Family

It can be a lot of pressure that I put on myself, but at the end of the day I find all of my hard work fulfilling.

I Stand on the Shoulders

Despite these interesting measures taken to quiet the young parrot, Lulu survived the trip to San Francisco and lived for many years. While Lulu was a family pet, the bird seemed to develop the strongest relationship with Abuelito.

Abuelito a Man with Affinity for Animals

Though the “where” and “how” looked different, the “why” remained the same.

Sustenance

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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

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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)

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  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