Introduction

Introduction

Your roots, where you come from, your family, religion, culture ….all have an impact on the person you will become. For me, I came from two very distinct religions and culture. I represented the collision of many people coming together as one DNA.

My father is a Holocaust survivor.  He was born and raised in Lodz, Poland.  At the age of 15, his family was placed in a ghetto … his brother, mother and father. After the war,  he was the sole survivor. I always wondered what something this tragic and this horrific can do to someone. After seeing the worst of humanity, how to start over?  What is it in people who have endured the worst of human deprivation that pushes them to continue, to start over and for some, even to love life.

That is my dad.  He loves life. At 93, he is in great shape.  He swims the ocean every day. He eats what he wants, which is now really taking a toll on his health since he loves salt and he really needs to cut back. His mind is still sharp, although the skip in his step has been replaced by a walking cane.  

I always attributed his long healthy life to his ability not to dwell. When other people are still stuck in a argument or hold grudges, dad just moves on to what is next. He is very present. He could never understand why people were so petty. Being a Holocaust survivor gives you scale. Everything that is going wrong or not as it should be is weighed against genocide. How bad could anything really be when you are talking about the delicate balance between life and death?

Mom too comes from a humble background. She was born and raised in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, known as Borike by the Taino, the  native people of the Caribbean Islands. She is one of 13 children and was raised Catholic.

I grew up with stories of how Mom had to share one doll amongst all her sisters. My grandmother worked hard to buy shoes for all 13 kids. By the time everyone got a pair, she had to start all over.

My cherished memories of my grandparents home is the over 40 cousins that also visited and made each encounter an adventure. Grandmother Adelina was one of the best cooks ever, always having huge pots of cooked food ready for any visit. I loved her bacalaitos fritos and her limbe de coco.

I come from a lineage of strong matriarchs, women who loved their family, were incredible cooks, understood the need of discipline and compassion to raise conscientious citizens and women that would walk through fire to defend and protect the ones they loved.

Mom is one of those rare beauties. Dad fell in love with her on first sight. So here is a Jewish Eastern European man marrying a beautiful and much younger Catholic girl from a humble family with deep roots and connection to the earth. She converts to Judaism and they proceed to start a family almost immediately; raising us culturally Jewish.

There’s the rub. The collision of two distinct worlds and cultures, bringing together an interesting melting pot of DNA,  was a recipe for something curious and unusual to evolve.

My childhood was spent between the beach and the mountains. We were members of the Caribe Hilton, renting Cabana 6 for  over 30 years. If you ever visited the Hilton during the holidays, you would see a string of tables with men playing gin rummy. Dad was always among them. He loved to play and boasted that he played to pay for the fancy Sunday night dinners out.

My all time favorite place was the farm. It was located in Cayey, and our specific property was called The Rock, named after the huge mountain rock that graced this indigenous land.

My sisters and I each had our own pony in addition to several horses that called this sacred land home. As kids we would mount the horses and ride outside the farm on the muddy dirt roads looking for adventure. We loved pretending we were cowboys and cowgirls and would visit local cantinas, tying our horses to a wooden stake asking for a Malta as if it was a shot of whiskey.

Unknown to me then was the deep roots that pulled me to this sacred land and perhaps unbeknownst to me, the energy and beings that might have been working with me since such a tender age.