The most admirable woman

In many ways, my mother and I are very different. For one, she's a mother, and I am not. She's a historian, and I'm a literary scholar. She sees most everything in blacks and whites, while I tend to perceive more gray areas. But we're also very similar, and that's not surprising because I've learned many valuable things from her.

From my mother, I learned to be strong and self-confident and a force of nature to be contended with. Also from her, I learned to laugh often and easily, and to be hopeful and to find beauty anywhere. I learned to fight for those who can't fight for themselves and to stand up to injustice and to be fearless when bravery is most needed.

(That doesn't mean that I won't run and scream like a banshee when a flying bug comes into the room -- as she will from a cucaracha -- so that's why I've qualified the bravery part.)

From my mother, I learned to be generous with those I love and to be ferociously loyal and a lioness when it comes to protecting them from harm. I learned my love of dogs from my mother, while she learned to appreciate cats (especially our nutty Darwin) later in her life.

One thing we don't share at all is my passion for clothes and shoes. My mother actually hates to shop. She doesn't understand where my frivolous side comes from, so that's one thing I sure didn't inherit from her.

More than just mother and daughter, my mother and I are friends. We enjoy each other's company and we keep in touch every day, even when half a land mass and half an ocean have stretched between us for the past seven years. Thanks to cyberspace, my mom and I usually know what's happening in each other's lives on a daily basis. I love that feeling, and I love that we both make that effort, especially since it helps to shrink the distance and to make it less real.

Today is my mami's birthday, and like last year, my husband and I are taking her out to dinner to her favorite seafood restaurant. I also love the fact that my husband and my mother get along great, and are always joking with each other.

While there are many ways in which my mother and I are similar, there are also many in which we're different, and that is as it should be. But I'm very proud of the ways in which I'm like her. She's the most admirable woman I know.

¡Feliz cumpleaños mamita!