Growing up in Spain, tennis was one of the most popular sports, just about everyone played tennis at school. I started playing when my family moved to Madrid and our parents became members of the snooty Apostol Santiago Club, where we could only play wearing white. I’m sure my mother was behind this ploy since […]
The Heart Wants What It Wants
The American Dictionary says that this phrase means “our emotions and desires can be unpredictable and not always governed by logic or reason.” Supposedly, it was used by Emily Dickinson in a letter to Mary Bowles in the spring of 1862 upon the death of Mary’s husband, Samuel Bowles, the editor and publisher of the […]
Poetic Justice?
Like everyone else, I was profoundly moved by the tragedy in Texas’ Hill Country on the early hours of July 4th. To think about the young campers on a wonderful retreat, sleeping on their bunk beds, waking up to the raising waters from the Guadalupe River. What about the parents who didn’t know if their […]
Learning from Fairy Tales
I just finished an article about fairy tales in the works of Carmen Martín Gaite, one of my favorite novelists from Spain. She wrote a whimsical book, Little Red Riding Hood in Manhattan, where she deconstructed the fairy tale gender. Her protagonist, ten-year-old Sara Allen, takes a strawberry cake to her grandmother every week, but […]
Flying Out West
Flying to California has all the disadvantages of going to Europe: small seats, messy bathrooms, a six hours flight, and practically the same price—without any of the perks—three tasty meals (if you like airplane food like I do), with endless drinks and snacks, a little pillow and matching blanket, TV and film entertainment in front […]
The Pope Up Close
With all the excitement of the new pope being chosen today, it’s easy to think about the wonderful visit that Pope Francis made to Philadelphia in 2015. Coinciding with the World Meeting of Families, he spent the weekend of September 26-27 crisscrossing the city: from the Saint Charles Borromeo Seminar in the suburbs to the […]