Like the original Pilgrims who were themselves newcomers to this continent, Thanksgiving is best understood through the eyes of more recent immigrants hundreds of years later. My Cuban dad says he liked the holiday from ...

What is a good deed? What's the point of trying to be good in a world that's clearly a mess? And how do you even begin to do that? These ...

Most women raise children. And some don't. Those of us who don't set sail for a different kind of life. Is the journey a chosen one or not? Are you a woman if you don't ...

Some people hate it, some people love it. Some people call it an evil in our society, while others revel in it. No, I am not talking about reality television. I am talking about ...

It seems like most couples get a "pass" during the first year of married life. This is the time when they simply get to know each other, spend time together, laugh, enjoy ...

Pride pulsated through my veins, turning me into a third-grader with Attention Deficit Disorder as I anticipated the inauguration of the Casa Acogida ("Hospitality House"). The house is a project that was four years ...

Oatmeal is not a favorite food of two-year-olds. Mine wasn't too thrilled to see it arrive on the breakfast table this morning. He ate grudgingly, intermittent spoonfuls hitting the table and floor. I cajoled it ...

Are we allowed to say "housewife" anymore? I doubt it's ever been a flattering word — brings to mind frumpy ladies in hair curlers with ambitions no grander than getting good deals on rump roasts ...

Salma Hayek beautifully portrays the joys and anguish of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in Frida (Miramax). The film reveals the gutsy-ness, persistence, brilliance, and pain of one of Mexico's most renowned artists. A ...

At the School of the Americas protest in Fort Benning, Georgia, on November 16th and 17th, people wore T-shirts that borrowed the words of President Bush: "All known ...

This year, to shed some light on All Souls Day (November 2), I had planned to write a beautiful, lovingly heartfelt tribute to my deceased uncle who was a Franciscan priest. If anyone deserves the ...

Can a government honestly say it's an advocate for the public's health while siding with the auto industry against electric cars quotas? It's doubtful given the ill effects of smog and pollution from gas guzzling automobiles. ...

This autumn one group of Americans has chosen their Halloween costumes and bought candy. Another group is painting skulls and looking through scrapbooks for favorite pictures of dead relatives. All Souls Day ...

My friends tell me that in their youth there was a pretty radical rivalry between Catholic school kids and public school kids in "CCD." I'll take their word for it, because Latino kids like me were ...

When I was about ten years old growing up in Havana, my friends and I made an awesome discovery. ...

In a family room filled with children and toys—dolls, blocks, puzzles and board games—was my brother Manny's big orange plastic Halloween pumpkin. Living in a Midwestern suburb in Illinois, this pumpkin's toy life was predictable and ...

Jack O'Lantern sat in the glow of Hell's ember, carving yet one more pumpkin in replacement of the rotting moldy one currently housing the Devil's coal. Having been rejected by Heaven and ...

We each have a breaking point. I reached mine one recent Sunday morning when, just before noon, I realized that I'd been awake for four hours and doing homework for four hours. I was reading ...

 Eucharist, a word Catholics, Orthodox, and Episcopalians/ Anglicans often use for communion and for the Mass, sounds pretty technical to many people these days. Yet in its origins in ...

Talked to any dead friends or relatives lately? John Edward says he does it all the time. You've probably heard of Edward, who hosts the syndicated Crossing Over. A self-described "medium," he stands in a gallery of ...