It hit me last night when a friend asked what I was doing this weekend . . . "Oh. My. Goodness! I'm going to be in Miami!" Then my brother, Adam, called, "Amy [he hasn't gotten used to calling me Kikita yet], what should I pack?" Pack? Oh. My. Goodness!I am not even sure where my suitcase IS. Then I get a text ...
Cuban-American Life
I hope you enjoy my posts about my crazy and wonderful Cuban-American life.
A Red Carnation
Luza, my mom. 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 herself exiled in a new and foreign country. She was fifty when she became a grandmother. She was eighty-five when she ...
Memorials and Margaritas
Eric and I just got back from a perfectly relaxing few days spent in San Diego. We went gallery-hopping in La Jolla and out to dinner a couple of times with my niece, Kelley & her husband Jay.We did nothing but rest and relax for days and it was perfectly lovely.There was one day, though, when things could have definitely gone South.... Let me ...
Cuban Festival 2008
Mi gente! Kikita here. Ok, the Cuban Festival in San Dimas was a big party. It started at 10am and went until 7pm. There was a whole side of booths serving Cuban Food and as I walked in with my girlfriends, all we could think about was what we would eat first . . . until . . . I heard the congas playing in the distance and any ...
So. Cal. PSA
The following is a Public Service Announcement for any of my Cuban readers in the Southern California area.The 6th annual Cuban festival, Mi Son Cubano, will be held this Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas (right next to Raging Waters).No, sadly, I won't be there this year. =(I'm saving my strength for Miami and ...
The BIG Family
After agreeing to take on the massive task of Family Historian, things I never even dreamed of are falling into my lap. Family members are finding photos and remembering stories. I feel like I've discovered buried treasure! And as I start receiving photos and dates, a picture starts to form. And then there are the stories. So many wonderful stories ...
In praise of quinceañeras
At Disneyland the other night... Me: "Hey, that blond lady looks like Cristina." Them: (eye-rolling, full-body complaining ensues..) "Not again, Mom! Who's Cristina?" Me: "She's like the Cuban Oprah, but that's not important right now." Them: "Why is there an elaborate platform in front of the castle ...
So near and yet so foreign. . .
I still have papers to grade and end of the year things to finish for school, but my heart is already gone. My heart has made its way to Miami. I'm hoping it has the decency to wait up for me.....3 weeks I must suffer. It's not a pleasure trip, really. It's more like a holy pilgrimage. I guess I'll amuse myself with picking out just the right ...
My name is (insert name here), but everyone calls me . . .
Another fabulous post brought to you by: Amy (who would like people to start calling her by her new Cuban nickname: Kikita) During one of my many adventures with Tio Timbiriche and Luza (my abuela), one of them was commenting on the clutter in my room (I think it's artistic - but that's not important right now) and they called this clutter a ...
My Cuban Roots
Family history fascinates me. Maybe more so because we lost our home and family so many years ago when we left Cuba.There's that familiar tension again of living "life on the hyphen." That feeling of being 100% Cuban and 100% American. The question haunts me sometimes: What would my life have been like if. . .. . . there had been ...
