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I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, attended Yale University where I studied political science, specifically African government. After that, I joined the Teach For America program and worked as a third-grade bilingual teacher at P.S. 156 in the Bronx for three years.

I left teaching to study immigration and education policy (along with a stiff dose of economics and statistics) at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where I received a Master of Public Policy degree, and then went to work for an immigrant services project of the City of New York called Citizenship NYC. After two years directing the program's Bronx office, I worked for two more years for the city's Administration for Children's Services in the Division of Child Protection.

In 1998, I began freelancing for The New York Times City section, and in 2001 I quit my day job and began covering the Bronx and northern Manhattan full time for them. I did that for four years, while writing for other sections of the Times like Metro, Travel, Styles and Escapes, and many other publications, including Time Out New York, O the Oprah Magazine, Viva New York, Every Day With Rachael Ray, ARTnews, Playboy, and others.

My book, Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs, co-authored with Carolina Gonzalez, was published in 2006. From April 2006 to December 2008, I wrote the Weekend in New York column in Travel section of the Times. And from 2001 to 2008, I taught a journalism course on interviewing techniques at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

At the end of 2008, I relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to continue writing for the Times Travel section, and working as Brazil correspondent for the new international news organization Global Post, which launched on January 12, 2009. From Brazil, I have also contributed to magazines like Wallpaper, Conde Nast Traveler and Food & Wine.

In June, 2010, I took over the Frugal Traveler blog for the Travel section of The New York Times, beginning with a grand 13-week trip by bus, boat and train (but mostly bus) from São Paulo to New York. I'm traveling about 50% of the time, and splitting what is left between New York and São Paulo. (OK, at least I'm trying to do that. But splitting time between two cities sounds so cool, I just had to say it.)

In April, 2011, I began a column called Viagens ("Travel"), written in Portuguese for the Brazilian web portal iG.

I speak Spanish and Portuguese, and have ten years of French study buried deep in the back of my brain, though it would take a neurosurgeon to extract it. Quel dommage. Hmm, not sure what that means.