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Afraid to spend what i worked so hard to save
I’ve looked at the flights. I can recite the visa requirements from memory now. But my finger hovers over “confirm” and doesn’t click. I’ve done this before. A year in Mexico City. A year bouncing between Santiago, Buenos Aires, São Paulo. A year in Canada. I’ve worked remotely from hostels with bad Wi-Fi and cafés
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Something I can afford to buy, but won’t
I’ve been circling the same couch for three months. Not metaphorically…the same actual couch. A gray sectional on some furniture website, $2,100, perpetually open in a browser tab I refuse to close. It’s become a ritual now. I click over to it in the mornings while my coffee gets cold, scrolling through the product photos
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What my mom thinks about ChatGPT
The first time I showed my mom ChatGPT, she squinted at my phone like it was a magic trick she didn’t trust. “¿Y eso para qué sirve?” (And what’s that for?) I told her it could write things. Help with letters. Translate. Explain things in a simple way. She raised an eyebrow. “Ahhh…Como tú!?”(Ohhh..Like you!?) And
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And the bodies fall…
The stock market rises…and the bodies fall They hawk their hauls on TikTok. A million views, a thousand stitches, the algorithm feeds. We doomscroll through Stanley Cups, Starbucks bears, Labubu must-haves and the bodies fall. A new contestant on the Trairors, hot takes, discourse, fan cams while an ICE vans circles my block and the bodies
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Keeping it Together
Dear You, I know you’re tired. Tired of being the one who keeps it all together.Tired of pretending you’re not scared.Tired of wondering if you’ll ever feel safe….in your body, in your home, in this country, in your skin. I wish I could sit with you now.Take your little hand and whisper this truth into
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The Knife Is Still in My Hand
In my family, Christmas was never just a holiday. It was a decision. A test of loyalty. A rehearsal for guilt. A lesson in what love requires. This is a story about Noche Buena (Christmas), fractured families, and what happens when belonging is conditional. Let me take you back. The smell of roasting pork should mean celebration.
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Solidarity on a Subway Car
When showing up matters more than anything It’s one of my lifelong dreams to publish a book (a memoir of sorts). Slowly over time I been writing stories about events in my life. It’s started as a blog, but lately I been putting more thought and effort into actually doing it. Here is one of
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She told us to come…
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” She told me to come. To dream. To work. To build.To chase a promise whispered from the New York harbor.I heard her there, standing on my raft, the wind thick with salt and hope. They said we were welcome.But the welcome mat
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Growing up in Cuba meant…
…mango juice running down your chin in the middle of July,your abuela swatting flies with one hand and your nalgas with the other.It meant novenas in candlelit living rooms,and Celia Cruz blaring from a busted speaker while someone yelled,“¡Baja esa música!”, but never really meant it. It meant knowing how to pack a suitcase even
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Dear Dad,
I didn’t call you this Father’s Day. Not because I forgot. Not because I was too busy. But because I’ve been holding something inside for years that I’m finally ready to put down. The truth is, calling you on days like this has never felt easy. It’s always been something I do, not something I feel. I
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I Choose me
I do not need to control how others see me.Their story is theirs. Mine is rooted in truth.I show up with clarity, respect, and boundaries.That is enough. I will not chase approval.I will not explain myself to ease someone else’s discomfort.My worth is not up for negotiation.My integrity is not up for debate. I choose
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Drained
Today I felt, ….drained. Drained from the everyday responsibilities one has to do with everyday things. I woke up already carrying something heavy.I had plans. Good ones. Ones that were supposed to make me feel accomplished, proud, in control. But instead, I sat in stillness. Not the peaceful kind, more like….. stuckness.Marvel helped me forget,
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The moment I realized I was different was…
…when my father told my brother, cousin, and me a joke about an elephant with long eyelashes. We were sitting under the shade of a mango tree in my grandmother’s backyard, eating afternoon merienda. My cousin – visiting from Santa Clara – asked my dad to tell us a joke. My father loved telling jokes.
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Dear body,
Hello there… You are one of the most complicated relationships I have ever been a part of and trust me I have had a couple of complicated ones. I have been 80 lbs pounds lighter with you and somehow still miserable. I have been 40 pounds heavier and completely beside myself depressed. My relationship with
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3 Xs with Dos Equis
—-JesseIsn’t that Jesse over there?” Said a friend as I turned from the pool and took of swig of my beer. Silence. Isn’t it?” More silence. With the taste of beer fresh in my mouth I replied, “Yes”. “Yeah it is”.I thought of this moment a lot. I thought of what I would feel seeing my ex
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De donde sos?
I pause and wonder the question very carefully. How do they event want me to answer? How do I even begin to answer? And what is the intent behind this question? What seems to be a fairly straight forward answer has become one that I sometimes find myself unable to speak of . “Where
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A taste of America (live)
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A taste of America
The emotion overwhelms me as I hop onto the bus. It’s a particularly hot day and all of the children around me are screaming from excitement. The air is damp and sweaty bodies touch each other as we board the bus. The smell of body odor is so rank that it’s hard to breathe; it
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Hello there Chicago
After some wondering around I have decided to call Chicago my home now. With anxiety and also a sense of excitement, I welcome this city. I am reminded of 10 years ago, my move from Brooklyn to the Bronx: how significant that seemed at the time…move from one borough to another. As I look out
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Untitled
I close my eyes and transcend to a place where time does not exist. Emotions of love, happiness, and joy overwhelm me. How such a place can exist is beyond me. But it lives there in a place where everything its safe, translucent, and time its just a grain of sand on an ocean beach.