An Introduction...

  My name is Mario. I am married to the girl of my dreams, Brenda. We have been side-by-side since 1974...high school sweet hearts and now married thirty years. We have two beautiful daughters, Honorable Daughter #1. Nikki and Honorable Daughter #2. Sheena, both are Daddy's Girlls and I don't give a poof who might disagree. Only My God, know's how much these three Women mean to me...my Sheroes! My wife and daughters have been my teachers for way longer than I recollect. I hope and pray I have been a good student, because before my "Girlies", I was a wondering one...a lost boy, kinda/sorta. Anyways, it is now that I am able to express my graditude to wife and daughters...thinking I have spoken same - now it is written. I would not be here/alive today.
 ...and now for something completely different....

  I was born in Ybor City, Florida, on October 17, 1959. I am the eldest of seven children birthed by my Ma, Elizabeth Ann, and my Dad, Mario, Jr. Was born in a clinic, not a hospital per-say...my dahling grandmother was there to assist as Mid-Wife. in my arrival to Earth Mother. Today, the clinic is a Bed and Breakfast, immidiatly across from the Spagitti Factory. My Mom and Dad had six more children there: Ana, Margarita, Theresa, Danny, David and Linda - born in a place where folks now pay to stay the night....I wonder if my little spirit still roams the halls and the grand marbel stair way?...

  I am of mixed blood/multi-ethnic heritage...imagine...Cherokee,Southern Redneck/Hillbilly/back-up-in-the-holler, kind of kinfolk- simple/counrty/and pleased to-be-so kinda folk . Then mixed with and extraordinarey blend of multi-Latino and some quite dark skinned kin from my Dad's kinfolk. O' Lawdy, from my Dad's kin alone, we wave the flags of Spain, Italy, The Spanish Canary Islands, a stop over in Cuba and then Key West, baby. My Great-Grandmother Juanita, was born there and since then we have had four more generations born on this beautiful State of Florida...I am Blessed to say I am Native in many ways...true? Am also pleased to say I am Mixed Blood. It has taken me a life time...but here I am today. I can only imagine the culture shock that reverbed through the course of grenerations...1959, WTF!?

 My dearest kid brother, David died in early 2001, of a drug O.D. He was being used as a mule to transport herion from Columbia. A ballon burst. David took it to his death...didn't say a word to anyone about what was going on in his body...just quietly went to sleep in his drug-induced hell Mom and Dad, found him the following morning. Still warm. My Mom, crossed over in 2002 of multi-failed by-passes. Then Dad, passed from Multi-myloma, the cancer of the bone, in 2006...so our family has shrink from nine to six. Some of us try harder than other's to keep the home fire burning.