First Lesson — My grandma raised me when my mom decided to immigrate to the United States and couldn’t get my sister and me papers. It sounds more horrible than what it really was. To be honest, I didn’t know any of this until I became older. …

I Really Don’t — The audacity! Stop being lazy, and work has become the comment heard worldwide. And with so much tragedy and injustices currently going on, that comment is as tone-deaf and out of touch as tone-deaf, and out-of-touch comments can get. It’s ridiculous. To say that comment stayed with me is putting…

About one in four Hispanics have heard of Latinx, but just three use it, according to a new study- Pew Research. In the Dominican Republic, no one ever called me Hispanic, or Latina, or Latinx. I was just Joa. However, the Dominican Republic does differentiate between blacks and whites by…

I was ghosted so much at one point, I started doing it to others. But not at first. No, at first, I was offended. Flabbergasted. How can you not face me and tell me it’s over? Was the thought percolated in my head over and over months after it happened? I can’t…

Sometimes making unpopular choices can be challenging. This is especially true if it goes against everything your mind and body want to do. The Army taught me how to embrace this, though. When I was deployed as a Tech Supply NCOIC, my job was demanding but rewarding. As an SSA…

I think we all have a story to tell. A story that — while it may not be earth-shattering or particularly important in the grand scheme of things — has an impact on the way we see the world. In this book, you’ll find stories from people who are just…

and write what you know — I know what they mean when they say, ‘write what you know.’ Recently I had the pleasure of reviewing an ARC. I love reading advanced copies because it makes me feel like Christopher Columbus, who discovered nothing but still thought he did. …

Can we rebuild the U.S. like Germany after WWII? — I know changing laws, voting, and eradicating loopholes in police union contracts are on the top of our to-do list. As it should be. But who’s going to de-brainwash the racists? At first, I thought, we could wait them out, since that generation who lived and still yearn for Jim…

Choosing American Over Self — Latinos try so hard to be American in the United States, sometimes it kills us. This assimilation, pushed by our own family once we come into this country, has us losing ourselves to the point of extinction. We get to a point where we don’t know a word in English…