In 2001, after nearly twenty years, my mom left her work at the garment factory in downtown Los Angeles to start her own business, a newsstand on the streets of East Hollywood. I was just on the cusp of reaching my teen years at that time and couldn’t understand why she chose to start selling newspapers and magazines for a change.
It really wasn’t until my college years that I recognized how while her experience in the classroom back in Oaxaca was short-lived, she loved learning too much to let it go completely. Her newsstand was a place where she could finally reconnect with her childhood love of being surrounded by words, literary minds, and the Cuentos they told together. Her newstand was of course also a way for her to make her own schedule as an independent, small business.
Today, inspired by mom’s unlikeliest of dreams coming to stand, Los Cuentos emerges. On the one hand, each Cuento carries ‘old’ legends and trails; on the other hand, they carry brand-new dreams and ambitions; it’s a legacy thus born out of grit, and informed by L.A.’s classrooms, buses, garment factories, the communities these things hold together, and more.
So stay tuned, more Cuentos are on the way in no time. Try to keep up!
J.T.
What a story! What a beautiful familia! ¡Los admiro! ¡los respeto! ¡Los quiero mucho!