Though the “where” and “how” looked different, the “why” remained the same.
Family
1 Mom loved her beer and her San Francisco Giants. We enjoyed many a hot summer afternoon during backyard BBQs with ice cold beer. I took Mom to the Santa Clara County Fair one warm July. We drank beer, ate linguica sandwiches and overly-cooked corn on the cob slathered in too much butter and coated with a lot of salt.
Remembering La Nena and Me
Grandma Maria Moreno bundled him and his youngest siblings and set off to a part of the Arizona desert where she would seek direction from God and Tio Tito would begin his guitar lessons on the nearest broom. Over time that old broom would be replaced with a Gibson guitar and many, many more.
Tio Tito (August 5, 1949 – July 22, 2020)
3 My mother, Manuela Huerta de Matute, was born of poor Mexican immigrant parents in 1913. Her father, Albino Huerta, had been recruited from Mezquital del Oro, a very small town in Zacatecas, Mexico, to help build the railroads as part of the economic expansion of the American Southwest. He […]
My mother, Manuela Huerta de Matute
It was 1956 and my Tia Alicia, Tio Antonio and their seven daughters were farm workers living in a three-bedroom, one bathroom shack on a huge strawberry farm close to Highway 1, the Pacific Ocean, in the agricultural community of Watsonville.
Strawberry Farm Dreams
My father is from Compton and my mother is from Watts, California. My family roots are deeply rooted in Los Angeles and Los Angeles is where I call home.
The Viramontes and Jaquez Story
...she was finally presented with the diploma she earned decades ago.
A Family Affair
Like water these memories are now crashing around in my mind, like water on rocks. I feel a sense of urgency, that at all costs put it all down, and to tell what I can.
Monsters In My Head
Although my birth mother had to make a huge sacrifice by giving me up, she game me another chance at life to have a wonderful, loving family and so many wonderful opportunities.
My Journey Through Life
My education is something I definitely take for granted sometimes so I try to remind myself that many others would die for the opportunity to get an education...