Because sometimes it needs to be reaffirmed.

What It's Like to be a Cuban Girl

It's like being born with spices in your blood
And being named after your papi's favorite cigars
It's getting diamonds pierced in your ears at five days
Wearing Royal Violets perfume every day until age 15,
And throwing a fifteenth birthday party
That costs your parents more than your first car

It's loving Martí and hating Castro
Lighting candles at Mass for La Caridad and Celia Cruz
It's having to kiss every Cuban cheek like you're related
It's looking European, but feeling Caribbean
And seething inside while smiling politely
When someone asks if you're Puerto Rican

It's having black beans and plantains with every meal
Meals at every party, parties for any occasion
It's serving your skinny uncle piles of lechón on Nochebuena
While your three hundred pound aunt sips at a mojito
It's learning to dance merengue from your papi or your abuelito
And knowing the difference between a guajira and a guaracha

It's loving the hot, humid air of Miami and hating hurricanes
Drinking cortaditos and dealing with chaperona
It's talking too fast in English and running your words together
in Spanish It's being born and raised in a free country

And being madly in love
With a restless island you've never even seen......