Eva Amurri Martino is defending her decision to allow her daughter Marlowe Mae to have a Mexican-themed party to celebrate her recent fifth birthday.

After posting a collection of photographs from her little girl’s “Cinco de Marlowe” bash — which depicted children in colorful sugar-skull-style makeup and one image of Marlowe breaking open a taco-shaped piñata — the actress and lifestyle blogger, 34, opened up about what went into the theme.

“A little note on our Mexican themed party for Marlowe: with everything going on in this political climate, I thought now would be a great time to celebrate Mexico and the role it has had in our country culturally,” Amurri Martino began her post on Sunday, which came hours after the initial post where many had taken to the comments with criticism, such as accusing the star of “[throwing] together some stereotypes.”

“Anybody who knows Marlowe knows she is obsessed with Mexico — she has had incredible Latin women taking care of her from three weeks old, and one in particular from Mexico who would always call her “cinco de Marlowe” on May 5th,” the mother of two continued, adding that she was “really proud” that her daughter “was getting so much from another culture” and that Spanish was Marlowe’s first language.

“We moved from Los Angeles, but when the movie Coco came out, Marlowe loved it and felt really connected to it because she had heard about a lot of the themes of the movie from people she cares about,” Amurri Martino wrote. “She wanted all these things brought together for her fifth birthday since she was finally, actually turning ‘cinco’!”

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The daughter of Susan Sarandon went on to say that the bash was only “a rudimentary representation of Mexican culture since it was for young kids,” and that she doesn’t “only think it’s important to highlight the beauty of Mexican culture, or the horrors of the attack on Mexicans of late, with a bday party.”

“From when this all first started, we have been donating to those [affected],” Amurri Martino said of her family, which also includes husband Kyle Martino and son Major James, 2½. “We also have been calling our senators.”

“Somebody reached out to me directly (in a kind way) to let me know that Marlowe’s theme offended them,” she continued, noting that the individual “didn’t know the reasoning behind why we picked it.”

“I wanted to take a minute to say that this theme was picked because of a love for Mexico and its people and a desire to celebrate in the midst of a lot of hate,” said Amurri Martino. “Regardless of that, I know so many emotions are running high right now surrounding this topic, so sorry to anyone we offended! ❤️”

Amurri Martino also asked her followers to check out a blog post she wrote back in June 2018, titled “Families Belong Together” addressing children being separated from their parents at the U.S. border — something that has made the actress feel “absolutely heartbroken.”

“If my children were ever taken from me, to places unknown, with no idea how or when we could reunite and no knowledge of whether they were safe — I could absolutely not survive it,” she wrote. “It is inhuman for the parents, but traumatizing beyond belief for the children.”

“What chance do they even have now for any type of normal future?” Amurri Martino went on. “And why do even a small fraction of people (enough to create a ‘policy’) think that this is okay?”

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“At this point, I personally believe that this has gone beyond a political issue and become a human rights issue,” Amurri Martino continued on her blog. “I feel that the ideas and ideals that we are faced with in this crisis are completely bipartisan in nature.”

“At this point, it is really about humane and inhumane, right and wrong,” said the star. “I really hope that we can set the past election aside, and come together now.”

She ended her post with a list of resources on how people can help, like instructions on calling senators, how to donate goods to the children, information about protests to attend at the time and more.

“Keep talking about this,” Amurri Martino concluded. “Let’s not forget, and make the mistake of thinking that children reunited with their parents growing up in detainment camps is appropriate or compassionate. It was a big step in the right direction, but it’s not the end.”

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