sure I had plenty, as he was the open mic king, with more rooms running than anybody. And he always welcomed new comics with such generous introductions, whipping the audience into an upfront frenzy of applause and urging everybody to show the new kid, “A lot of love!”
 
John Cantu  – was a comedy legend and impresario in San Francisco, who I met one night after a show. He came up to me and was just bursting over with praise and all sorts of good things to say. We became friends and I would often consult with him over coffee about what I wanted to do with my comedy career and where I wanted to go with it. I’d just call him up, we’d meet downtown, and he would systematically shoot down any self doubts I had. Any excuse for not moving forward on expanding my horizons in a certain way, he replaced with a take action, yes you can point of view, accompanied by a cheerleading session. He died about five years ago, but I still benefit from his attitude, which is in fact, just a different way of spelling his last name: “Can too.”