Big day for papi and abuelo!

Today was a huge day for my papi and my abuelo, and my husband and I were both sorry that we couldn't be there to share the big moment.

My papi, who's recovered well from his surgery of a few months back, got all dolled up (donning his characteristic bow tie and new herringbone jacket) and read a paper about his father's, don Manuel García Díaz's, work on one of the most important Puerto Rican authors of the nineteenth century, Alejandro Tapia y Rivera (poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist).

The photo, courtesy of my mami, captures the moment when papi read his ponencia, celebrating the work of my abuelo, who, as my father has told me, was the first Puerto Rican to do his doctoral work on a Puerto Rican author, Tapia y Rivera, at the University of Puerto Rico Department of Spanish in the early 20th century.

My abuelo's groundbreaking work on Tapia y Rivera was being recognized today at the Puerto Rican Atheneum, where morning and afternoon panels discussed Tapia y Rivera's work and significance.

A month or so ago, when I was in Puerto Rico helping my parents, during and after my dad's stay in the hospital, my mami and I met up with the organizer of the event, the author Roberto Ramos Perea (seated left in the photo), who told us that the Atheneum wanted my papi to read his paper on abuelo. My mami and I were very pleased, and knew my dad would be, too, yet we couldn't imagine that he would be able to be there. But even the wildest dreams do come true!

Though I wasn't there to cheer on my papi at what he does best: enlighten us with his visionary scholarship, and while I missed this important recognition of my abuelo, a man whom I loved dearly and who spoiled me for all the years he was a part of my life, the joy and the pride and the magic of that moment have all traveled through ocean and time and mountains and have reached me, right here, in the middle of my beaming heart.