Celebrating MLK Day this year by reading Bruce Watson's Freedom Summer, about the Freedom Riders and Freedom Schools that forced the racism and violence of Mississippi into the spotlight and helped get the Civil Rights Act passed. It's a fascinating book and I highly recommend it ( Read more... )

Because of my ambiguous skin tone, I am often taken for races other than Latin; I've been called everything from black to Korean to Hawaiian. This amuses me now, but in years past I considered it vital, a survival mechanism. My mother was obsessed with the idea that I needed to "pass" in white society by any means necessary to ensure my future ( Read more... )

Eric likes to call me a "stealth Mexican" since he maintains that my ethnic heritage is not immediately apparent from my looks. I guess that's true enough, since folks back home usually thought I was either white or half Asian; out here I'm often taken for Hawaiian or another sort of Pacific Islander. That should give you at least some idea ( Read more... )

My sister's daughter, 4-year-old Catherine, entered the local Head Start preschool this week. She's having a little trouble getting used to, shall we say, the environment ( Read more... )

We took Hunter to the doctor last week for his 1-year checkup, and I was a little chagrined to find that he hasn't grown all that much.

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Just in case some of you folks thought I was overreacting when I worried about the possibility of hate crime against me and my children ( Read more... )

Okay, this officially scares/upsets me ( Read more... )

I can't help being a little gleeful that Mexico eliminated the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic. So much for all those naysayers who thought the only Latin teams who had a chance were the Dominicans and the Cubans ( Read more... )

Congratulations to the 2005 Chicago White Sox for busting yet another curse! Special thanks to Ozzie Guillen for showing that a Latino can get it done managing a World Series champion team. Viva Venezuela! Now if only a Mexican could do it, that'd be even better ( Read more... )