I Almost Kept This to Myself
A labor of love. A legacy in progress. A table set for everyone I hold dear.
This venture — The Global Perspective — is a labor of love. It is intended for my family and friends around the world, so they can always keep a piece of me close. But more than anything, it is the legacy I hope to leave my children.
As parents, we rarely feel like we are doing things right, or that we are enough. Having a teenager at home who challenges every word you say and dismisses every bit of advice with an “I already know how to do things” doesn’t exactly help. That quiet feeling of failure and helplessness has a way of lingering.
So I consider this blog my escape. A place where, without agenda, I can speak freely, express honestly, and share what I know — in the hope that someday it will mean something to the people closest to me.
The Kitchen
When my husband and I married, we moved to New York City. Just a suitcase each, a few dollars in our pockets, and the savings from my last job. In our heads, love was going to be all we needed. It almost was — but with me unemployed and him working ninety-hour weeks during his medical residency on a ‘teacher’s’ salary, I had to get creative about keeping our spark alive without breaking the bank.
Food became my love language. I already knew the basics my mother had taught me growing up, but the memory of decadent flavors from around the world flooded my curiosity, and I began to cook in earnest. When motherhood arrived and my kids entered their picky-eater era, I needed an outlet for my frustration — and that is how “From My Kitchen to the World” was born. Every new challenge gave me one more reason to cook.
The Press Room
Like it did for every human on the planet, COVID changed my life in 2020. It was a year of tremendous challenges for me and for the people closest to us. I did the only things I could do: homeschool, keep my kids moving and entertained, and cook relentlessly during lockdown.
Then, two dear friends approached me with a request — would I write something food-related for a new blog they had started? I said yes, not knowing what was waiting on the other side of that decision. Suddenly, I realized there was so much more I needed to say beyond just cooking. They gave me a platform, and it woke up a hunger for storytelling I didn’t know I had. I haven’t stopped since.
The Savvy Traveler
Being born into a multicultural family is the greatest privilege of my life. And like most privileges, it came with its own set of challenges — ones I only truly understood once I became a mother raising children in the diaspora.
My childhood was epic. Every summer meant traveling to Venezuela and Austria, savoring each culture, and spending long, unhurried days with family. Back in Puerto Rico, just the four of us — my parents, my sister, and me — we were fully present for every birthday party and special event. It felt seamless then. It is only as an adult that I understand why those summers meant so much, and why it feels so lonely to raise children abroad, far from the people who love them most.
It is not easy to be here when it is your in-laws’ anniversary or your parents’ birthday and you cannot be there to hug them. It is even more heartbreaking for my husband and me to sit alone at our children’s recitals and graduations, surrounded by other families, wishing our people were beside us.
And yet — travel is what has kept me woven into everyone’s life. It has always been my favorite extracurricular activity. I have a deep passion for it, but I have also learned that I have very little patience for wasted time. Every trip is too short. So I have mastered the art of minimalism, efficiency, and staying dynamic. No child is too young. No flight is too long. No corner of a destination is too small to deserve my full attention.
The Global Perspective
Living a multicultural life has given me a point of view that is uniquely my own — shaped by the people I have met, the places I have lived, and the trials and failures I have collected along the way. I try to practice kindness. I try to be a thoughtful parent. And through all of it, I believe I have built a life that is lived with purpose, efficiency, and intention.
Through this page, I only hope you take away one thing — one idea, one recipe, one shift in perspective — and make it your own. Consider it a gift from someone who is simply glad to be sitting at the same table as you.
