My family has always been mindful of the fact that Thanksgiving is a peculiarly American holiday. Maybe it's because we are Cuban-Americans. We gather around the table with tremendous gratitude for the twin gifts of family and freedom.

There's a great piece today over at The Americano in which Pedro Blas González celebrates a Cuban-American Thanksgiving. I love what he has to say about the importance of the traditional family as it relates to a healthy nation.

Our Thanksgiving Day feast is actually an extension of all our other family meals together. Much like the Pilgrims, my parents understood that human beings are like plants in the sense that plants must be pruned in order to flourish. The contributions that family meals taken together make to the great social world – a nation – are truly mind- boggling. Our Cuban-American Thanksgiving Day celebration has always served as an occasion to embrace the land that has allowed us to live to the best of our ability as dignified persons.

Read the whole excellent piece here.

Happy Thanksgiving!