A moment when reality was shaken by my Abuela's truth and how it has come to be. When I was about 15yrs old, I had a particular conversation with my dear Abuela. I’d asked why my life had been and continued to be so difficult as compared to my friends. They had nice mothers who didn’t criticize and undermine, lived in the same home for more than 72 hours and weren’t transferred from school to school weekly, were able to speak to and play with their fathers, had straight blon

This story is about how my frustrated younger self was determined to introduce Abuela to my new friends only to have things blow up in my face, repeatedly! As far back as I recall, I was convinced there was a secret phone call going on between God, way up in the clouds above, and my petite, spectacled, Cuban grandmother. I swear she knew everything about everyone and it never ceased to amaze and frighten me! To know that your every move was monitored made stepping out of line

This is the story of a mother's piano, familial expectations and the ability to stand tall while acknowledging one's culpability with fierce control. To say I was a spirited child is an understatement. Abuela had shared stories of my two-and-a-half-year-old self that would surely sway most to avoid parenthood altogether and choose a four-legged friend instead! As well, it was no secret that my birth mother and I never saw eye to eye, and I challenged her at every turn and tes

Where we start is never remotely close to where we end up. As souls having a very earthly experience, none of us are exempt from this phenom and thankfully so. The adventures that await are always so much more than what we could have imagined. I'd like to share an article I'd written for a magazine a little while back. In it, I describe what my then 2 year old self experienced when my family fled Cuba on that dark night. Despite all that could have gone wrong that night, my p