Me: "I made 'fanguito.'" (FAHN-GEE-TOH) Amy Kikita: "Fanguito? Really, Mom? Wait! Is that another Cubanism? Isn't 'fango' the Spanish word for 'mud?' Where exactly are you??" She sounds puzzled, and I picture her tilting her head to one side (kind of like a German shepherd). Me: "In the ...
Welcome To My Blog!
I Parranda and I Do Laundry – Multi-tasking the Cuban Way
I'm still recovering from my The Traumatic Thwarting of My Trip Home by the POTUS. Thank you all for your concern. I'm definitely home now and back to my real life which includes laundry and laundry and more laundry and I have some videos I have to edit - in between loads of laundry. I'll tell you all about Blogalicious Weekend and ...
The POTUS and the Frita – or Why It Took Me 18 Hours to Get Home
As I type this, I'm flying at 38,000 feet. I should technically be waking up in my own bed right now (sleeping-in would be more accurate, but that's not important right now). Instead I am groggy from a difficult night and anxious for the next 2 hours to fly by. (No pun intended.) Yesterday I woke up in my penthouse room at the ...
Taking Some Well-Earned R & R
I have been in Miami all weekend having an amazing time. I've spent time with some fabulous blog friends and eaten Cuban food and even danced in a club in South Beach. (But I'll deny it if you tell anyone.) But now my amazing Blogalicious weekend is coming to an end. Frankly, I'm on overload from people and ideas and even ...
Abre que voy!
I'm having one of those accidentally cool things happening that happens to me occasionally because I live in a fun bloggy world. I am traveling to Miami for Blogalicious Weekend 2010. Celebrating Diversity in Social Media. (The words celebrating and social seem like they describe me perfectly. Am I right?) My trip is being sponsored in full by ...
The Taming of the Do – The Movie
Hi. I’m Marta and I have naturally curly hair. (“Hi, Marta.”) I know my hair looks smooth and straight in all the photos you've ever seen of me, but that's because I go through great pains and pay big bucks to get it done. And I realized as I was writing this that I started straightening it about a year before I started blogging. So you ...
Celebrating My 4th Bloggiversary – Winners!
I want to thank you all for your kind words and good wishes. I love celebrating blog birthdays because unlike regular birthdays, I get to give stuff away. It makes me so happy to be able to give back to you, even in this small way. I so want you to know how much I appreciate that you read and enjoy my stories and misadventures. To choose winners, I ...
Cada Dia con Marta Maria
I have been blogging now for 4 years and I'm celebrating! (It seems I'm always celebrating something, but that's not important right now.) I started this blog on October 1st, 2006. I never pictured I'd still be going four years later. Four years, people! I thought by now I would have run out of stuff to write about. But, ...
Merchandising is not the same as Truth
Next week marks the anniversary of the death of mass-murderer Che Guevara. Many of us have had more than our share of run-ins with ignorant hipsters sporting t-shirts and messenger bags with the idealized image of the "revolutionary poster boy." Like most Cubans, I'm not shy about offering the truth of who Che was and why their ...
Hot! Hot! Hot! (a mini-rant)
On Monday, the 27th of September, we here in Southern California experienced the gosh-darndest Hottest Stinking Day of the Year. This is the thermometer (excuse me, Comfortmeter) in our backyard.For those of you who are impaired when it comes to reading old-school-liquid-filled thermometers, the red liquid (possibly alcohol or mercury; both ...
