Dear FAMMily,
Before I say what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving, I should say: I am a terrible cook. If I were to cook for the holiday, no one would eat it! So I’m grateful that my husband is a phenomenal chef. We call our cuisine “cubarican,” a blend of Cuban and Puerto Rican dishes.
Most of all, I’m grateful to be able to spend time with my sons because I got a second chance through clemency on a 35-year sentence. More than 30 people came to my welcome home party, and my sister and I saw my mom dance and sing for the first time. It was a potluck in our backyard, and everyone brought something to celebrate.
When I was in prison, Thanksgiving was one of the hardest days for me, but I worked hard to practice gratitude: Gratitude for the precious time with my kids in the visiting room, for the teachers at their schools who sent me letters about how they were doing. For my parents telling me what Pokémon my sons were into so I could talk to them about Pikachu and Jigglypuff on our 15-minute phone calls. But still, holidays were rough.
This Thanksgiving and through the holidays, my family will be making the homemade empanada recipe that has been passed down through generations of my family. Everyone’s involved—the kids, their friends, even their girlfriends! We had to buy an industrial piece of baking equipment because we make so many!
