Thursday, August 14, 2025

Decline of the West or Just Progress?

                                                                                       

Downtown West L.A. still hanging on

     No doubt excessive homelessness and crime can destroy towns and cities, but are they the cause of urban deterioration today, like many argue?  I have no more experience in urban planning or law enforcement than most Americans. I’m not a sociologist or an environmentalist. I'm a raconteur, so my imagination is always in high gear.

     I live a few miles from the coast, in the western part of Los Angeles, where the weather is moderate most of the year and the homeless tend to gravitate. They build encampments on the streets and in parks. Eventually, city workers come in with trucks, displace the homeless, and clean up the mess left behind. In no time, they return with new encampments. Some cities are more lenient than others. Before long, the city comes in again and cleans the area, a game of cat and mouse.

      I’ve driven and walked the streets of my community for decades. I haven’t personally experienced any violent crime, knock on wood. I once witnessed a teenager run out of a liquor store, the clerk hot on his heels. The thief got away. Another time, I drove past a convenience store after a local kid had been shot by another kid. Once I had to confront a vagrant who came at me with a threatening look on his face. Other than that, my experience with street crime is only what I see reported on television news, robberies, kidnappings, vandalism, and homicides, often domestic, sometimes random but not usually.

     We know the media have always hyped bad news, whether a storm, homicide, roving gangs on motorcycles, or war, to get more eyeballs on the television the next night. Today, TV viewership is dwindling. More Americans get their news on the Internet or their favorite cable station. Many have just stopped caring and don't watch, at all. It’s hard to know if life in America is as bad as we hear or as bad as politicians tell us when they’re running for office or blaming the last political party. Illegal immigration and runaway crime have always been hot-button issues for political campaigns.

     The day-to-day reality is different. Each afternoon, I stop by the neighborhood park to walk my dog. One evening, police chased a man wielding a knife through the park, one incident in twenty-five years. Normally, I watch teenagers and young adults of all ethnicities playing basketball and children enjoying the swings and jungle gym. Yet, if I watch the news, I hear the U.S. is so racially polarized, people don’t even talk to each other.

     Of course, I live in fairly integrated neighborhood, solidly working-class. A few blocks north, it’s upper middle-class. We have nice parks, a lot of trees and clean air, because of the afternoon ocean breezes. On weekends, African Americans and Latinos from farther east come in, set up their cooking gear, and celebrate birthdays and holidays. I have never seen a fight or an awkward incident, even when the park is packed with people. Now, I’m not saying crime doesn’t happened, bad stuff. I just wonder if it’s as bad as politicians and the news report it.

     I remember, back in 2010. I was visiting my granddaughter at her university campus just outside a small Connecticut town of about 120,000 people, founded in 1686 and incorporated as a city in the 19th century, a lot of history and beautiful architecture. When my granddaughter was in class, I’d cruise the town’s hilly neighborhoods, tree-lined streets, picturesque, right out of a postcard, except for downtown, which had fallen on hard times.

     So many old, familiar stores had closed, taken over by tattoo parlors, souvenir shops, insurance companies, cellphone repair stores, and a few clothing stores fighting to survive the urban blight. The old bank and city hall were still there.

     It was spring, still cold bur warming. In the center of town, homeless people and edgy youngsters sat around smoking cigarettes and talking. I parked my car and got out to walk around. It never felt dangerous, just depressing to realize how beautiful the town must have once been.

     I got to talking to people on the streets, the town's folk. I introduced myself as a visitor. Delicately, I asked how the downtown area had changed over the years. I hinted at homelessness and crime as the possible culprits. People said the center’s decline had nothing to do with either. They blamed the decline on the opening of the large, new indoor mall just outside of town. People stopped shopping and eating in the stores and cafes downtown. Everybody rushed to the mall where they could buy whatever they needed, cheaper, and where local kids found jobs. They claimed the vagrants, homeless, and crime started after people abandoned downtown, and sleezy businesses picked up places for cheap rent. The cops stopped patroling downtown and switched to the mall. 

     At the time, I remember thinking what a loss to the community. It wasn’t hard to imagine how charming the downtown must have once been, and what did it mean for old, outdoor shopping areas back home, like the popular Santa Monica Promenade, downtown West Los Angeles, and the Westwood Village, which were still thriving. I hated to think that this small Connecticut town might be a precurser for what was to come, a slow movement west. So far, our outdoor spaces had survived the large indoor malls, like in Sherman Oaks, the Westside Pavilion, and the Fox Hills Mall, plenty of shopping and entertainment for everyone.

     Today, things are beginning to change, our own urban blight. Are we becoming like that small Connecticut town. The Santa Monica Promenade and the Westwood Village are barely hanging on, stores and restaurants shuttered and closed. The crowds stay away at night, no longer coming by to walk about or enjoy the music buskers and street performers. Rough-looking characters have moved in and crime is on the rise. Residents in Santa Monica say the City Council has lost control, uncertain what to do.

                                                                               

Entrance to the old Santa Monica Pier (Daniel Alonzo)

     I saw it, firsthand, as I walked through the Westwood Village a few weeks ago. Business had been slow for years, but when I saw the Fox and Bruin Theaters had been shuttered, two icons of Westwood entertainment, where Hollywood held premiers and the streets glowed with celebrities, the decline was evident. So many storefronts posted “Closed,” signs. Popular stores had shut their doors. The finest restaurants were gone. The only places crowded were Chick-Filet, In ‘N Out, and Starbucks.

     The once-booming Santa Monica Promenade was worse. On some evenings, the old promenade, famous for drawing crowds going back to the 1920s, looked abandoned. The three movie theaters are still up and running. Homeless people sit in corners or on bus benches. Shoppers don’t feel safe. Thieves break into businesses, at will, but are they the problem or the consequences of the problem? The shooting deaths of one or two European tourists over the past years haven’t helped.

     Some business owners say homelessness and crime are disturbing. They hurt business, but they’re easy fixes. The city can hire more police to patrol the area or post security guards at store entrances, but the real problem is shoppers no longer need to leave the comfort of their living rooms to make purchases and have the items delivered to their doorsteps in a day, or hours, in some cases. Bookstores became the victim years ago. When Bezos can get you a book at half price and deliver it to your doorstep in a day, that's progress.

     The gigantic indoor malls didn’t have homelessness or crime, but they’re suffering the same decline in shoppers as the outdoor promenades and downtowns. When the Westside Pavillion shuttered its mall, Google was there to scoop it up. Somewhere, in complex negotiations, UCLA stepped in and ended up with the property. There was neither crime nor homeless in the malls, so then what?

     What about technology, like Amazon, online purchasing, food services, music streaming, and the latest movies on television – to order? Who knows, as television screens get larger and speakers more potent, maybe the movie experience is just as good from home, entertainment at a touch of a finger. It’s not just Amazon or the other shopping services increasing but so are people’s homes. Everywhere I look in my neighborhood, I see old two and three-bedroom stucco homes being demolished and replaced by enormous five-bedroom homes with very little outdoor yard space, mega homes and mini yards. It’s become an anomaly to see kids playing outdoors. If they are, they’re usually on their phones.

     The times are definitely changing, and I can’t say for the worse. Who knows for sure? I do know our environment and landscape are changing. Kids today have no idea what it was like to come home from school, jump on bikes, and ride to their friends’ homes, pick them up, and head out to the park to play basketball, flag football, or a game of “over-the line.”

     Whatever is coming, I don’t think it’s healthy or truthful to put the blame entirely on vagrants, immigrants, or crime. Blame progress, whether you like it or not, the world is transitory. Like the sage sang back in the Sixties, “Your old road is rapidly agin’/ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand/ For the times they are a changing.”

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

My Abuela Is a Bruja- Mi abuela es una bruja


Written by Mayra Cuevas.

Illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez. 

 


Publisher: ‎Knopf Books for Young Readers

Print length: ‎40 pages

ISBN-10: ‎0593480635

ISBN-13: ‎978-0593480632

Reading age: ‎4 - 8 years

Grade level: ‎Preschool – 3

 

From an award-winning author comes a vibrant and heartwarming story of the bond between grandmother and grandchild, with a touch of Puerto Rican magic!


My abuela is a bruja.

There is magic in everything she does.


There is nothing more magical than a grandmother's love. But one lucky girl suspects her grandmother has actual magic. It's in the tun-tun-tun of the way she dances salsa, in the warmth of her hugs, and the delicious smell of her cooking. The granddaughter wonders: will I have magic of my own one day?

Follow the magic in this heartfelt picture book that features extensive backmatter that includes two special recipes from Mayra Cuevas and uplifiting illustrations from Lorena Alvarez Gómez.


 


Review


"This book is a resounding triumph, where heritage, family, nature, history, and love come together." —School Library Journal, starred review

"Cuevas’ writing carries a richness equal to the illustrations, with turns of phrase that capture the imagination that make the mundane miraculous." —The Bulletin, starred review

 "A lovely, luminous story that reminds readers to look for a little bit of magic in everything they do." —Booklist, starred review

"A heartfelt tribute to family, culture, and the everyday magic that connects us." —Kirkus Reviews



En Español




Mayra Cuevas is the author of the young adult novel Does My Body Offend You? (co-written with Marie Marquardt), long-listed for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award, named a 2023 Book All Young Georgians Should Read, and a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2022. In 2023, she was named Georgia Author of the Year in the Young Adult category. Mayra has also written the YA foodie romcom Salty, Bitter, Sweet named a Best Book of Winter by Hypable. She lives in Atlanta with her family.

 

Lorena Alvarez Gómez is an Eisner Award nominated freelance illustrator and artist. She has made illustrations for children’s books like The Magical Yet, Marsha is Magnetic, The City Tree, and Hicotea. Her work has also been featured in independent publications, advertising and fashion magazines. Lorena works from her home studio in Bogota, Colombia.




Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Latinopia, Culture As Resistance

Selections from Latinopia: Knowledge Equals Resistance 
Michael Sedano

With the United States of America on a declivitous path to complete failure as a nation, reasonable people seek ways to protect our shared culture, reinforce authentic values, and learn from history, as a way to Resist! the depredations wrought by the deplorables, the GOPees and MAGATs among us.

Learning history, examining issues closely and truthfully, celebrating arte and cultura, are among the modes of resistance that not only comfort people in stressful times, but also build foundations to counter today's emotional barrage from masked goons, alcohol swilling, puppy-killing, well-coiffed liars--the GOP ilk now shredding the US Constitution.

Not long back, Facebook banned mention and links to Latinopia on grounds that Latinopia is "subversive." That's exactly what Klan and MAGATs (but I repeat myself) believe.

Latinopia.com stands for reason, truth, love, and genuine Unitedstatesian values as expressed by diverse raza identities: Latino, Boricua, Chicano, y más. 

The website is a labor of love shared with no charge nor subscription movida from author, filmmaker, director, Jesus Treviño. Latinopia.com has served public interest for years. The website's accumulated a vast treasure that students, teachers, researchers, families, you, can spend hours enjoying and learning. If you haven't been following the weekly update, you've lots of catching up!

Treviño has collected insights from important luminaries--many well-known names--in the pantheon of raza writers, artists, scholars, critics. La Bloga-Tuesday is honored to share a few gems from Latinopia's powerfully useful menu of interviews, performances, readings, essays and videos. 

Today's La Bloga-Tuesday anthology of Latinopia gems illustrates the range and depth of Latinopia's coverage of nuestra cultura. We provide one video sample, and links to view the content on Latinopia itself. Please click, enjoy, share. 

La Bloga values reader comments. When you've reached the foot of the page, you'll find the comment feature. Be sure to click on the Notify Me box to engage in subsequent comments.

(Full disclosure: Michael Sedano enjoys close association with Treviño and Latinopia as a contributor and roadtripper to interview Rudy Anaya, documenting los Librotraficantes, and hosting Living Room Floricantos documented by Treviño for the site.)

Video: Interviews, Readings, History, Performances


José Montoya "El Louie"






Gallery of Latinopia on Comida:
http://latinopia.com/category/latino-food/

Narrative, Interviews, Reviews, Criticism







Michael Sedano on Return to Arroyo Grande:

Friday, August 08, 2025

A Bountiful Fall of Books

Summer must be over -- publishers are hawking autumn books already.  Here are three that deserve a second look.  

____________________


The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore
Anika Fajardo
Gallery Books - September 16

[from the publisher]
In the span of a year, Dolores Moore has become a thirty-five-year-old orphan. After the funeral of the last living member of her family, Dorrie has never felt more lost and alone. That is, except for a Greek chorus of deceased relatives whose voices follow her around giving unsolicited advice and opinions. And they’re only amplifying Dorrie’s doubts about keeping the deathbed promise she made to return to her birthplace in Colombia.

Fresh off a breakup with her long-term boyfriend, laid off from her job as a cartographer, and facing a daunting inheritance of her mothers’ aging Minneapolis Victorian and two orange tabbies, how can she possibly leave the country now? But when an old flame offers to housesit, the chorus agrees that there’s no room for excuses. Armed with only a scrap of a hand drawn map, Dorrie sets off to find out where—and who—she came from.

__________________________


Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell
Hogarth - September 30

[from the publisher]
Mariana Enriquez—called by The New York Times a “sorceress of horror”—has been fascinated by the haunting beauty of cemeteries since she was a teenager. She has visited them frequently, a goth flaneur taking notes on her aesthetic obsession as she walks among the headstones, “where dying seems much more interesting than being alive.”

But when the body of a friend’s mother who was disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship was found in a common grave, Enriquez began to examine more deeply the complex meanings of cemeteries and where our bodies come to rest.

In this rich book of essays—“excursions through death,” she calls them—Enriquez travels through North and South America, Europe and Australia, visiting Paris’s catacombs, Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery, New Orleans’s aboveground mausoleums, Buenos Aires’s opulent Recoleta, and more. Enriquez investigates each cemetery’s history and architecture, its saints and ghosts, its caretakers and visitors, and, of course, its dead.

Weaving personal stories with reportage, interviews, myths, hauntology, and more, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave is memoir channeled through Enriquez’s passion for cemeteries, revealing as much about her own life and unique sensibility as the graveyards and tombstones she tours. Fascinating, spooky, and unlike anything else, Enriquez’s first work of nonfiction, translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, is as original and memorable as the stories and novels for which she’s become so beloved and admired.

________________________________________



This is the Only Kingdom
Jaquira Díaz

Algonquin Books - October 21

[from the publisher]
When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begins to envision a life beyond the tight-knit community of el Caserío, Puerto Rico – beyond cleaning houses, beyond waiting tables, beyond the constant tug of war between the street hustlers and los camarones. But breaking free proves more difficult than she imagined, and she soon finds herself struggling to make a home for herself, for Rey, his young brother Tito, and eventually, their daughter Nena. Until one fateful day changes everything.

Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation as the community that once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Now Nena, a teenager haunted by loss and betrayal and exploring her sexual identity, must learn to fight for herself and her family in a world not always welcoming. For lovers of the Neapolitan novels, This is the Only Kingdom is an immersive and moving portrait of a family – and a community – torn apart by generational grief, and a powerful love letter to mothers, daughters, and the barrios that make them.

Later.

_________________________

Manuel Ramos lives in and writes about Denver.


Thursday, August 07, 2025

Chicanonautica: More than Echoes and Embers


by Ernest Hogan



Once upon a time it looked like I was the one and only Chicano science fiction writer. The thought terrified me. All that responsibility. I wasn’t sure if I could take it.


Over the last couple of decades, I’ve been delighted to discover that I’m not alone in my Quixotic, lifelong compulsion to commit acts of sci-fi while being Chicano. It’s also a great relief to feel that I'm not representing the entire Latioid continuum of the human race in the genre. I can have fun and be irresponsible. Yippie!


One of the best and most prolific one of my colleagues is Pedro Iniguez. Recently his Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry. That’s right, poetry–he also writes horror. I had the pleasure of getting an advance copy of his latest, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories, and wow!


I’ve been a science fiction fan since I was watching Space Patrol on a tiny black and white TV and went to see Forbidden Planet at the Floral Drive-In in East L.A. back in the antediluvian 1950s. I’ve been reading the genre since Richard Nixon was in the White House.




This book took me back to when I was 12 years old reading every “sf” (as they were labeled back then) book and magazine I could get my hands on. Once again I was thrilling to adventures worthy of the pulp era. But this isn’t just a nostalgia trip, Iniguez is up to date on his science, and creates a wide variety of characters and future scenarios about peoples of backgrounds that were influenced by the Spanish empire intruding on their lands, cultures, lives. He also goes into more literary territory.


Back in the day, to appreciate science fiction hell, most fiction written in the English language–and movies and television -- you had to adjust to everything being from a caucasian, Anglo-American viewpoint. I was always aware that people like myself and my family weren’t included in these visions of other worlds.


It’s great to see books like this, opening up new worlds full of all kinds of people, and it isn’t all derived from what came out of one little island.

I heartily recommend Echoes and Embers to la Raza!




Those of you non-Raza out there should also find it to be fun, entertaining reading.


If I can read about Ray Bradbury’s strange, exotic midwesterners and Stephen King’s dwellers of far-off rural Maine, you surely can get into a little Xicanxfuturism.


And get used to it. There’s a lot more coming. To your town. Soon. 


Ernest Hogan and Pedro Iniguez will be in the upcoming two-volume anthology  Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow. Pedro will be in Codex 1. I will be in Codex 2. Pre-order now.



Ernest will be teaching “Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style” at Palabras del Pueblo again in October.


Wednesday, August 06, 2025

María Mariposa


Written by Karla Arenas Valenti.

Illustrated by Ana Ramírez González.

 


*Publisher: ‎Chronicle Books

*Publication date: ‎July 16, 2024

*Language: ‎English

*Print length: ‎52 pages

*ISBN-10: ‎1797207938

*ISBN-13: ‎978-1797207933


From Pura Belpré Award–winning author Karla Arenas Valenti and New York Times–bestselling illustrator Ana Ramírez González comes a lyrical children's book about finding confidence, embracing identity, and recognizing that your unique self is more than enough.

A gift from Mexico alights on María Mariposa’s windowsill on her first day of school in a brand-new country: “¡Una mariposa!” / “A butterfly!” And with the butterfly, in comes magic. Filled from her toes to her new butterfly wings with memories of home, María knows exactly who she is. But when everything at school is different and strange, doubt begins to make María’s confidence fade away. The place she comes from, the community she loves, the magic inside her . . . does any of it really belong in her new life?

With courage and compassion, this picture book confronts the most difficult moments—and feelings—of being new, sweeping readers up in a powerful celebration of the magic we each contribute to the world.

 


Review

“Warm and compelling, sure to have hearts soaring.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Come for the simple but important story of strength in cultural roots, stay for the gentle magic in the pictures, bursting with color and

framing the ordinary world as something brighter, better. Immigration and individualism in one gorgeous package.” ― School Library Journal

 


Karla Arenas Valenti was born and raised in Mexico City but has since put down roots in other places she now calls home: France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. The author of several children’s books, Karla lives and writes in the Chicago area.

Ana Ramírez González is an artist and filmmaker at Pixar Animation Studios by day and a New York Times–bestselling illustrator by night. Born and raised in Guanajuato, Mexico, Ana attended art school in France and now divides her time between San Francisco, Paris, and Guanajuato.




Tuesday, August 05, 2025

Love, Horror, Evil, A Dementia Caregiver's Story

Review: Hiroko Falkenstein. Sinking Together. Honorable Acts with Love. Dallas: USA Book Services, 2025. ISBN (paper) 978-1-967178-32-2

Michael Sedano

I am living After Alzheimer's. Dementia books provide valuable insight for spouses or families. When undertaking caregiving for a person living with dementia, it's like taking on a new career. Reading and research provide valuable insight into what's to be. Here is such a story.


Sinking Together
brings readers a horror story of unadulterated evil people exploiting an elderly couple. Sinking Together is also a story of the power of cultural mores, and above all, a story of love and character, reflecting the book’s subtitle, Honorable Acts With Love.

Haruko is a Japanese-born daughter-in-law whose cultural norms demand she be caregiver to her estranged husband’s parents. Bill, Jr., doesn’t visit his parents and grows to resent Haruko’s presence in their lives. “You’re in it for their money,” he whimpers. 

Marriage difficulties create a parallel world of misery and resentment even as caregiving provides joy and fulfillment. Life continues its pace irrespective of the singular importance of caregiving.

The old couple, Bill and Mary, are easy prey to a series of daytime caregivers. One after another enters the home and begins stealing and conducting themselves in brazen, shameless, manners. One moves her husband and kids into the main house while Bill and Mary live in a smaller studio. Instead of paying bills, caregivers write themselves generous checks. One takes an “all-expenses paid” vacation to Hawaii on her employers’ money. When confronted, the thief lies and gets away with all sorts of crap because finding caregiving is difficult.

These are not isolated, nor rare,  occurrences. My own in-laws hired a caregiver who, like Mary and Bill’s caregiver, started feeding her husband and kids in the home. Rosemary and her husband cleaned out my in-laws’ checkbook. "I had their permission," she said. And that was so. I hired a caregiver for my wife who inflated her hours to three-times the hours she’d actually performed. Did she think I didn’t notice? I discharged her and the agency repaid the theft. 

It's not just caregivers who spot easy prey. Haruko rescues Mary and Bill—she calls them Daddy and Mother—by relocating them to their mountain cabin. It’s a two and a half hour drive, but Haruko visits regularly and responds to calls for help with frequent unplanned drives out and back again. Bill hires a “carpenter” to build a greenhouse. The thieving louse buys wood for his other jobs, expensive tools, and the greenhouse never gets finished. Haruko confronts them while they're eating Mary's lunch, one of the bennies of the job. 

A reader turns the pages wondering how this evil exploitation can happen, not just once, but caregiver following caregiver does this stuff. At first the caregiver is all nice and considerate. When no one’s around, Bill gets punched and bruised. Another uses psychological torture to terrorize helpless Bill, who’s by that time, blind in both eyes.

Mary is a domineering woman whose Alzheimer’s Dementia hasn’t been diagnosed as the book opens. Mother’s behaviors reflect symptoms of dementia but, like many families, the behaviors are attributed to other causes. A former dancer, Mary’s strength challenges Haruko and the caregivers. Mary’s behavior is dangerous, not to herself alone but Bill.

Mary demands to see Bill’s eye under an eyepatch. The surgeon instructed Bill to keep the eye covered, and he refuses Mary’s demand to see the wound. Irate, Mary punches Bill in that eye and he loses that eye.

Mary’s dementia doesn’t incapacitate her. She wants to be Bill’s caregiver. But she burns the food when she cooks, and leaves the house unkempt. Caregivers complain to Haruko that Mary interferes with their work caring for Bill.

A reader will wonder why Haruko doesn’t hire better people? Haruko relies upon recommendations that so-and-so is a good Christian woman the recommender knows from church. These good Christians emerge as brazen thieves and elder abusers.

When Mary begins to wander—a typical Alzheimer’s behavior—Bill can only call police when Mary’s “escaped.” Why not move Mary to a memory care facility? Out of the question; the couple’s Will specified they would not be placed in nursing homes. Not many families can afford Memory Care, so in-home is their only option. I told my wife that I'd find us assisted living but Barbara told me she wanted to remain in her home. Of course, I acceded to my wife's desire and it was the right thing to do. I am so relieved my story is not Sinking Together.

Haruko is trapped by her Japanese culture. Bill, Jr., wants nothing to do with her parents and wants Haruko to obey his commands and find other people to care for the parents. In the middle of the book, they divorce. Haruko, however, remains dedicated to her culture and her commitment to Daddy and Mother.

Culture doesn’t fully explain why Haruko does the right thing. This is character. Faced with onerous demands, Haruko complies without complaint. A late-night phone call for help summons Haruko’s presence. Bill and Mary live only a few blocks away. But when they’re up in the mountains, that call obligates the loving daughter-in-law to make that two and a half hour drive up to Idylwild and back to Laguna.

Haruko is the nom de plume of the author, Hiroko Falkenstein. The author wrote the book thirty years ago and only this year, 2025, has the experience and memory bubbled up to the surface driving Falkenstein finally to tell this story.

Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type is a growing health issue in the world, not just the U.S. Falkenstein’s/Haruko’s experiences are neither rare nor unexpected. Sinking Together, Honorable Acts With Love, offers a cautionary message for spouses or families beginning their own careers as caregivers to a loved one stricken with this uncurable, untreatable disease.

Vetting caregivers comes first. No one can be a full-time caregiver without help. A spouse has to find respite hours, if not daily, regularly. This subject is not entirely absent from Falkenstein’s narrative. Haruko takes a European vacation and feels guilty about leaving her in-laws to the hands of such strangers.

Consequences come into demand when a thief is discovered, but only one gets jailed. Haruko accepts feeble excuses, in part because she is “nice” and in part because firing a caregiver without a replacement puts the onus on Haruko to devote 24/7 to Mary and Bill, while still working to please that resentful husband. Jail time would be a suitable reward to elder abusers of the ilk whom we encounter in Sinking Together. My mother's elder abusing, thieving, caregiver was a family member whose crimes go unpunished to this day. 

Dementia behaviors are unique to the individual. Mary’s outlandish behaviors were particular to her personality, the book is not a prediction of anyone else’s Alzheimer’s Dementia experiences. There is only one Mary, only one Bill, in the world.

Much of the narrative, however, is universal to all dementia caregivers. Adult diapers. Bathing. Diarrhea covering the floor and person’s body. Impatience and anger both from the cared-for and the caregiver.

And death. Mary dies with Alzheimer’s but Bill won’t learn the fact until later. An ugly later, as a caregiver torments Bill telling him Mary’s dead.

Falkenstein ends the story with tenderness.For his 90th birthday, Haruko locates several of Bill’s former friends and employees. These people celebrate their memories of a generous, kind and giving, boss. Bill’s gratitude to be reminded of who he used to be provides a boost to his spirit. It’s that Bill, not the weak exploited abused husband, who lies on his futon on his final day.

 Readers will be aghast at the depths of human depravity, reading about the bad caregivers. But there’s respite for readers, tenderness as Falkenstein closes the story with Bill’s death. He lies on a futon with Haruko and another caregiver holding his hands. “It’s OK to go, Bill.”

Falkenstein keeps her focus on behaviors without moralizing on the depths of depravity she witnesses. The book reflects the work of a talented story-teller. Despite the awful events, readers will keep turning pages, led by the writer’s foreshadowing of events at the ends of chapters and the arresting details of living with dementia and old age.

Reliving events like these brings profound trauma. I admire Falkenstein’s strategy. Hiroko Falkenstein maintains a safe perspective on the developments by turning her first-person story into the third-person story of Haruko. I have not yet been able to write extensively about my five-year career as a dementia caregiver. It took Falkenstein thirty years to get this story into public.

  

Sunday, August 03, 2025

“Brota vida” por Xánath Caraza

“Brota vida” por Xánath Caraza

 


En las desnudas

puntas de los árboles

rojos arabescos renacen

la vida insiste en latir.

 

Árbol, satura

con las áureas

ramas la mirada.

Báñame de luz.

 

Vida desbordada

no te esfumes

muévete entre

las células de mi sangre.

 

Brota vida desde

la carmín memoria

dorada sombra

eras.

 

Xanath Caraza

Emerge Life

 

On naked

treetops

red arabesques are reborn

life insists on beating.

 

Tree, saturate

my gaze with

golden branches.

Bathe me in light.

 

Overflowing life

do not slip away

move within

the cells of my blood.

 

Emerge life from

carmine memory

golden shadow

you were.

 

“Brota vida/ Emerge Life” is part of the collection Sin preámbulos / Without Preamble (2017). Sin preámbulos was originally written in Spanish by Xánath Caraza and translated into the English by Sandra Kingery. In 2018 for the International Latino Book Awards Sin preámbulos / Without Preamble received First Place for “Best Book of Bilingual Poetry”. 

 

In 2019 Sin preámbulos / Without Preamble / Fără preambul was translated into the Romanian by Tudor Serbănescu and Silvia Tugui.