It's UPS with two parcels! ... a handsome lad, guesses it's my birthday and asks how old I am. He acts surprised he's a decade younger. We linger at … - Julia Alvarez

I’m more in the Faulkner tradition. I’m writing my Spanish in English. Florid, flowing, expansive, rococo sounds, the sonority of Spanish closer to the Latin roots than the English, which has been also infused with Anglo Saxon, Germanic words. Really, it’s part of my English. It’s how I write English.

I remember the whirr and whine of her black Singer,
the gold traceries on the cast iron rod
by the wheel that lifted and lowered the needle.
Threading, eyepieces, winding the turquoise string
through hooks, around miniscule wheels, up and down,
her hands clever in labyrinths, ...the needle racing through gingham, poplin, seersucker, cambric,
the pedal pressed heavily down with the weight of one woman,
eye intent, hands feeding and receiving the fabric.

Gloved with two potholders, I listened
while she told me not long ago
a girl could not marry until she could roll
her dough so transparent her beloved
could read his Bible through it.