Laughter and Sometimes Tears was written after a question I asked my husband, then of nine years: Why did you leave Puerto Rico? When I heard his answer, I knew there was something hidden inside that was kept a secret from me. You see, Diego was a young man of seventeen years when he came to the mainland and unfortunately ended up in very precarious situations. He even spent eighteen months in prison for a felony crime he did not commit. Many stories he told me either evoked belly laughter or evoked me into crying like a baby in the privacy of the shower.