Catherine Gigante-Brown

herbalist. shiatsu practitioner. healer.

I left Cuba in 1949, when I was 11 years old. Back then, I didn't understand why my mother sent me away. I still don't.

erotic. intimate. unapologetic.

Why do we venerate individuality in adults but condemn it in children?

The hell with his elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases. Iambic pentameter is cruel and unusual punishment.

I fumbled with my lace bra, hoping my silicone form wouldn't fall out from the left cup. I wasn't exactly ready . . . yet I was.

I realized my father was from a generation that never said those three little words. He was saying he loved me without them. But I didn't realize it then.

To the tattoo artist, I was a flesh canvas that she could transform into something beautiful.

Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions wasn't your typical cutesie baby fare. It was raw, real—and unabashedly funny.

I try. I really do. But whenever I attempt to embrace my husband Peter’s Cuban culture, I always screw up.