Mary Schmich advises, "Keep your old love letters." I don't have many of those. I have, however, kept my old letters.

One of the most enduring stories that I carry comes from my mother's Midwestern family. It reappears in my writing again and again.

I discover myself at the crossroads of different places and forms and communities.

Of the books that are published, few find wide audiences. Writers can’t control those outcomes, but they can finish what they start.

In conversations about parenthood, I don’t have advice or stories. In fact, I still identify with the infant, or the toddler.

I wonder if I might start – or end – each week with a crónica, a uniquely Latin American medium.