Ricky, age 9, in Monrovia, Liberia

This is my memoir, Saving Mijo. The stories follow my experiences growing up as a mixed race child of a bipolar father from New Jersey and a mystic mother from Puerto Rico. It begins in my mom’s living room when I was having a come-to-Jesus moment with myself in my 30’s, and then recounts the stories starting from the age six when I was washed out to sea in Mexico. The stories chronicle our family’s experiences overseas as participants in an experimental family Peace Corps program in the early ’70’s. The memoir continues with our return back home to Washington State, as I stumbled my way through school, college, marriage and parenting while attempting to reconcile the what and why of my life. Saving Mijo is ultimately about redemption and the expectations I had to let go of, in myself and others, to be able to live the life I truly desired.

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