At 32 weeks pregnant with her daughter, my cousin’s vision suddenly began cutting out. As she stood trying to do her job as a pharmacy tech, confusion set in. She couldn’t count by fives, her ability to do simple tasks began to fade—and the pharmacist on staff believed (correctly) that she was in some kind…
I love myself a good thin mint … or five. I agree with this disappointed cookie consumer when she says “I’m gonna sue those Girl Scouts. After 3 boxes, I’m neither thin nor minty.” True story. When I was young, my friend was in Girl Scouts and so therefore I was dying to be in…
Not that it’s anyone’s business, but my family needs my income. When I’m not writing for The Chris Salcedo Show on Houston’s KSEV700, I’m working 40+ hours a week as a corporate writer, and I play a major role in my family’s financial picture. This job will allow us to send our kids to the…
Learning how to crawl? Check. Learning how to eat solid foods? Check. Learning he’ll always be presumed guilty until proven innocent because he’s a man? Double check. In the era of #MeToo, I’m about to write something controversial; something that many circles would deem outrageous on its face. But here goes: my son is being…
Remember Dexter’s Laboratory? The child prodigy with a secret laboratory that his bumbling family knew nothing about? In one episode, Dexter was annoyed by the fact that he had to study for his French test instead of playing around in his laboratory. To fix that problem, he came up with a machine that would play…
A few months ago as the graphically disturbing The Handmaid’s Tale” rose to prominence, captivating female audiences across the country—I came across this piece: “How ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ Became the Most Unintentionally Relevant Show Ever.” The premise of the claim? That in the era of Donald Trump, a show about “anti-bigotry, racism, sexism, ignorance, deception…
Living in Mexico, I remember sticking out like a sore thumb. Blonde hair, blue eyes, VERY white—I was the epitome of obvious. I didn’t have a car, so to attend school (and later on teach preschool) I was often walking miles at a time or taking buses. That meant that for significant periods of the…
There’s absolutely nothing, nothing as relaxing for me than to curl up with a cup of tea and a really good classic movie. One of my favorites came on the other day: “Giant.” It’s a film about Texas cattle man Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) who meets and marries a girl back east (Elizabeth Taylor), and…
I remember the very first time I got hate mail for something I wrote. I was 16 and had just landed a gig as a junior columnist at a local newspaper. I wrote about everything from school issues to exchange programs and cultural profiles—by and large it was pretty chill, uncontroversial stuff. I was so…
You might wonder why Mommy didn’t go and march for you. You might wonder why there are no Facebook pictures of us two out there together, like so many of your future counterparts’ mommies posted.
That’s why I’m writing you this letter.
A Future Free 