My friend Alisa Valdés-Rodríguez — the best-selling author of several novels, including the acclaimed “Dirty Girls Social Club” — has agreed to write the foreword to my book. I am thrilled!

I first met Alisa in 1997 when I was hired as a reporter at The Boston Globe (Alisa had been on staff for several years by then, churning out amazing stories). We became chummy back then and have kept in touch over the years, even after she left the Globe to work at The Los Angeles Times and then quit, returned to her hometown of Albuquerque, to write novels. (I have a similiar trajectory: I left the Globe to take a job as a columnist at The Denver Post and eventually returned to my hometown of New York City and am working on a non-fiction book.)

I have fond memories of watching Alisa literally roll into the newsroom (in Rollerblades!) on Saturdays when I worked the weekend shift. She was working on a novel back then and when she sat at the computer she got into zen mode. It didn’t matter if editors were yelling to interns from across the room, or if the police scanners were crackling. Alisa kept focused. Who knew back then that she was going to break huge barriers for Latina authors. (In 2005, Time Magazine named her one of the 25 Most Influential Latinos in the U.S.