2. IronI learn many of the family stories this Christmas, but I’ve heard versions of them before. We’re at Monica and Danny’s home in New Jersey. Monica is my cousin, Titi Lourdes’s daughter. My parents hate driving to Jersey because of the traffic, but we haven’t seen everyone in a while. It’s the first party Uncle Tomás has attended since the TSA caught him with five kilos of Colombian heroin at JFK. His parole officer is away for the holiday. “That b***h,” he says to me. “She’s always up in my ass.” Dad and I are squeezed onto Monica’s couch with all six Paoli siblings: Lourdes, Gloria, Carlos, Mike, Tomás, and Mom. I’m snacking on plátanos verdes.
My cousin Little Mike arrives from his night shift, bald, tattooed, and sporting an oversized white T-shirt. Mom always tells him to get ri
