I drive around my suburban neighborhood in a minivan. 
It’s actually a KIA Sedona. It’s not trendy. It’s not cutesy. It’s just a utilitarian minivan.
But, I like it. A lot.
We just call it The KIA. …

I don’t know how many posts I’ve started with….“I have my mom for the weekend,” but I know there are many.
My mom, Luz, is in good health. She doesn’t suffer from any disease other than …

[NOTE - 7/28/2010 - Congratulations to the winner of The Red Umbrella giveaway: Tracy. Thanks for sharing your story about the Kindertransport, too. Send me your snail mail address and I will get the book ...

I love writing essays for the habla habla. It gives me a chance to tell the cuentos I love to tell about my loving and loco Cuban family, not to mention, what it is like …

I wonder sometimes how I survived my childhood. Seriously.

When I was very young, my family spent the summers at Varadero Beach. The entire summer. (I know. So cool, right?) You see, it was …

She was twenty-five when she got married.
She was twenty-six when she became a mother.
She was forty-one when she gave birth to me, the youngest of her six children.
She was forty-seven when she found …

(Inspired by The Simple Woman’s Daybook.)
I usually do this every six months or so, just to kind of “take the temperature” of where my life is at the time. I encourage you to do …

When I was growing up, I remember that each day I woke to a most distinctive blend of aromas.
I knew my dad was up and getting ready for work when the mingled scents of Vitalis, …

On New Year’s Eve, at the stroke of midnight, we Cubans are BUSY.

When the clock strikes 12 we:

Quickly eat 12 grapes – one for each month of the past year.
Wash these down with sparkling cider …

We write a lot here on the Tiki Tiki about our cultural tendency to translate literally and so wind up with a delicious mish-mash of Spanglish.
My English speaking kids sometimes find themselves at odds with …