Remembering Tia Vilma
My Tia Vilma passed away last week. Since learning of the news, I've been thinking about how out of all the tias and tios I've been reunited with, I saw her the most, and yet, I also feel like I hardly know her.
Nelson/Roberto
📖Author 🎥Filmmaker 👨🏽💻Developer
I'm working on an auto-fiction novel and a documentary film about my life as one of El Salvador's disappeared children.
Featured Work
Selected stories and chapters from my journey
Recent Writing
Latest stories and updates
Film Photographs from 2024/2025
A collection of film photographs taken during trips to Scotland, London, Barcelona, and Tepoztlan, Mexico.
Remembering Tia Vilma
My Tia Vilma passed away last week. Since learning of the news, I've been thinking about how out of all the tias and tios I've been reunited with, I saw her the most, and yet, I also feel like I hardly know her.
Beyond the Book: Memoir vs. Autobiographical Novel
As I’ve started to tell people about my book, I’ve had to wrestle with how to describe it or classify it. While it is a personal story, I have fictionalized it in parts, so it’s not exactly a memoir. I describe it as an autobiographical novel, but how is that different from a memoir?
When Worlds Collide: Meeting another Salvadoran at the summer camp I attended for 14 years.
A few weeks ago, I met this amazing human, Priscila, who is also from El Salvador 🇸🇻 and is working at the summer camp I went to for 14 years. I’m not entirely sure why but there's something about knowing someone from El Salvador is working at camp that puts a huge smile on my face.
Beyond the Book: Feeling like a Writer (Part 3)
Something interesting happened a few months ago when I sat down to work on my book. After years of struggling, I felt like a "writer." I’ve realized that, when comes to identity, there is often a disconnect between the way others see us and the way we see ourselves.
Beyond the Book: Feeling like a Writer (Part 2)
As I’ve worked on my book, I’ve come to understand that spelling and grammar aren’t the same as writing. At the same time, I’ve gained a deep appreciation for the critical role they play in bringing a story to life.
Beyond the Book: Feeling like a Writer (Part 1)
For the majority of the time I spent working on my autobiographical novel, I never identified as a “writer.” In fact, I’ve had a somewhat contentious relationship with writing for most of my life. But writing the book has helped me overcome my weaknesses and has even led to a shift in my identity.
Beyond The Book: The Greatest Gift
One of the most fascinating parts of Sebastian Junger’s fantastic book Tribeis when he describes how American Indian societies used rituals to help warriors deal with their traumatic wartime experiences. For me, these ceremonies hold the key to finding homecoming and belonging.
Beyond The Book: The Importance of The Return
It’s easy to look at the celebrations at the end of stories and think they only exist to please the audience, but I’ve come to realize that these ceremonies serve a much deeper, and more important role in stories and our lives.
Beyond the Book: Full Circle
Just the other week I wrapped up coaching Ultimate Frisbee at a Beaver Country Day School. Coaching there is not only a lot of fun but is also deeply meaningful and plays a significant role in my book.
Beyond The Book: Choosing a Masterwork (Part 3)
In my last post, I talked about selecting a Batman movie, The Dark Knight, as the masterwork for my autobiographical novel, Waking From Innocent Dreams. In this post, I will share a few ways that I incorporated this movie and the character of Batman into my book.
Advice to my teenage self
I was only 16 when I met my birth family and didn’t yet understand the long-lasting impact that event would have on my life. So, as I look back at the past 20 years or so, I think about what advice I might give my younger self.
Beyond the Book: Choosing a Masterwork (Part 2)
When my editor first suggested using a Batman film as my masterwork, I was intrigued but unsure how I could incorporate it into my work. After all, what does the caped crusader have in common with a journey about getting to know my biological family?
Beyond The Book: Choosing a Masterwork (Part 1)
In the summer of 2019, when I started working with my editor, Rachelle Ramirez, one of our goals was to find a well-established novel, film, or any other story that I could use as a template to help ground my story.
Beyond The Book: A New Series
Welcome to the first post in a series I’m calling "Beyond the Book," where I will give you a peak behind the curtain and provide you a window into my thought process of writing my autobiographical novel, Waking From Innocent Dreams.
Ana & Isabel's Reunion
Helping Salvadorans Reunite (2014)
Starting the Search: My Advice to Salvadoran Adoptees
I often get asked for advice on searching for your birth family, so I created this page to share all of the information I have on the subject.
So you've set a New Years' resolution, great, but what is your system?
It’s that time of the year again when we all set New Years Resolutions. I wanted to share a different approach to resolutions that works with your brain and doesn’t make you feel like a failure. I discovered this approach a few months ago and have a lot of success using it in my own life.
You are not a failure
Throughout my life I have failed. I have failed so many times, in so many different ways. Often, it seemed like the things that I
The Colorful Misfits
These photos first appeared in print as part of the 2015 issue of The Misfit Anythogly. For the magazine I wrote: > My favorite type