Like my parents and grandparents, I was born on Cuba, an island in the Caribbean. Both my parents were engineers, and my grandparents were a pharmacist with a 6th grade education, a math teacher, a seamstress, and a bus driver.
Most of my familia left family and the communities we loved a few years after I was born to secure a better life due to el período especial, a “Special Period” marked by great food insecurity for the citizens of the island. As a result, most of my family settled in Miami, even though some of us made a few stops around the world before reuniting there.
In Cuba and beyond, I was taught that where one person eats, two can eat, so where five eat, ten can eat, and so forth. My abuela embodies this saying by being the designated cake cutter at any celebration, since my grandma can cut the greatest number of slices out of anyone we know.
Miami is where I continue to live. It is where I am most deeply rooted, and where my parents, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, and school friends still live.
Because of my family background, food insecurity has always been an important issue to me —even before my current professional role as Assistant Research Professor at ASU. As a student, I collaborated with student groups and administrators to bring a food bank to our university, which was the only campus without one in the area. I vote, advocate, and petition for dignity for farmworkers in my state.
Many non-residents see Miami only as a place to vacation, while others see it as an important location for study. Miami has become a hub for climate resilience, climate migration, and climate gentrification research. While this research can be very positive for my community and people around the world, it is vital that my fellow residents steer this work.
In the same way that I expect researchers in Miami to respect and uplift the voices of the communities that I am a part of, I am committed to amplifying the voices and efforts of Maui Nui, as a guest in your community.
