Raquel Pomplun

January 20, 2010, was a rainy Wednesday and it was the day that I eloped to my beautiful now husband, Alejandro. I was 22 years old and he was 23 years old. I guess you can say we were young and stupid, but we were confident. We were only dating for eight months before that too, so we were definitely confident… or stupid. Five and a half years have passed and we are stronger than ever. Alejandro is not only my best friend, partner in crime, lover and supporter, but he is also

I love the fact that I grew up with two older brothers. Of course I would’ve loved to have a sister, but growing up with brothers is the greatest. Even girl friends with the same situation agree. My oldest brother is Paul, and second oldest is Michael. Paul and I are seven years apart and with Michael I am only two years apart. As children, I was closer to Michael since our age difference was not that big. However, as we entered puberty, we only disagreed on everything, makin

This past weekend I was in Canada for a Super Fight League event that I got to host. I met a lot of new people, and with that, a realization came around. When asked where I am from, it’s difficult to respond, because even though I was born in San Diego, CA, I was raised in Tijuana, B.C., México, up until the age of 13 years old, which is when I came back to San Diego. So what do I say? I’m from San Diego? Or, I’m from Tijuana? Or, should I simply narrow it down to “I am from

I love to cook, I really do! Growing up, my dad was the cook at home. Don’t get me wrong, my mom was an amazing cook, and what she made was always delicious, but she hated being in the kitchen. I was fortunate enough to have both parents at home growing up. So having my dad cook was actually the norm. However, the whole “Mexican mother teach her daughter to cook tradition” never happened. And sure, my dad would give me pointers here and there but he was more of a selfish cook

Being bilingual is very convenient. Especially if the two languages that you speak are Spanish and English, the two most prominent languages in the occident. My first language is Spanish. I grew up in a Spanish speaking home. Then, I learned to speak English when I was in junior high at age 13. My best friend at the time coached me to get rid of my accent, which I feel I 98% of the time don’t have, but there’s still an accent that you can hear now and then. My Spanish, howeve