Posted on Wed, Jun. 17, 2009

I've worked in Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis, Md., and Orlando, but as Dorothy told Toto, "There's no place like home.'' I came back home in October 2005, starting as an Assistant City Editor at The Miami Herald, and in December 2007 I was tapped Deputy Metro Editor. I coordinated award-winning coverage of South Florida's Latin American and Caribbean communities. I can relate to their struggles … I arrived in South Florida from Cuba not yet 5 years old, only months after the Cuban revolution. My dad wasn't rich … just a man with a taxi and a dream, married to my mom, a school teacher. As the Castro regime's firing squads became all the rage in Cuba and tourists wisely kept away, my parents made a life-changing decision to move to Miami to protect their young family.

Writing has always been my passion, so it was natural for me to jump into the Metro columnist job when it became open in 2008 and now to the Editorial Board. Championing the community's best interests is serious business, and the board's goal is to deliver a lively exchange of ideas … in print and video.

I love South Florida, having graduated from Miami Senior High and Miami-Dade Community College before heading to the University of Maryland where I earned a bachelor's in journalism and a minor in political science. Before the Herald, I worked at UPI and the Orlando Sentinel. I've been blessed with a wonderful husband who shares my passion for truth and justice, and we've raised two sons … a Florida State Seminole and a University of Florida Gator. I always tell them, there's no place like home.