Finished

The Ramona Diary of SRD

I got kicked out of the house in High School in Ramona, California and got sent to live with my uncle Billy Bob in Dallas, Texas, a culture shock of Anglo Texanism to be sure. I always dreamed about going back to SoCal where I felt I belonged and connected more with my mother's side. My grandmother's almost last words to me were about staying Mexican American.  She would take me to the Missions our native and "Spanish" ancestors lived and died, tell me never let the gringos call you an immigrant, they are. Our family history is about the invasion and the dregs of the ranch land we tried to hold on to, to blocking our acknowledgement  of our native blood. Our story and California's story was taken away and told as Ramona. 
My novel is about going back and reclaiming the story.
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Check out chapters published online:
​"The Head Joaquin" at Label Me Latina/o
​"M'ijo Don't Dance With No White Devil" at Pithead Chapel
"Wrath of Mom" at Diagram
"My Heart is Bathed in Chilis" at Somos enescrito 

Mexpocalyptic Tales. A short story collection

​The stories of Mexpocalyptic Tales deal with identity and the impositions and mysteries of society as it approaches “the Mexpocalyspse”, the time of Mexican American majority in the United States (hence they are mexpocalyptic).  In “The Bifurcated Half Breed” a mixed character splits his Anglo and Chicano sides into halves.  More than ethnicity, these stories deal with the surealities of life, the looming terror of the norm and what to do—there are worlds upside down and reversed.  

Check out published chapters:

IN THE WORKS

Why Me? Myths About Myself

Memoir and myths combine to form the tales that we live.  The English language stories are accompanied by Spanish translation by Carlota Caulfield.