Alicia, University Ave, 1978.

Never, ever, underestimate a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. My big sister Alice is one of the toughest people I know, and not just for coming up in the SBX and pre-gentrified Los Sures in WIlliamsburg.

She went to Saint Anselm’s (yo, Freddy Ferrer!) and Saint Pius HS. She married young and had three kids, tho that barely begins to explain how she more or less raised them single-handedly, doing whatever had to be done to move them forward. It was not easy, but like a lot of Bronxarican girls of her generation, she does not back down from a fight.

So, here’s to those Puerto Rican girls who could less for Mick Jagger. He’d be lucky to meet them.

I was.