Things have been considerably more hectic since then. A map of the Americas might come in handy right now. I left in 1982, when Guri's dam, then the second largest in the world, was still a few years away from completion. The house where we lived is now part of the shallow bottom of the dam's retention lake. I've been told that, on sunny days, you can see the roofs of my old neighborhood's duplexes.
Memories are like that.
My first published piece was a film review for The Orlando Sentinel , a newspaper associated with The Chicago Tribune . I was sixteen. The gig ended in 1993, as did high school. I was accepted into the University of Central Florida, where I intended to major in Film. What my future had in store was a four-year foray in my mother country.