1. SMILE AT LIFE
Whenever we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from—and there were plenty of those moments for us growing up—my mother would always have a solution. Whether it was sending my dad off to work in el norte or crossing the Rio Grande herself, or even something as simple as turning our pet chicken into caldo de pollo or fried chicken, nothing ever seemed impossible to my mother. She was luchista and still is. That was the one thing she always demanded of us too. Never give up! Smile at life; not smiling at it only makes you feel worse.
