In this historical chronicle by Rafaela G. Castro, one family becomes entangled in the scandals and secrets of a small migrant town.
In the 1940s, a young couple, Jose Luis and Blanca, start their married lives in the fictional California village of Suntown in the San Joaquin Valley. However, external forces and a personal mistake lead to a tragic incident.
Decades later, Blanca's daughter, Luz, stumbles across a photograph and a mysterious letter to her mother that hints at a closely guarded secret and signed by a person known only as "D. S." Determined to learn the truth about her mother's relationship to this man, Luz journeys to the San Joaquin Valley to find him. In the process she discovers the rich, untold history of the struggle of migrant laborers to survive, live, and love in 1940s Central California.
Castro's work depicts a vivid portrait of migrant life and bracero culture. Any student of California history and Chicano studies will find her work an invaluable and well-researched resource, as well as a story filled with intrigue and mystery.
About the Author: Rafaela G. Castro (1943 - 2015) was born in Bakersfield, California, to a young migrant couple from Texas who moved to California in search of work and a better life. She spent her childhood in the nearby town of Arvin, located near Weedpatch Camp, a migrant settlement and the setting for John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
When she was a teen, Castro's family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she remained for most of her adult life. Castro volunteered with the Peace Corps in Brazil for two years before going on to earn a BA in English literature, and two masters degrees in library science and folklore from University of California-Berkeley.
Castro lectured in Ethnic Bibliography and Chicano Studies at UC Berkeley, and worked as a librarian at the Humanities/Social Sciences department of Shields Library at the University of California, Davis from 1989 to 2004. She is the author of Dictionary of Chicano Folklore, and Provocaciones, Letters from the Prettiest Girl in Arvin.
