First, it’s a dream. Then, it’s hard work that stretches over months and years, peppered with sheer frustration. Doubts creep into your sleepless nights. Who will want to read this? Who cares? You don’t think you can do it. Somehow you go on. You’re too far into it to give up. The day comes when […]
It is time to give thanks, and I want to offer my gratitude to a program that took care of more than 14,000 Cuban children between the years 1960 and 1962: Operación Pedro Pan. Without this program, we—I was among those children—would not have received the love we experienced when we arrived on American shores, […]
Why did I write a memoir? At 18, my life took an unexpected turn. Up to that point, I had aspired to become a pianist, a dream my family and friends had helped me shape since I was a child. “You’ll be like your Abuelo Clemente,” mamá’s father, a respected musician who died before I […]
Arturo Sandoval On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama announced that Cuban Arturo Sandoval will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in this country. It recognizes individuals who have made “meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private […]
Today, I have the pleasure to showcase Fernando “Fernán” Hernández, author of The Cubans: Our Footprints Across America and The Cubans: Our Legacy in the United States. I met “Fernán” through a Facebook group composed of Pedro Pans, persons who participated in an exodus of Cuban children to America in the early 60s. Welcome, Fernando. […]
On Mother’s Day, we celebrate our mothers. And on this holiday, I want to honor mine for the title she earned: “Worst Cook in the world.” After many dinners dishing up rice that sat on a low flame all day developing an almost burnt crust, and serving dried-up pork, the honor seemed well deserved. But, […]
LORENZO PABLO MARTINEZ 