This was how we celebrated birthdays back in Cuba. These are my sisters and me at different ages.
(If you’re really curious, just count the candles on the cakes)
There was always a big, beautiful, almost-too-perfect cake …

This is my golden ticket.

In 1961, it cost $21.60 for the 1/2 fare for children to fly the 90 miles from Havana to Miami.
It’s not lost on me that I can easily spend more than …

We’ve got a dear family friend whom we’ll call “Sylvia.”  We’ll call her Sylvia because, well… that’s her name. =D
Sylvia is and has always been the representation of perfect Cuban womanhood to me.  I’ve known …

I just got home from a fun filled day of lunch and the children’s museum with old college girlfriends and their kids.  I should rephrase that because these ladies were my bestest friends in college; …

A veces el pulpo es malo, otras veces es bueno.  When I ask my daughter about him se ve espantada, telling me that he’s outside, on the terrace, wanting to bite her, or looks past …

I am stereotypically Latina in few things, but one of the stereotypes that does fit is that of the temper.   In my heart, I see little wrong with raising my voice, unleashing a long …

I changed my mind.  First, I told my husband that I wanted to spend Mother’s Day attending church as a family, then going to brunch at my mother’s house, and then hiking with the kids …

So many nights, my husband and I are so rendidos from the marathon we are running right now- three young children and two flexible but preoccupying careers- that we hardly talk.
We are happy together …

 
Last summer, we adopted 12 Guinea fowl. Birds so odd, they are beautiful. They arrived as little babies, just a day old. For the first two weeks, a friend took care of them while we …

Sometimes it gets to me how quiet many of my friends’ and neighbors’ homes are. Maybe quiet’s not the right word- they’re not noiseless- but they lack that blend of sound on in the background- …