May 2020

Saria, the film

We’re watching more films while sheltering in place, and last night the kids and I watched Saria, the Oscar-winning Live Action Short about the 2017 fire in the Virgen de la Asuncion group home in Guatemala City. You probably remember the event: 41 girls died in a fire in a government-run gated facility after being locked in a classroom as punishment for trying to run away.

Saria is brutal, important, haunting. I don’t recommend it for young children or even adolescents. My kids are 15 and 18, and they found the movie hard to watch. Some adults may find the film’s subject and action extremely disturbing.

The filmmakers tell the story through the eyes of two sisters. As the NY Times reported soon after the fire: “The girls… were victims even before the fire. As survivors of sexual abuse, violence or abandonment — often at the hands of their own families — the government had assigned them to the institution for their own safety.”

The film is short, 22 minutes. We rented it on Amazon Prime for (I think) $1.99. For me, the ending felt unresolved, but my 18-year-old daughter disagrees. She says the ending needs to be unresolved because the situation is unresolved. There are no answers.

Watch the Saria trailer here.

Saria, the film Read More »

Saria, the film

Saria film poster

We’re watching more films while sheltering in place, and last night the kids and I watched Saria, the Oscar-winning Live Action Short about the 2017 fire in the Virgen de la Asuncion group home in Guatemala City. You probably remember the event: 41 girls died in a fire in a government-run gated facility after being locked in a classroom as punishment for trying to run away.

Saria is brutal, important, haunting. I don’t recommend it for young children or even adolescents. My kids are 15 and 18, and they found the movie hard to watch. Some adults may find the film’s subject and action extremely disturbing.

The filmmakers tell the story through the eyes of two sisters. As the NY Times reported soon after the fire: “The girls… were victims even before the fire. As survivors of sexual abuse, violence or abandonment — often at the hands of their own families — the government had assigned them to the institution for their own safety.”

The film is short, 22 minutes. We rented it on Amazon Prime for (I think) $1.99. For me, the ending felt unresolved, but my 18-year-old daughter disagrees. She says the ending needs to be unresolved because the situation is unresolved. There are no answers.

Watch the trailer for Saria here.

Saria, the film Read More »

Cancelled due to Covid.

Olivia and me at her Quinceanera

For the past ten or so years, families from our Bay Area Guatemalan adoption group have gathered this weekend to celebrate, connect, and catch up; to compare stories of travel to Guatemala and reunion with birth families. The gathering is our touchstone–a few blessed hours of conversation when everyone we talk to has walked the same path; a time, once a year, when we feel heard and understood. It’s the day we marvel together with love and pride at our beautiful children growing into adults. The day we witness our kids’ deep bonds of friendship.

I wish I had an album of photos to share with you, but out of respect for everyone’s privacy, I don’t post pictures. So I’ll share a photo of Olivia and me during her Quinceanera year, which we celebrated with two other young women in our group. (A grand event!) And a photo of me during last year’s pre-party Costco run.

Tomorrow, our group will celebrate via Zoom, set up by one of our moms who’s great with technology. We’ll miss the delicious potluck side dishes everyone bring, the burgers on the grill, the sweet desserts. We’ll miss the hugs. But we still have one another. That, we know, will never change. xoxo

  • Last year’s pre-party Costco run.
  • Annual party cake.

Cancelled due to Covid. Read More »

“Breakthrough” movie

Olivia and I watched “Breakthrough,” the 2019 film about the boy in Missouri who was skating on thin ice with friends, fell through, was rescued, and spent many minutes unconscious—enough minutes that recovery seemed futile. Probably everyone in the world has seen this movie except us. Olivia suggested watching it because she knows I’ll watch any film with a Guatemalan angle, and in “Breakthrough,” the boy, John, was born in Guatemala and adopted by a couple in Missouri.

I started crying about 10 minutes in, when, during a scene at John’s middle school, he was confronted with the dreaded “family tree” project. And I basically never stopped crying. The film is tense, fast-paced, and realistic. The performances are excellent.

“Breakthrough” isn’t for everyone. John’s mother is deeply religious, the family is connected to a church community, and prayer and faith figure prominently. But if you’re okay with those elements, and you, like us, are behind in your movie-watching, check out “Breakthrough.” We loved it.

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Mother Mother

Hi Friends: If you’re on this page, we probably know each other through my first book, Mamalita.

I’m writing now to tell you where I am in my second book, a novel, Mother Mother. The cover is set and galleys are in final proof stages. The cover artwork uses a painting by one of my favorite artists from Guatemala, Hugo Ayala. The title is “Nahuala,” from the Guatemalan town, and shows a winding cobblestone road filled with light, and a blue sky behind the dome of a white church.

Nahuala by Hugo Ayala

I crossed my fingers Ayala would grant me permission to use the work, and he has. If you’ve been to Antigua, you probably know the La Antigua Galeria de Arte, now on Fifth Avenida in the Nimpot building near the Arch, formerly on Fourth Calle up from Dona Luisa. The gallery represents Hugo Ayala and was generous in helping me secure permission. Thank you, La Antigua Galeria!

After laboring so long on a book–I don’t want to tell you how many years: off and on for 7–this stage feels surreal. To finally see the pages typeset, my name on the cover. I still can’t believe it.

The book cover uses only a detail from the Ayala painting, so I’m posting the entire image here. The painting hangs in our living room; I bought it several years ago in Antigua after we’d visited that part of the country. I’m honored to have it part of my first novel.

The Advance Reading Copies of Mother Mother should be printed in about three weeks. Publication date is November 2020.

xoxo

Mother Mother Read More »