The Echoes of Laughter Natalia Martinez

"The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance they find their own order - the continuous thread of revelation." Eudora Welty

What happened to our family was a bringing together, a meshing, a melting of histories, cultures, and outlooks. Just like the direction, the vertical angles, and the speed affect the movement of a thrown ball, and any small variation may consequently cause it to land nowhere near its targeted destination, seemingly picayune or adventitious personal events and historical moments have altered my course significantly.

Randomly brought together at a movie ticket line, my Russian mother and Cuban father are poignant testaments to the power of a moment. A date, years of ocean-wide separation, a long-awaited marriage, and then my childhood of learning, of interaction, of exploration, and yet of isolation from the harsh reality, flew by wonderful and warm reminders of my homeland. My parents took the decisive step to leave Cuba for Mexico in 1992, and there we were, thrown into our migrant odyssey for several years. At first persecuted by the Cuban government, we were soon blessed to become the first Cubans ever granted political asylum in Mexico by the UN, and proceeded...