Las Flores

In 2023, I published my first book — a novella titled, “Soil Of The Gone.”

It’s a family story passed down through the generations that’s rooted in an all too real night that followed a day of work at a family cemetery in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Our family cemetery.

Much of what I wrote of Las Flores in Soil Of The Gone is drawn from my childhood memories visiting that cemetery on many a trip to the Valley that we took growing up in South Texas. Marta’s wanderings around that place as a child, familiarizing herself with all of the aging graves there…those are my experiences. Throughout the years as I grew into a young woman and eventually became a mother with children of my own, I found opportunities to return to this soil as often as I could. And to make sure my children go with me. I still do. It’s part of me.

Below are photos taken from a trip to the Rio Grande Valley in August of 2024. You’ll see a cemetery out amidst a field of farm land after the harvest. On the other side of the road to the side of Las Flores is the border wall.

It’s a beautiful place. A peaceful place. This too, is home.