A Tell Your True Tale story - Book Launch Saturday at ELA Library

Hey Bloga folks -

Volume 5 of Tell Your True Tale: East Los Angeles launches this Saturday at ELA Library (3pm)....

12 great new writers. 12 amazing true stories:

A Chinese girl grows up in South Central. A Zacatecan bracero searches for his family’s sustenance in Nebraska. The story of a woman’s deceased aunt, murdered as a teen ... and another's tale of working as a taxi dancer in the 1970s in downtown LA.

Here's a story of one woman's grand-aunt, who spent a lifetime searching for her disappeared children - until decades later, when the author discovered the truth:

By Sylvia Castañeda....

"... Luz returned to San Diego, destroyed. She continued searching.  Yet, unable to afford the rent on her own, she had no other alternative but to find shelter with the Gutiérrez family in Santa Paula. When she gathered enough strength to make it on her own, she moved to Tijuana.  For years, she frequently crossed the border into San Diego to search for her children Leocadio and Ascención without success.

By 1930, Luz was living in Tijuana, and remarried to a commercial fisherman who followed the fishing routes along Baja California. They divided their time between homes in La Paz and Tijuana, depending on the fishing season. Often, over the years, they crossed into San Diego to visit Luz’s family. When they did, Luz always returned to the house on Columbia Street where she last held her children.

But in time, neighbors moved away and the neighborhood was one she no longer recognized. She carried her children’s disappearance like a cross, longing more than anything to find her children.  But with every passing year, the longing formed a deep abyss of sorrow. ..."

Continue reading ...