James Daniel Nelson

One day, there was a knock at my door. I’d been watching the boys play a video game, cheering on whoever was winning at the time so as not to favor one over the other (although I wanted David to…

When I was eighteen, my best friend was Eddie Crespo, a recovering heroin addict twelve years my senior. More than a friend, he was a mentor, a teacher, a kind of father figure – albeit a flawed one. 
He was…

My grades were seldom stellar, but once or twice, they were good enough—perhaps a couple of Bs, maybe some Cs, and sometimes only one fail. As usual, Mamita would praise the genius but misunderstood level of my IQ. She suggested…

In 1963, right after I was born, my parents, Eugenio and Virginia Boria, separated. They never got divorced; neither believed in divorce. My mother kept her married name and the apartment on 105th Street in Spanish Harlem. 
It was decided…

My mother held my sweaty little seven-year-old hand extra tight so I couldn’t wriggle free. I desperately wanted to join the “bad” kids in their unruly game of tag, weaving up, down, and around the aisles and pews of the…

Think of that song that you absolutely adore; the one that changed your life or the way you think. The song that you dedicated to your husband or wife; the one you danced to at your wedding. We all have…

I had a stupid morning. A stupid morning is a specific kind of bad or sad morning. A stupid morning is a combination of the two, but for stupid reasons. My reason dajour was this: It took me almost two…

I used to teach scripture; nothing too fancy, I wasn’t a theologian or a scholar (just like I’m not a writer.) One of my favorite methods of teaching was to take a verse and break it down to its bare…

I have four arms.
That is a very bold statement, I know. Nevertheless, I am telling you, as a simple matter of fact, that I have four arms. There are the two that are obvious, that you can see and…

 I was thirty-four years old, a year or so after my father died, and I was in my mother’s apartment with my sister, Cachie. She and I were having a friendly squabble about something or other. She and I were…