I was going to start this update by explaining how busy I’ve been and how that’s the reason you haven’t heard from me in a while, but that’s not entirely accurate. While it’s true that the spring coaching season is often very busy, I’ve also had some distractions to contend with that have made it harder to write.
The first of which is health-related. Over the past two years, I’ve been struggling with low-quality sleep and low energy levels, which have made it a lot harder to focus. I’ve mentioned these issues before, and this spring, I had a series of doctor’s visits and tests to figure out what was going on. I’m happy to report that I believe we’ve identified the underlying issue, and after some changes to my diet, I’m doing much better now.
The second distraction, which in some ways has been more challenging to deal with, relates to the numerous news stories emerging from the current administration. The headlines of raids, forced disappearances, and deportations to El Salvador have been deeply troubling to me and have made it harder to write. It’s just hard to tell a story about your family separation when the news is filled with stories about people going through the same thing. I’m doing my best to take it one day at a time and practice lots of self-care.
All that being said, the desire to write is returning. I’m eager to get back to working on my book and send these updates out on a more regular basis. I’m gearing up to resume work on my magical realism rewrite in the fall. I believe this is an important story to tell, especially in these difficult times.
Since I don’t have a lot of news on the writing front, I thought I’d share some links to some of my work and a video that was sent to me.
I recently posted some photographs from 2024/2025 that I took using film. They were taken during my travels to Scotland, London, Barcelona, and Mexico. If you’d like to see some of my photography, feel free to check out the post.
At the start of June, I did an online Zoom talk for the LA chapter of Instituto Cervantes. If you are unfamiliar with them, Instituto Cervantes is a Spanish language cultural institute similar to the Goethe-Institut or the Académie Française.
It was a difficult interview because the entire conversation was in Spanish, and while I know a good deal, I’m not quite fluent in the language. I did my best, and I think the conversation went fairly well. You can watch the entire event below.
Hard to believe that just over a year ago, my article about coming to terms with my forced disappearance was published in The NACLA Report magazine. Unfortunately, its subject matter is more relevant than ever. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, here is a link to access it.
It’s also been a year since the audio documentary about El Salvador’s disappeared, for which my family and I were interviewed, was published on The BBC World Service. If you haven’t listened to that yet, you can do so here.
This last link was sent to me by a friend. It’s about a renovation project taking place in a small neighborhood in El Salvador where I was born. For some reason, watching this video was incredibly emotional for me. It’s strange because I have no memory of this place and don’t know the area at all. There is just something I find deeply moving about seeing this place, which has been neglected for 30-plus years and has become a symbol of the country’s civil war, revitalized and thriving.
I started reading this book as part of an effort to explore magical realism, and overall, I really liked it. Perhaps my only criticism is that it was a little too long, so that by the time I reached the end, I had forgotten some of the plot points that had occurred at the beginning. Other than that, there was a lot to love.
It is a multigenerational saga that follows the happenings and mishappenings of the Trueba family. What I found fascinating was how well my own family’s story was represented within its pages. Through my work on my documentary film and my book, I’ve learned a great deal about my family’s history and where I come from. I can see those stories and themes represented in this work.
The last chapter was very difficult to read because it depicts the disappearance of one of the characters, which I’m starting to see is a recurring theme of books that feature magical realism—perhaps magical realism is a response to the absurdity and unbelievable nature of these events.
While this isn’t a book, but a streaming TV series, I wanted to mention it because it’s one of the best pieces of storytelling to emerge in the past decade. You don’t have to be a Star Wars fan to appreciate the craft and storytelling that went into this production, as well as its themes of oppression and revolution, which are incredibly relevant.
To get ready for the new reason, I rewatched the show from the beginning, and one aspect of the story that stood out to me was the loneliness and isolation that rebellion creates. Indeed, it is something I’ve heard from my family about their time as revolutionaries. Perhaps the reason for this feeling is that oppressive regimes are designed to be omnipresent and immense, while acts of rebellion feel small by comparison, and those on your side are mostly unknown.
Anyway, if you have a Disney+ subscription, I highly recommend checking out this series.
Over the past month, I’ve been working on a project to migrate my websites to my new server. So far, this process has been going very well. In fact, I sent out this update using my new setup! If you are reading this via email, you probably won’t notice anything. However, if you visit my website, you may notice that it’s running significantly faster. (Or not 🙃)
I still have a few more sites to migrate, so I will be working on that for the next few weeks. I hope to be back in August with a little more news on the writing front. Until then, I hope you have a good summer.
Sincerely,
Nelson/Roberto
Over the past month, I have been working on upgrading the technical infrastructure that powers my website and several other websites that I manage. While on the surface, this may seem like a distraction from my work on the book, it is an important step toward getting back to my writing.
Throughout most of January, I participated in the Under the Volcano writing residency in Tepoztlán, Mexico, which was an unforgettable experience that I will reflect on for some time. The remarkable people I met there inspired me to continue developing my craft.
This past month has been a good one. I was able to get some writing done and have finished seven chapters of my magical realism rewrite. I also started working on one of the new historical fiction scenes, and have been preparing for my writer’s retreat in Mexico.
