Writings

I write memoir because I believe that making sense of my story will help my readers bring more meaning to their lives.

Personal Essays / Memoir

My Books and I

Chicago Quarterly Review
Chosen as Notable Essay by Best American Essays, 2019 edition

If you could have lifted the roof of my house when I was growing up, you would have often found twelve people in the living room, each with their nose buried in a book, and nobody talking to each other.

Writing on a Dare

Wisdom Well

The man ascended a steep mountain, his long white beard flying in the wind. As he arrived at the top, he paused, took a flute from his sash, and started playing. The melody bounced off the surrounding hills, filled the valley below and made the tree branches dance.

The Breast of Me

The Manifest-Station

She’s looking straight at the camera, standing relaxed and confident in the front patio, right by the gate that opens to Avenida del Tibidabo.

Memoir: Quenching the Thirst

Women Writers, Women’s Books

My introduction to writing memoir was random. I had read some memoirs and I liked them, but I’d always focused on writing fiction or academic essays. “Always” is an exaggeration. My commitment to writing was flimsy. I’d write in spurts, get a project done, and then spend years without scribbling even a note in a journal.

I Used To Hide My Abortions—Not Anymore

GirlTalk HQ

The United States Supreme Court has overturned Roe Vs Wade, which could lead to complete bans or severe restrictions on abortions on many states. The fact that conservative legislatures have thwarted women’s freedom to make this difficult and often necessary choice, enrages me but also galvanizes me.

The Names That Vanished, The Ghosts That Remained

Stirring Literary Journal

When my mother was pregnant with her fourth child, who would be born eleven months apart from the third, my paternal grandmother advised, “If it’s a girl, call her Dominga. That way you won’t get pregnant again.”

The Dress

The Penmen Review

It was turquoise green with black side panels—a simple sheath in stretchy nylon that fit in a fist. When I tried it on I instantly knew it was mine.

The Thin Black Taste of Summer

Front Porch Journal

“Here, your allowance.” Mom gives me two and half pesetas, like every Saturday afternoon when we are in San Julián.

“Gracias!” I rush upstairs to put one and a half pesetas in my nightstand, hidden under my journal. The other peseta I keep in my pocket.

Building Friendships After Fifty

Better After Fifty

It had come to this: I wanted friends, and I was ready to spend money to get them.

A Purposeful Life is a Brave Life

Wisdom Well

Four years ago, at 57, I quit my plum corporate job to have more time for writing. Everybody said it took a lot of courage, but I knew I still harbored many fears.

‘Mis libros y yo’: por una biblioteca minimalista

La Vanguardia

La autora cuenta como sus libros sobrevivieron a mudanzas y relaciones hasta sucumbir bajo la influencia de Marie Kondo y dar paso a otros nuevos, en este texto aparecido en la ‘Chicago Quaterly Review’.

Si hubieras podido levantar el techo de mi casa durante mi infancia, habrías encontrado a doce personas en la sala, cada una con la nariz enterrada en un libro y sin decirse una palabra.

Articles

How Two Authors Collaborated on a Biography

Jane Friedman’s Blog

An interview with Julia Scheeres, co-author of Listen, World!, a page turning biography of Elsie Robinson, the most read woman journalist of the twentieth century, until now unjustly forgotten.

Choose the Perfect Title for Your Novel or Memoir: 7 Authors Offer Tips

Jane Friedman’s Blog

Your book title, along with the cover, is a key marketing tool: it must prompt potential readers to pick up the book in a bookstore or click on it online because they want to know more.

How to Get Your Family to Actually Use a Password Manager

WIRED.com

Whether it’s about sharing your Netflix login or getting your affairs in order, here are tips for convincing your loved ones to organize and protect their accounts too.

Bees and Monsters: Politics, Democracy, and Symbolism in ‘The Ardent Swarm’ and ‘The Spirit of the Beehive’

Newfound.org

Despite four decades, a continent, and a language separating the creation of two powerful works of art, the new novel “The Ardent Swarm” by Tunisian Yamen Manai and the classic Spanish film from 1973 “The Spirit of the Beehive” by director Víctor Erice share many crucial elements: setting, plot, symbols, and cultural and literary traditions.

Review of artist Martivon Galindo

Abstract Magazine TV

From fragmentation to integration: the evolution of Martivón Galindo’s inner world and artistic expression

One of the first things that hits you when you look at Salvadoran artist Martivón Galindo’s works is her complex representation of female figures. Women fill the frame with their spine cracked open from top to bottom.

Shifting the Paradigm: Latinos in Tech Building a Movement Beyond the 3%

Huff Post

Latinos make up 33% of Silicon Valley’s population, yet only represent 3% of the workforce in the tech companies that are located in this region of the State.

“My Latina Giving Circle is my Home Away from Home”

Latino Community Foundation

In August 2016, seven years after she came to the U.S. to reunite with her American fiancé, Marc, and later marry him, Cecilia became an American citizen.

My Books

Juego de Voces

Ediciones Navegante, 1997.

Mercè Rodoreda: Una bibliografia crítica.

Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 2003. (Fundació Mercè Rodoreda Award.)

Mercè Rodoreda: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography

Scarecrow Press, 2004.