My Beloved World (46 page)

I preferred boys’ toys, like guns, to dolls. With Papi, Junior, and Mami, beside the Christmas tree decorated by Papi.

Birthday girl with
(left to right)
my godmother, Carmin; Mom, Celina; and maternal aunt Aurora

Celina
(center)
was the Jackie O of Bronxdale, but Carmen
(right)
was a beauty, too. Abuelita is second from top left, flanked by her sisters. Gloria is behind Carmen, and in the front-row peanut gallery, from left, are Junior, Nelson, me, Eddie, and Miriam.

With cousins:
(from left)
Eddie, Miriam, Nelson, and Lillian. Miriam and I often dressed like twins.

Trying very hard at age four to match Mami’s glamour, both of us dressed in new hats for Easter

¡Vámonos de parranda!
: Abuelita loved a picnic.

At Blessed Sacrament, I first discovered love of learning and a lust for gold stars.

Senior year at Cardinal Spellman High School

In the Princeton yearbook, class of 1976

The Bronx comes to Princeton for the weekend: Kevin on the left, standing next to me; Mami on far right, followed by Ken Moy and Junior. Kneeling, front left, is Felice Shea.

Beside one of the bronze tigers outside Nassau Hall

In the kitchen with Titi Aurora and Mami on a visit home from Yale

High school sweethearts just after the wedding in the Lady Chapel at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Mami’s friend Elisa helped design the dress, and Kevin rented the tuxedo.