Pink Boots and a Machete (12 page)

My grandmother, Mima, along with thousands of other Cubans, was forced to “volunteer” cutting sugarcane in the early days of Castro's regime.

 

In 1965, at age 20, my mom made the news as she stepped onto a boat fleeing Cuba, the only home she had ever known.

 

Here I am with my three mothers and grandfather. Left to right: Aunt Ica, Pipo, Mami, and Mima. I am wearing a Snow White dress Mima made me for my birthday.

 

I proudly wore the nurse's outfit Mima made for kindergarten career day. But it was not to be.

 

This was my chicken, Maggie, a beloved member of the large menagerie that shared our Miami house. I bet she thought my orange socks were cool.

 

On this day I was a beach babe on the lookout for sharks, though usually I ran around with a net catching hermit crabs or anything that swam into it.

 

Game day was the payoff for hours of grueling cheerleading practice. Nothing beat standing on the field listening to thousands of screaming fans—or hearing the national anthem performed.

 

We Miami Dolphins cheerleaders were a wild bunch with big hair. Several of the girls remain among my closest friends. But we've straightened our hair. I am on the right, second from the top.

 

I got to play with a capuchin monkey on my first expedition, to Guyana's Amazon, in May 1996. From then on, I have never stopped dreaming of my next adventure.

 

A seemingly magical force drew me to the edge of Guyana's spectacular Kaieteur waterfall and made me want to spread my wings and fly.

 

Dr. Patricia Wright and I took the first ever measurements and genetic samples from endangered silky sifakas in Madagascar's Marojejy National Park. Later I posed with Pat, my mentor and friend, and two silky sifakas.

 

When I first read about the black Perrier's sifaka, an inhabitant of Madagascar's Analamera Special Reserve, it had scarcely been studied and there were no photos. The genetic samples we obtained confirmed it as a distinct lemur species.