I had a really playful childhood. We lived in an apartment complex. My dad lived in the same complex with his sister and her family. He had two of his cousins and their families living there, too. I grew up with my cousins, and I was very lucky. We played together. We played ball and house. There was an older girl that used to take care of us. She used to take us to the little playground. I liked getting on a big red plate that we had to lay down on and that went around and around. That was fun. My aunt took her girls and me to the playground sometimes. My aunt used to get me on the swing with her, and it was fun I was a happy child! We had to move out of the apartments when I was six. My aunt and her family moved to another city. That wasn’t hard because my dad used to take us to see our family often. My cousins and I used to play still. They had a big yard to play. The year of 1983, my parents took me to Mexico for the first time. I loved it. My mother’s family made me a party just because. I remember that my aunt and uncle wanted to hold me all the time. What made it so much fun was having a piñata which my mother has never used. My aunts and cousins made the piñata in the shape of an elephant. The food served was enchiladas because they’re my mom’s favorite. They also had guacamole tostadas and beans for me. The music came from cassettes played on the stereo, mostly “Mexican tropical” that sounds like Cuban salsa but is a little different. My uncle also sang to me playing the guitar. I had a lot of fun and laughed a lot with my cousins: Judith (pronounced You-DEET), Araceli, Rocio, Felipe, Tono (Tonyo), Miguel Angel (called Ata), Omar, Victor, & Saul (Saw-OOL). They would throw me the ball and I would kick it back to them. When I would play basketball with the boys, my cousin, Omar, and I would go way across from the basket was. From there, he would give me the ball to hold until we got to the basket so he could throw it in. Sometimes, we would make it to the basket and sometimes the other boys would take the ball away from me so they could make a point. My girl cousins and I would make food out of leaves and dirt. On the last night before we would come home from Mexico, my family would always get together. I remember one night at my uncle’s house. My cousins, Tina and I made a train with everybody holding on to each other.. I was the front of the train. We ran through the kitchen, the living room and back outside. There were 12 of us.