Discovering my Swedes and Scots Swen and Ingegorg met sometime in the early 1600s, perhaps not too far from Aspeboda, Sweden, where they were born. Ancestry.com tells me they are my 10th-great-grandparents. Stay with me, through a brief history of my non-Cuban-ness. It’s quick-ish. It leads to questions about identity, often discussed here. So, Swen […]

  It is no easy thing to reject the heart of what one’s own family, and people, preaches. Particularly, perhaps, if you are Cuban-American. (If you know Cubans, this needs no further explanation.) But, it appears that, at the risk of being called communist, socialist, estúpido and comemierda, an historic percentage of my generation, combined with […]

I am 900 miles from my brother, aunts, uncles, cousins and dear friends who have survived Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York. Actually, people I love are all up and down the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast — from the Carolinas to New England. Everyone is physically fine. To say I feel helpless in the […]

Ah lawdy, lawd, dios mio. Forgive me, but I secretly recorded my daughter and her friend. (There’s an app for that,) I had to. The conversation was just too funny and rich and it showed me all too boldly that my daughter is a cubana en la sangre, for she is fascinated by symbols and […]

The Case for Play I don’t remember how long ago, maybe a decade, maybe more. A German tourist stopped me on Broadway, just outside the paper and asked for directions. We got to chatting. I asked her how she liked Nashville. Loved it, she said. She went on about the country music and how nice […]

Two things have been happening in our lives for several months and I just realized that one has been a metaphor for the other. It took my dreaming of an overflowing toilet a few days ago to link the two. So, our toilets started backing up this winter. The plumber told us it was time […]

Please don’t call me Selfish I discovered a great essay by Susan Newman over at Babble that made me think a lot — again — about being the mother of An Only Child. The title was “Is it Selfish to Have One Child?” Selfish? Que-Que? The idea of being labeled selfish stopped me, made me […]

Maria announced, quite proudly: “I know The F-Word!” “Really? What’s the F-Word?” “You know the F-Word, Mama.” “Fun, fudge, flip?” “Mamaaaaahhhh.” “OK, why don’t you tell me what you think the F-Word is?” “It’s a bad word.” “It’s OK. You’re not in trouble, I just want to make sure we’re talking about the same F-Word.” […]

…meet your future mandolin player. She can kind of play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And tune the thing. Get ready. So yes, city folk, we’re taking mandolin lessons around here. Even I grab the lovely piece and hit it some. La Nena also is taking two other classes after school. That’s three extra-curricular activities…There are […]

I am in the kitchen, putting dirty dishes in the sink. My husband and daughter are in the dining room cracking up and repeating “The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!” over and over and over again. I have no idea why this cracks them up so much. He tells her sports […]