For as long as I can remember, summer meant finding a body of water to jump into to cool off. Simply stated, if it's hot and I see water, I want to jump in. Maybe this desire comes from having been born on an island. Surrounded by pristine and inviting blue everywhere always made me want to be a part of the liquid beauty. In Cuba, we spent our ...
Cuba
Five. (A giveaway)
I sat down at my computer on October 1st, 2006 and wrote out my very first blog post with the title, "Life on the hyphen..." You're welcome to click over and read it. I lifted that post title from a book written by my friend, Gustavo Perez-Firmat, called Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way. In that book, he brilliantly ...
Voices from Mariel – a Giveaway
I'm often amazed at how little people here seem to know about the waves of Cuban immigrants refugees to this country. The older folks seem to remember that in the early 60's there were some displaced Cuban children that needed homes. This they only know if one of the children ended up in their neighborhood. I'm referring, of course, ...
The First Born
The experience of having a child is possibly the most traumatic, amazing, delightful and life-changing event of any woman's life. If you have more than one child, you are a little bit better prepared for child #2 or #3 or #4 (or #6 or #8...). Having that first one, however, is so incredibly new and so incredibly different from anything ...
On a clear day, you can see Havana
When I was born, my dad was 44 years old. I am the youngest of his six children. (Still today and forever, I am the baby of the family, but that's not important right now.) On February 13th, 1961, he celebrated the first of many birthdays in the U.S. He was 50 years old. My dad was an extremely quiet person. He was not, as I recall, ...
The Best of MBFCF in 2010
I started this tradition last year. I reviewed my posts for the entire year (which was kind of interesting in a wow-is-that-a-train-wreck? kinda way, but that's not important right now) and picked a mix of some of my favorites. These links are a pretty good representation of what it's like Living the Vida Loca, MBFCF-style. If you've ...
So Help Me, God.
I've spent the last week serving on a jury for a criminal trial at the County Courthouse in Santa Ana, here in California. (If I tell you any more, I'd have to kill you, but that's not important right now.)I'll be honest with you: I'm not enjoying it. I have been sitting through hours of testimony and evidence and ...
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, ...
Cuban Miami – A Winner
First of all, I want to thank all of you who took the time to tell me your answers and some of you who wrote your stories. As I read through each comment, I realized that this was a perfect snapshot of our Cuban community. With the naming of each city and date, I read pain and sadness and nostalgia. Thank you so much for sharing this part of your ...
