It's been one week since my big, fat Cuban family had a party. It was the 185 year birthday thing last week here at my house. But that was a week ago. One. whole. week. So around Thursday afternoon the phone starts ringing . . . "Who's Mami with this weekend?" "Alina." "Card party at Alina's!" Okay, so my family is a ...
Cuban-American Life
I hope you enjoy my posts about my crazy and wonderful Cuban-American life.
How “el Tiki-tiki” works
El Tiki-tiki - v. to harp on a subject over and over and then resort to guilt until your victim succumbs to your wishes. Mami: "You have to have a party for your Tia before she leaves." Me: "Umm. . . what with the holidays, it's been a little busy. I don't know if I can do it." Mami (issuing a big, heavy ...
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
I take photos every day. Every day.Okay, maybe not every single day. But most days. ;-) I took photos every single day of December, and it was pretty effortless for me because my camera was attached to me like an unusual black appendage growing out of my forehead. But this year, I'm determined to take a photo a day to document my year ...
“Cui bono?”*
Remember my cool (and at this point) pristine advent calendar? Here's what it looked like at the end of December:How this will translate to my Christmas 2007 scrapbook . . . I took photos of the things we did each day, printed one photo and just pinned them up on the board. Or sometimes there were just ticket stubs, or an invitation ...
Midnight Madness
DISCLAIMER: In order for this post to make any sense, you might want to review my explanation of what Cubans do at midnight on New Year's Eve. We thought it was going to be a quiet New Year's Eve. Helen (my niece) invited us over to play games and eat junk and wait for midnight. The kids, Daisy (7) and Ben (2) probably were not going to ...
The Knives.
My mom makes these famously Cuban authoritarian pronouncements.When she says something, it is with an air of authority that will not tolerate any argument.Of course, the way she says it immediately makes me question its validity, but since I was raised in a superstitious Cuban home, there is a small residue of what-if-it's-really-true? somewhere in ...
Happy New Year!
It's a new year. And while I don't actually make resolutions, I always feel like the new year is a new beginning.A blank page.A do-over.I always have that thing in me that wants to do more, act nicer, learn things. I always want to be a little better.I think it every time.Every new year.Maybe it's because I'm Cuban.And we are a perpetually hopeful ...
New Year’s Mystery
December 31st, 1939. Havana, Cuba. That was the date Rodolfo Verdés made Luz Perez-Puelles his bride. I love this picture of my parents. It was probably taken a few years after their wedding and of course, it was totally posed, but seriously, he always held her in such high esteem. And she thought he looked just like Errol Flynn. (isn't ...
Feliz Navidad
Me: Can you guys do a 30-second Noche Buena commercial spot? Them: Umm. . . Duh! Watch this . . .I want to wish all of you my very faithful blog visitors (whom I totally consider my Big, Fat, Extended Cuban-Cyberspace Family, because I'm kind of a dork like that =D) a very, very Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año ...
Why we do what we do.
We eat roast pig (lechon asado) on Christmas Eve, which we call Noche Buena. We have yuca with a garlic mojo on the side.We fight over the fried, ripe plantains.We hold hands and give thanks to God for his generous provision.We draw names for a gift exchange, but end up getting little gifts (we call those "regalos de arbol" - or ...
