I caught up with Zarela after the class where she delighted students with her food and had them hooting with laughter at her jokes. She talked about her past, her present, and most important, her future.
On a “Mami moment” with her mother Aida Desouches, who named her Zarela because the name would one day look good in lights:
When my mother was dying I said, “Did you have a happy life? She said, “No, because I had to compromise too much. I would have wanted to live the life you have lived.” I said, “You have. You made my life possible and I took you everywhere. You were part of everything that I did.”
