(Originally posted September 14, 2010.) La moñita is disappearing. Moñita is the Spanish word for “little ponytail” and it’s what we’ve always called the hair patch at the center of my dad’s hairline. Removing his baseball cap reveals the remaining gray strands. Back in the day, la moñita was a child’s fistful-worth of wiry black […]
Category: This Boricua hair
Fallen angel.
It began as a not-torqued brain day. I knew it as I lay on the pull-out couch, even before I opened my eyes. Sign #1: The window in my in-laws’ basement does not have light-blocking curtains, but the brightness did not anger me. It was quiet. Only the soft hum and whistle of my husband […]
Sugar and spice.
Perched regally in my booster chair and resplendent in my tutu, I was almighty. I gazed upon my kingdom. What I saw pleased me: potted herbs and a mini-mist bottle on the kitchen windowsill. The shiny copper canister that I knew held a spoon embedded in sugar. The steam puffs that rose from the pot […]
Little town blues.
It was a torqued-brain day. This is different than a code-red day: I wasn’t at maximum anxiety, only slightly breathless and jumpy. The excess nervous energy twisted the grey mass behind my eyes only slightly. The flood of excess stress hormone in my system is less, but still gives me a dull, insistent headache like […]
Hair Dressing: What Mayonnaise Taught This Latina Good Girl About Bad Hair
Thank you to Latina Voices for publishing my essay “Hair Dressing“. It began as a short post on la bloga on March 2015: This boricua hair.