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This book is a set of the author's poems and stories in English and Spanish offering revelations of his life and soul. He has no pretensions to seek your understanding or forgiveness. He only hopes you enjoy the pathos, sense of seeking, and humor in his work. The Catholic Church and his family's Mexican roots and modest means provided the foundation of his younger years. He remains indebted to his parents, older brother, twin brother, and four sisters for the core of his being. Without them, he would be but a shadow. However, the church confused him early in his life as he came to realize the fallibility of the institution. His intention in writing about it is not to offend but to simply offer its effects on him as an innocent and malleable child. The book would serve as an excellent teaching aid for Spanish-speaking students in ESL programs at high school and college levels.
About the author
Armando Garcia-Dávila burst upon the Sonoma County literary world in the latter part of the 1990s. What started as a series of op. ed. pieces he wrote concerning the first Persian Gulf War and the memories of friends killed in the Vietnam War, turned to poetry to express wide ranging thoughts rooted in his Mexican-American/Catholic upbringing. To make clear his humble background, he called himself the "blue-collar" poet. Newspaper columnist Ray Holley wrote at the time, "Be sure to check out Armando...(while) you still have a chance to see him in an intimate setting before he becomes justly famous for his work." His poems have been widely published and also found their way into union newsletters and Sunday pulpits. He has read his poetry to immigrant laborers in the vineyards and prisoners in San Quentin. In 2002, he was chosen as the Healdsburg Literary Laureate.
